Ten Jets players held an informal practice on Thursday despite the fact the expectation was they’d be off for two straight days. Today they will skate at the hockey for all centre before they take off for Ottawa where they will begin three games on the road beginning on Saturday afternoon.
The big question mark (no pun intended) was the status of Mark Scheifele who was placed on IR (retroactive to January 11th) so the team could make room for Kyle Connor coming off IR. Head coach Rick Bowness said on Tuesday that they were hopeful that their top centre would be available for the game tomorrow. If they do take him off IR then they’d need to make a move in order to remain compliant with the roster size limit.
Skate news:
No Mark Scheifele today. Rest of the team is on the ice including David Gustafsson in a regular jersey.
Lines and D pairs:
Connor-Lowry-Vilardi
Perfetti-Namestnikov-Ehlers
Niederreiter-Toninato-Appleton
Barron-Kupari-Iafallo
Gustafsson
Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Samberg-Schmidt
Chisholm-Stanley
Health news:
Rick Bowness said that Mark Scheifele will not play tomorrow against the Senators in Ottawa. He indicated the Jets top centre will be on the road trip and evaluated on Monday. “He’s making progress with this thing, clearly its gone on a little longer than we originally thought”.
He also indicated that David Gustafsson, despite being in a regular jersey, remains on IR. Said he hasn’t been cleared by the team to play.
Players media:
Coach media:
Topics:
1) Updates on Mark Scheifele?
2) His take on today’s practice after a few days off (:43)
3) Has Mark Scheifele skated at all? (1:28)
4) Has Mark Scheifele worked out at all? (1:33)
5) What is it about this team that is allowing them to implement his plan? (1:39)
6) What is he seeing from this team to other teams he’s coached in terms of execution (3:07)
7) What did he need to do to get complete buy-in from this team? (4:04)
8) Is this the type of team that can absorb a new player and not disrupt chemistry? (5:03)
9) Is he involved in that when organization is considering a player to be acquired? (6:05)
10) Match-up with the Senators a little more special? (6:28)
11) Goaltending plan prior to All-Star break? (6:49)
Up next:
The journey for the Jets begins in Ottawa where they will start their three-game road trip on Saturday afternoon. Start the day with all the latest news on illegalcurve.com, join us at 9 AM CST for the Illegal Curve Hockey Show, stick with us throughout the morning and then be sure to join us after that game on the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show.
