The Jets continue to ride along on their 6 game home stand, as this time their foes are the Islanders of the New York variety. The two clubs met earlier in the year on Long Island in a game that saw the Jets emerge victorious with a 3-0 shutout win. It was a good time. Replicating that result would be just dandy.
The Jets are coming off a 5-3 victory over the Anaheim Ducks in a game that saw Teemu Selanne return to Winnipeg. It was a great sight to see, to say the least. The winning goal in that contest was scored by Captain Andrew Ladd, who has played very badly of late but managed to get the goal courtesy of a hard pass off his leg from Big Buff. they all count…unless you kick it in or runover their goalie…and it gets called. Not that i think that either of those should have been called, but Boudreau sure thought so.
The Islanders are coming off a 2-1 SO win over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night, so like the Jets they’ve had a few days off as well.
The Jets will be without Bryan little tonight as he recovers from a blocked shot off the foot/lower leg he suffered during Saturday nights game. Replacing him on the top line will be Burmistrov, while Antti Miettinen will slot onto the 3rd line (MSG) with Jaffray coming off the roster to make room for him.
Should be a good, winnable game for the Jets. hoping for another shutout of the good kind.
Keys to the Game (just for truck), Player numbers and Lineups after THE JUMP
Keys to the Game:
- How will Miettinen do? He’ll be on the grind line tonight, where scoring isn’t as important as making sure the Isles don’t score.
- Burmi takes the spot of Little on the top line. He always plays with energy, showed he is still capable of scoring and has experience playing with Kane this year
- Andrew Ladd needs to return to form. Leading by example on the ice is important too. Too many sloppy passes and not keeping your stick on the ice can’t continue.
- The return to form of Toby seemingly took only a few shifts. That, or even when he’s rusty he’s noticeably the best defender the Jets have, and one hell of a pp QB
- The Isles don’t have a lot going offensively, and if the Jets can shutdown Tavares and prevent fast breakouts for the speedy Grabner they should be able to limit or eliminate scoring.
- The Jets are facing a beatable opponent at home. They should win. Because Thursday and Friday see them play back to back against the Habs and Pens, and they will be hard pressed to get 4 points out of those games
Jets (GP 32 15-13-4 34 PTS)
Forwards
#9 Evander Kane — #8 Alexander Burmistrov — #26 Blake Wheeler
#16 Andrew Ladd — #80 Nik Antropov — #13 Kyle Wellwood
#15 Tanner Glass — #19 Jim Slater — #20 Antti Miettinen
#17 Eric Fehr — #14 Tim Stapleton — #22 Chris Thorburn
Defencemen
#39 Tobias Enstrom — #33 Dustin Byfuglien
#5 Mark Stuart — #4 Zach Bogosian
#6 Ron Hainsey — #29 Johnny Oduya
Goaltender
#31 Ondrej Pavelec
I’m going with what the Free Press says.
Islanders
Forwards
#26 Matt Moulson — #9 John Tavares — #15 P.A. Parenteau
#40 Michael Grabner — #51 Frans Nielsen — #21 Kyle Okposo
#41 David Ullstrom — #12 Josh Bailey — #36 Tim Wallace
#17 Matt Martin — #16 Marty Reasoner — #25 Nino Niederreiter
Defencemen
#2 Mark Streit — #27 Milan Jurcina
#47 Andrew MacDonald — #3 Travis Hamonic
#4 Mark Eaton — #10 Mike Mottau
Goaltender
#35 Al Montoya
Mark Eaton should return from injury tonight, but if he isn’t good to go Dylan Reese would take his place.
Player to boo without mercy: I guess it’s Tavares? But I bare little ill will towards anybody on the Isles.
Prediction: Winnipeg 3-0 Islanders
Calling the shutout. I’m cool like that.
GO JETS GO!
