Winnipeg Jets Practice Report

The Jets flew from northern California following their 5-1 win over the Sharks to southern California last night and practice today at the Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo, California.  This will be a tune up for their afternoon game tomorrow against the Ducks at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

Skate News:

As per Scott Billeck of the Winnipeg Sun all players are present and accounted for except Luca Sbisa. Jamie Thomas of Jets TV indicated that there are no changes to the forward lines and obviously only change on backend is Carl Dahlstrom in for Sbisa for practice.  Whether that continues into the game tomorrow we will find out from the Jets bench boss when he speaks following skate.

Line Rushes:

Connor-Scheifele-Laine
Ehlers-Wheeler-Roslovic
Copp-Lowry-Perreault
Luoto-Gustafsson-Shaw

Morrissey-Poolman
Kulikov-Pionk
Bitetto-Dahlstrom*

Hellebuyck & Brossoit.

Audio:

Adam Lowry

Mathieu Perreault

Anthony Bitetto

Coach Maurice:  Status of Luca Sbisa?  On shot blocking and how much is that attributable to Anthony Bitetto?  On the risk involved but guys willing to make that sacrifice.  Balanced minutes for the defencemen.  Was he impressed by Bitetto’s play last night considering he was a healthy scratch for eight games?  Jets being above playoff line at US Thanksgiving.  Plan for the goalies in next two games?  Why does Hellebuyck love afternoon games?  What has he seen from the Ducks?  On the win last night coming from different elements that have been stressed by the team.

All audio courtesy of TSN 1290 Winnipeg.

Health Update:

Since Luca Sbisa didn’t skate today his status for tomorrow was a question mark but when asked if it was simply maintenance day, coach Maurice indicated “Ya.  We expect him to play tomorrow.”

Starting goalie vs Ducks:

Coach Maurice confirmed that Connor Hellebuyck will start tomorrow vs Anaheim.

Up Next:

The Jets will face the Ducks tomorrow afternoon at 3 pm CT.  Be sure to keep it locked to illegalcurve.com for the AM Papers which go live at 7 AM.