Coming off a season opening victory against the Boston Bruins on Thursday night, the Jets followed wup with a 3- 1 win against the New Jersey Devils on Friday. After a bit of well deserved downtime, the Jets travel to Brooklyn for their midday encounter with the New York Islanders. The Islanders are coming off a winless home & home series with the Chicago Blackhawks, and will be looking to right the ship, so to speak.
Official rosters are not expected until game time for a few logistical reasons. First, the Islanders to have a CBA day off on Sunday. After having a CBA day off on Saturday, the Jets will practice in New Jersey Sunday morning, before departing for New York. The game is at a very strange time of 12 noon CST on Monday, so no pre-game skate is expected.
Keys to the Game
Winnipeg Jets
The main key to the Jets' game is to come out in the first period strong. During their tilt with the Bruins, the Jets were awfully shaky at the beginning, but managed to smooth things out over the remaining 40 minutes. The Friday night game against the Devils was a bit better, but the hesitation was there during the first period. If the Jets can start the game strong and maintain that over a full 60 minutes, the team will have a better chance. Disciplined play and staying out of the penalty box is a main concern too, as the Jets were one of the most penalized teams in the NHL last year.
Projected line up as follows, provided by NHL.com;
Andrew Ladd – Bryan Little – Blake Wheeler
Mathieu Perreault – Mark Scheifele – Nikolaj Ehlers
Alexander Burmistrov – Adam Lowry – Drew Stafford
Nicolas Petan – Andrew Copp – Chris Thorburn
Ben Chiarot – Dustin Byfuglien
Injured: Grant Clitsome (back)
Scratched: Adam Pardy, Paul Postma, Anthony Peluso
New York Islanders
The team is coming off back to back losses in a home and home series against the Chicago Blackhawks. With this said, the Islanders will be looking for their first win of the season, and what better way to celebrate that than at home. Frustration boiled over as John Tavares took a unsportsmanlike and game misconduct penalties in the Islanders most recent game, so look for the Islanders to be charged and ready to play come Monday afternoon. Goaltending seems to be an issue at the start of this campaign for the Islanders as starter Jaroslav Halak is out with a an upper body injury, with the goaltending duties split between Thomas Greiss and Jean-Francois Berube.
Projected line up as follows, provided by NHL.com;
Anders Lee – John Tavares – Ryan Strome
Josh Bailey – Frans Nielsen – Kyle Okposo
Brock Nelson – Mikhail Grabovski – Nikolay Kulemin
Matt Martin – Casey Cizikas – Cal Clutterbuck
Calvin de Haan – Travis Hamonic
Injured: Jaroslav Halak (upper body), Thomas Hickey (upper body)
Scratched: Ryan Pulock, Steve Bernier
Player to Boo Mercilessly
The aforementioned Thomas Greiss and Jean-Francois Berube.
Prediction
Jets 4-1. Ehlers, Little, Petan and Lowry will set the place on fire!
