Today is the first day since January 27th that the Jets have been on the ice together following that Saturday night game in Winnipeg. They embarked on their Player Break which was followed by the All-Star break for all except head coach Rick Bowness, netminder Connor Hellebuyck and winger Kyle Connor who were in Toronto for the festivities.
Of course the big news while they were off was that the team acquired Sean Monahan from Montreal on Friday for draft picks. He is expected to speak for the first time today after practice. They also lost Declan Chisholm who was claimed off waivers by the Wild last Monday.
The question mark is the health of Mark Scheifele and Brenden Dillon. Scheifele was dealing with a lower-body issue he suffered back on January 11th which has cost him six games while Dillon tweaked something in his back in the game against the last game against the Leafs although it was seen as relatively minor.
Skate news:
Kyle Connor and Rick Bowness on the ice fresh off All-Star break. No Connor Hellebuyck so they’ve got practice goalie Jason Kasdorf dressed.
Mark Scheifele in a regular jersey.
Interestingly Dominic Toninato remains in a white uniform while Rasmus Kupari, David Gustafsson and Axel Jonsson-Fjällby are in light blue presumably healthy scratch unis. But it turns out that Toninato was playing alongside Logan Stanley as a D man
Lines and D pairs:
Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Ehlers-Monahan-Perfetti
Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton
Barron-Namestnikov-Iafallo
Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Samberg-Schmidt
Health updates:
Mark Scheifele is good to go according to himself and head coach Rick Bowness. Sounds like Brenden Dillon is good as well. David Gustafsson will remain on IR.
Players media:
Coach media:
Topics:
1) Comments on being at the NHL All-Star game.
2) Getting Sean Monahan in a trade on Friday (:40)
3) Is this a coach getting rewarded for their coaching? (1:06)
4) Is Mark Scheifele good to go? (1:45)
5) What will it be like to have a healthy lineup? (1:48)
6) How is Brenden Dillon? (2:18)
7) Status of David Gustafsson? (2:30)
8) Sean Monahan’s faceoff prowess (2:36)
9) Putting him into the bumper position on the power play (2:59)
10) Is this the hope to fix the power play woes? (3:30)
11) Tough conversation to speak to Namestnikov on moving to 4th line? (3:43)
12) Was it automatic that Monahan would fit between Ehlers and Perfetti? (4:33)
13) Who was most excited that Tate McRae was part of his team? (5:11)
14) Waivers coming up (5:25)
Up next:
The Jets have another day of practice in Winnipeg tomorrow before they head to Pennsylvania for two games on the road starting with the Penguins in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. Start your Monday with all the latest news on illegalcurve.com.
