Stanley Cup Playoffs – Round 2 Game 6: Jets vs. Predators pre-game report

Suspect folks are gonna be slightly amped up ahead of tonight’s game 6 with the home side having the opportunity to clinch the series with a win and punch their ticket to the Western Conference Final.  On the other side of that you have a still confident Predators team vowing to bring the series back to Nashville for a game 7.  It all adds up to what should be a hell of a hockey game tonight at Bell MTS Place when puck drops at 8:30 pm.

AM Skate Notes:

Via Scott Billeck of NHLcom “No Bryan Little this morning. Connor Hellebuyck taking the morning skate for the second game in a row, as is Dustin Byfuglien.”  He also indicated that “Dmitry Kulikov out here again. I don’t expect him to return in this series. Hasn’t had a full practice yet.”.  Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun adds “Matt Hendricks isn’t staying on for extra work. Could be a game-time decision for Game 6 vs #Preds if Bryan Little is not available – that’s my best guess for now at least.”.

Lineup note:

Matt Hendricks indicated he was a game-time decision.  With the status of Bryan Little up in the air we will have to wait to see what happens during pre-game warm up skate at 8 pm.

Update lineup note:

Both Little and Hendricks out for warm up.

Jets lines and D pairs:

Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler
Perreault-Stastny-Laine
Copp-Lowry-Tanev
Ehlers-Little-Armia

Morrissey-Trouba
Enstrom-Byfuglien
Chiarot-Myers

Hellebuyck
Mason

Extra: Roslovic, Hendricks, Kulikov, Matthias, Dano, Morrow, Poolman and Hutchinson.

Jets audio:

Blake Wheeler

Mathieu Perreault

Josh Morrissey

Coach Maurice:  On Bryan Little’s absence.  What did he learn from his first close out game in round 1?  Importance of fast starts.  Reflecting back to the first round.  What has changed for this roster in a year?  How has the team handled the balance of excitement in the city vs need for focus on hockey?  If someone would have told him at the beginning of the season that Vegas would be in the Conference Final what would he have said?  Lack of after whistle antics in this series.  Has Laine brought another level of consistency to his game in the playoffs?  What is the message to Nikolaj Ehlers heading into game 6?  What does it mean to him to be able to be in the position to have his team advance to the Western Final?

Courtesy of TSN 1290 Winnipeg.

Projected Preds lines:

Forsberg-Johansen-Arvidsson
Fiala-Turris-Smith
Sissons-Bonino-Watson
Hartnell-Fisher-Jarnkrok

These come via Tennessean beat writer Adam Vingan.