Winnipeg Jets Playoff Practice Report

The Jets take to the ice here in Winnipeg for a final practice before taking off to Nashville later this afternoon.  For now all we know is game 1 is Friday night at 7 pm in Tennessee as we await the completion of the 1st Round of the playoffs.  All eyes will be on Bell MTS Place ice to see who is on the ice and what colour jersey they are wearing.  Tobias Enstrom and Nikolaj Ehlers have recently ditched the yellow non-contact for normal unis while Joel Armia donned a yellow non-contact.  Steve Mason has been on the ice as well.  Still haven’t seen Mathieu Perreault or Dmitry Kulikov.

Practice notes:

According to Sara Orlesky of TSN injured forward Joel Armia continues to wear a yellow non-contact uniform at today’s skate.  As well his Finnish counterpart Patrik Laine isn’t skating today.

Lines & D Pairs:

Here is how things looked based on yesterday’s skate.  They will be updated (if need be) once the team begins to practice.

Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler
Ehlers-Stastny-Laine
Tanev-Lowry-Little
Hendricks-Copp-Roslovic

Extra forwards: Matthias, Dano
Non-contact:  Armia

Morrissey-Trouba
Enstrom-Byfuglien
Chiarot-Myers
Morrow-Poolman

Audio:

Connor Hellebuyck

Bryan Little

Nikolaj Ehlers

Jack Roslovic

Coach Maurice:  Can he say anything about Patrik Laine’s status?  Ho does he feel about his special teams in the playoffs?  Which will be tested more by Nashville?  Are special teams as big as ever in this series?  Players expecting not as many power plays.  5 on 5 play suiting the Jets.  On the notion of being an “underdog”.  Does the Nashville experience edge become less significant now that the Jets have won a series?  How do players stay mentally sharp during this extended break between series?  Does he seen the excitement in the young players?  How does he keep the players focused regardless of score?  How do they deal with the aggressive Nashville D?  On Bryan Little playing on the top power play unit.

Audio courtesy of TSN 1290 Winnipeg.