The Winnipeg Jets take on the Edmonton Oilers in Edmonton tonight. The Winnipeg Jets will be dressing an awful lot of youth and bottom-six talent tonight, presumably in an effort to narrow down the final roster spots. Players like Nikolaj Ehlers, Nicolas Petan, Adam Lowry, and Joshua Morrissey will likely receive a lot of ice time tonight to demonstrate that they belong in the NHL.
Likewise, the Oilers appear to be dressing a lot of youth. And face-punchers. Lots and lots of face-punchers.
The game will be broadcast on TSN3 tonight.
Possible (likely) Line-ups:
Winnipeg Jets
Adam Lowry – Mathieu Perreault – Michael Frolik
Eric Tangradi – Nicolas Petan – Nikolaj Ehlers
Matt Halischuk – Patrice Cormier – Anthony Peluso
Carl Klingberg – John Albert – JC Lipon
Joshua Morrissey – Grant Clitsome
Danny Taylor
Edmonton Oilers
Taylor Hall – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Tyler Pitlick
Vladimir Tkachev – Bogdan Yakimov – Kevin Westgarth
Benoit Pouliot – Will Acton – Andrew Miller
Mitch Moroz – Travis Ewanyk – Steve Pinizzotto
Darnell Nurse – Brad Hunt
Players to Watch
With this much youth in the lineup, take your pick. My eyes will be on Nikolaj Ehlers and Nic Petan, both of whom have shown enough to warrant a good, hard look in the NHL this season. I'll also be paying attention to Adam Lowry and Josh Morrissey, neither of which has done enough to deserve an NHL spot yet (in my opinion).
Finally, I'll also be keeping tabs on Eric Tangradi. Why Eric Tangradi, you ask? Well, Tangradi's scored at a pretty good clip in the AHL, but has never demonstrated much offensive punch at the NHL level. Critics say he's just not cut out to score, while supporters point to his less-than-talented linemates and absurdly low shooting % as evidence that maybe, just maybe, there's a half-decent scorer in there and he's just been unfortunate. Playing on a line with Petan and Ehlers – likely his most talented linemates ever, outside of a very brief stint on Evgeni Malkin's wing – and against a not-very-good Oilers team, I'll be watching to see if those offensive chops come through at all. If he can't put a strong offensive game together with these linemates, against this team, he never will.
