Guess who's back? Back again? Teemu's back! Tell a friend!
Now I know this hasn’t been getting much press, so it may come as a shock to you that a player on the Ducks, Teemu Selanne I think his name is, is returning to Winnipeg to play against his “former team”(Ed. Note: I am aware that this is not the same franchise). There might be an extra member of the press or two kicking around. He allegedly has flown his family in too. I guess he’s excited…can’t imagine why.
</sarcasm>
OMIGAWD TEEMU IS BACK!REMEMBERWHENHESCOREDTHATGOALANDTHREWHISGLOVEUPINTHEAIR! SOOOOOGOOOOOOOOOODDD! THEJETSTOTALLYSHOULDHAVESIGNEDHIMTHISSUMMER!
</delirious>
So yes Teemu is coming back, and it's going to be awesome and emotional and we'll give him a big ole standing ovation, and he might cry.
But once all that hubub is done with there's a hockey game between the Winnipeg Jets and the Anaheim Ducks, and I sure think that this is a couple of points that the Jets can and should pick up.
The Ducks are coming off a 4-1 loss at the hands of the Blackhawks last night in Chicago. meaning the subsequent flight and media circus will not do well for them. this is a way bigger deal for Teemu and his teammates than our Jets.
Speaking of our Jets, they’re coming off a 1-0 loss on Thursday that left both me and Coach Noel irked. Maybe the infusion of Nik Antropov and Tobias Enstrom into the lineup might spark some players into action.
Other roster notes to bring up are the return to the IceCaps of Carl Klingberg, and the placement of Randy Jones on injured Reserve.
So overall this should be a game to remember, if for nothing else but the return of the Finnish Flash
Keys to the Game, Player Numbers and Lineups after THE JUMP
Keys to the Game:
- Take advantage of fatigue. play fast and roll 4 lines.
- The power play needs to wake up. If only there were some sort of Swedish defenseman returning to the lineup who could help with…what’s that? Enstrom’s back?! Howdy doody, never mind then!
- Andrew Ladd needs to step it up. When members of your squad go down and there’s a hole offensively, and your Captain is a second line LW, you might thing he’d step up. that really hasn’t happened since Antro and Alexander Burmistrov went down.
- Pavelec has been making too many stupidly good saves to rag on him about the occasional weak goal
- Speaking of weak goals, Jonas Hiller has not been playing anywhere near as good as he used to.
- While the Ducks have been struggling, both under Boudreau and Carlyle, it would be stupid to take a team with the likes of Perry, Getzlaf, Ryan and Selanne lightly.
- More shots from the big guys would be dapper. All the fancy passing and stickhandling isn’t worth anything if you aren’t shooting
- Speaking of people not doing things, if Kyle Wellwood could throw a bodycheck it’d make my day. Sure he’s the nicest guy in the world and wouldn’t hurt a fly, but I wouldn’t mind him plastering somebody on the plexiglass every now and then.
Jets (GP 31 14-13-4 32 PTS)
Forwards
#9 Evander Kane — #18 Bryan Little — #26 Blake Wheeler
#16 Andrew Ladd — #80 Nik Antropov — #17 Eric Fehr
#15 Tanner Glass — #19 Jim Slater — #22 Chris Thorburn
#41 Jason Jaffray — #14 Tim Stapleton — #13 Kyle Wellwood
Defencemen
#39 Tobias Enstrom — #33 Dustin Byfuglien
#5 Mark Stuart — #4 Zach Bogosian
#6 Ron Hainsey — #29 Johnny Oduya
Goaltender
#31 Ondrej Pavelec
There’s a slight assumption or two in here, but i think this might be a winner.
District 5 Peewee Hockey Team (GP 31, 9-17-5 23 PTS)
Forwards
#12 Niklas Hagman — #15 Ryan Getzlaf — #10 Corey Perry
#9 Bobby Ryan — #7 Andrew Cogliano — #8 Teemu Selanne
#39 Matt Beleskey — #49 Maxime Macenauer — #16 George Parros
#51 Kyle Palmieri — #14 Rod Pelley — #41 Andrew Gordon
Defense
#23 Francois Beauchemin — #5 Luca Sbisa
#32 Toni Lydman — #17 Lubomir Visnovsky
#4 Cam Fowler — #21 Sheldon Brookbank
Goaltender
#38 Dan Ellis
Player to boo without mercy: Teemu Selanne Corey Perry, because he won the Richard Trophy last year.
Player NOT to cheer every time he touches the puck: Teemu Selanne. He plays for the Ducks. Not the Jets.
Prediction: Winnipeg 4-1 Anaheim. And teemu gets an assist, without being on the ice and we give him a big ole standing ovation. ALSO: he will be one of the Three Stars at the end of the game…and he’ll come out.
GO JETS GO!
