After what seems like a eon ago, the Winnipeg Jets return to the ice tonight against the divisional and wildcard rival, St. Louis Blues. Despite the loss last Tuesday, which saw the Jets lose 6-5 to the Minnesota Wild, the Jets are riding a bit of an upswing. As mentioned, the team scored 5 goals in a spirited affair after coming out of their bye week. However, the game wasn’t without it’s downfalls defensively.
As we focus on this game, the Jets are 6 points out of a playoff spot. Not a great position to be in, and with the playoff hopes to be slim at best, the team must find a way to carry on and be spoiler from this point forward. To that regard, the return of Marko Dano, Andrew Copp and Jacob “The Hitman” Trouba should provide the team with some added gunpowder.
Again, the Jets play the St. Louis Blues tonight. St. Louis is on the cusp of a playoff spot, but didn’t help their cause by losing to the Edmonton Oilers a few nights ago.
Who: Winnipeg Jets (28-30-6 for 62 pts) vs St. Louis Blues (31-26-5 for 67 pts)
When: 7:00 pm CST
How: TSN3, TSN1290, FS-MW, KMOX
Projected Lineups:
Winnipeg Jets:
Ehlers – Scheifele – Laine
Perreault – Little- Wheeler
Matthias – Lowry – Armia
Dano – Copp – Thorburn
Enstrom – Byfuglien
Morrissey – Trouba
Chariot – Postma
Pavelec
Hellebuyck
St. Louis Blues:
Schwartz – Lehtera – Tarasenko
Steen – Stastny – Paajarvi
Jaskin – Berglund – Perron
Upshall – Brodsiak – Barbashev
Bouwmeester – Pietrangelo
Edmundson – Parayko
Gunnarsson – Bortuzzo
Allen
Hutton
3 Questions:
- With Pavelec sticking around at the trade deadline, what kind of message does that send to Hellebuyck? Well, considering the soft goal he let in from the goal line against the Toronto Maple Leafs, I would say Hellebuyck needs the rest of the season to work things out for the better.
- Can the Winnipeg Jets manage to stay out of the penalty box? Hope so, as their chances of winning a game while always killing off penalties is slim…unless you can rely on a Wheeler and Armia shorthand goal on the penalty kill, that is.
- Will the second period continue to prove to be the Achilles’ heel of the team, or can the they find a way to push through? Pushing through is tough, but trying to make up ground in the third is tougher.
Players to watch:
Winnipeg Jets: Wheeler, Byfuglien & Scheifele – lead by example, and will need to make fellow players on the team accountable or it will not make it to the post season, which is already a very long shot.
St. Louis Blues: Pietrangelo, Steen, Tarasenko & Stastny – See Winnipeg Jets’ comments above.
Prediction: Jets win 3-2
