Photo Credit: Colby Spence
The Jets are back on home ice after a three game (2-1-0) road trip in Texas, Nevada and Arizona. They face the Coyotes in the second game of a home and home tomorrow night at Bell MTS Place. It will also be a big night as the team honours Jets 1.0 legend Dale Hawerchuk with induction into the Jets Hall of Fame.
Practice notes:
As per Jamie Thomas of Jets TV Mathieu Perreault is wearing a normal uniform for today’s practice. Brian Munz of TSN 1290 Winnipeg indicated that he saw Brendan Lemieux leaving the rink and assumes he is being assigned to the Moose.
Roster move:
Jets have assigned Brendan Lemieux to the Moose.
Lines, D pairs and goalies:
Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler
Ehlers-Little-Laine
Copp-Lowry-Tanev
Matthias-Hendricks-Armia
Morrissey-Trouba
Enstrom-Byfuglien
Kulikov-Myers
Hellebuyck
Mason
Extra: Perreault, Dano and Chiarot
Goalie news:
Connor Hellebuyck starts tomorrow night against the Coyotes.
Health Update:
Mathieu Perreault was back to his regular forward uniform today in practice and following skate coach Maurice was asked about his status and he indicated that “Matty is getting through full practice but I don’t think he is right there yet. I don’t have him in the game tomorrow night.”
The other cause for concern was Tyler Myers who left the game in Arizona with what looked like a horrific injury. Somehow he came back onto the bench before the game against the Coyotes had ended but his status was uncertain as Sunday was a travel day. The tall defenceman was on the ice for skate today so the indication was he was fine and the Jets bench boss confirmed that after practice. “He’s good. We would have been real cautious with it and we were. But he felt strong today and got through practice with no issues so he’s going to be fine. It was scary but we were fortunate.” The follow-up question probed what specifically was tweaked but not surprisingly coach Maurice wouldn’t provide anything past “his lower body”. He added “He went down there and we were worried about it but we were fortunate we had our doctor with us, checked it out real tight. He came back cause he wanted to be back on the bench but we weren’t putting him back in the lineup. He was good. He was good today.”
Keep an eye on:
When talking about Brendan Lemieux being assigned to the Moose coach Maurice said it “may be short term”. When asked about that the coach Maurice said “I know you watch practice saw a guy get hit with a shot, so we’ll see how Shawn Matthias is tomorrow.”
Audio:
Coach Maurice: Status of Perreault/sending Lemieux to Moose. Status of Tyler Myers. Thoughts on Brendan Lemieux’s seven games in the NHL. What did Myers tweak? Dale Hawerchuk going into the Jets Hall of Fame. Transitioning games from Vegas to Glendale. Plan for the goalies? How prepared does he feel for the remainder of the schedule for this month?
Audio courtesy of TSN 1290 Winnipeg.
