Following last night’s tough 4-1 loss to the Islanders on Long Island the Jets took off for Pittsburgh where they will practice as they get set to face the Penguins. Of course the biggest concern is the health status of Josh Morrissey who was a late scratch ahead of puck drop due to a collision that occurred during pre-game warm up skate which coach Paul Maurice called precautionary and labeled his top pairing D man as day-to-day.
Penguins news:
According to Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review “Bjugstad and Malkin are expected to sidelined longer term. Malkin, longer than Bjugstad.”
Practice Update:
As per Ted Wyman of the Winnipeg Sun fans can breathe a sigh of relief as Josh Morrissey is out on the ice for practice this morning in a regular jersey. Bryan Little is also on the ice but remains in a non-contact uniform. Mitchell Clinton of Jets TV adds that Dmitry Kulikov isn’t skating this morning. Ken Wiebe of The Athletic Winnipeg provides the lines and D pairs from practice as well as the power play unit configurations.
Lines & D Pairs:
Laine-Scheifele-Wheeler
Connor-Copp-Ehlers
Bourque-Lowry-Letestu
Perreault-Roslovic-Appleton
Gustafsson-Little (non-contact) are the others
Morrissey-Dahlstrom
Heinola-Pionk
Bitetto-Poolman
Power Play Configuration:
PP1
Morrissey-Laine, Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler
PP2
Heinola-Pionk, Perreault-Roslovic-Ehlers
Audio:
Connor Hellebuyck
Adam Lowry
Coach Maurice: Update on Morrissey. Reflections on last night’s game. On Hellebuyck wanting to get back into the net. What has Mark Letestu provided to the team? On Jim Rutherford getting the call for the Hall of Fame. On the play of Tanev with the Penguins. On not seeing Malkin tomorrow or this weekend. Why is it so hard to win in Pittsburgh? Latest with Little?
Audio courtesy of TSN 1290 Winnipeg.
Recall:
Coach Maurice indicated that Dmitry Kulikov had returned home to deal with a personal matter (of a positive nature) and that the team will recall Sami Niku according to Ted Wyman of the Winnipeg Sun.
Health Update:
According to the Jets bench boss the team got good news on Josh Morrissey is fine after being held out of last night’s game. Bryan Little continues to practice in a non-contact uniform but is progressing “He had a good day today. So that’s the latest. He had a good day today. We’ll see what that means for tomorrow. Still in gold so he’s not right there.”
Up Next:
The Jets will conclude the first road trip of the regular season with the fourth game of the season against the Penguins on Tuesday starting at 6 pm CT. Be sure to keep it locked to illegalcurve.com for the AM Papers which go live at 7 AM followed by our pre-game report at 9:30 AM.
