The Jets held a lightly attended optional on Thursday before they hit the ice today for another day of practice as they get set for their must-win game against the Predators. Or is it can’t lose? In this instance both would apply because these two points are critical for their place in the standings and equally important for this team’s psyche.
Skate news:
As per Ken Wiebe of Sportsnet it appears all are present and accounted for except Connor Hellebuyck who he indicated worked out earlier with goalie coach Wade Flaherty. Lines and D pairs are courtesy of Ken which as you can see remain the same.
Lines and D pairs:
Connor-Dubois-Scheifele
Ehlers-Namestnikov-Wheeler
Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton
Barron-Stenlund-Maenalanen
AJF-Gustafsson-Kuhlman
Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Samberg-Schmidt
Stanley-Capobianco
Player media availability:
Coach media availability:
Topics:
1) The job that John Hynes and Preds have done.
2) Treating the game tomorrow like it’s a “play-in”. (1:22)
3) What does a team that “emerges from the fire” do well? (1:48)
4) How does he feel ahead of this game? (2:27)
5) Does he like where his team’s urgency level is? (3:24)
6) Calming players down to prevent penalties (4:39)
7) Finding out what this groups is made of (5:13)
8) What’s stood out about Connor Hellebuyck during this block? (5:57)
9) What other lessons came out of that Calgary game? (6:57)
10) Deciding edge between Hellebuyck and Saros (8:26)
11) Where does he see his team at vs Preds team with “nothing to lose”? (10:04)
Merch contest:
There are four more chances to enter and win the IC contest for authentic Jets merch. You can enter here.
Up next:
The Jets take on the Preds tomorrow night. Be sure start your morning with the Morning Papers which go live at 7 AM, join us on the Illegal Curve Hockey Show which starts at 9 AM, stick with us throughout the day for updates and then after the final buzzer join us on the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show.
