Winnipeg Jets Practice Report

The Jets are back on the ice today following a tough 4-1 loss to the Flames last night in the first of two games at home.  They practice ahead of tomorrow’s afternoon game against division rival Minnesota who are coming off a 5-2 loss to Chicago on Thursday.  After a really strong stretch the Wild have fallen four points back of the second wild card spot (with two games in hand on Dallas) and will be hungry to earn two points as they try to right the ship after going 3-6-1 in their last 10 games.

Fined:

Dustin Byfuglien was hit with a $2,500.00 fine for slashing Johnny Gaudreau as the Flames forward was heading towards the Jets empty net for his hat trick goal on Thursday night.  The Department of Player Safety hit the big Jets D man with it this morning.

Practice Notes:

As per Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun all Jets are present and accounted for at practice this morning.

Projected lineup vs Wild:

Ehlers-Scheifele-Wheeler
Connor-Little-Laine
Perreault-Lowry-Tanev
Copp-Roslovic-Appleton

Morrissey-Trouba
Chiarot-Byfuglien
Kulikov-Myers

Hellebuyck
Brossoit

Audio:

Connor Hellebuyck

Josh Morrissey

Dmitry Kulikov

Mark Scheifele

Coach Maurice:  What does he expect to see from the Wild?  On some of the central teams slipping of late.  On the importance of not letting the losses become losing streaks.  Have games ramped up at this point to that next level?  (i.e. greater commitment to defence).   On concern with crease crashing.  What was his reaction to the fine on Byfuglien?  Is there a way to discourage crease crashing?  How does he feel about the shape of the Jets game at this point in the season?  What is the road to improving the Jets defence?  On the willingness to get the puck back after being turned over.  On lessons learned from the playoffs being applied this season.  More on the Jets learning lessons from games played.

All audio courtesy of TSN 1290 Winnipeg.

Up Next:

The Jets face the Wild tomorrow at 3 pm in downtown Winnipeg.  Be sure to keep it locked to illegalcurve.com for the AM Papers which go live at 7 AM followed by the Jets pre-game report at 10:30 AM.