Preview and GDT: Winnipeg Jets vs St. Louis Blues

Time: 7:00 PM CST

Channel: TSN3, FS-MW

Radio: TSN1290

The Winnipeg Jets (32-13-9) will have a familiar face back in the line-up on Friday night when they take on the St. Louis Blues (33-20-3) at Bell MTS Place.

Mark Scheifele returns to his top-line centre spot for the first time since suffering an upper-body injury on December 27. Blake Wheeler took over his spot as top line centre, and had 16 points in the 16 games Scheifele missed. Wheeler will now slide back to his old, familiar right wing spot, while Patrik Laine occupies the left wing.

Jack Roslovic gets bumped down to a fourth line that features Marko Dano and Nic Petan (PETANO!), and it will be interesting to see how the AHL linemates and Dano can do.

The Jets suffered another injury, and it actually occurred in practice before Tuesday’s win over Arizona, as Michael Hutchinson joins Steve Mason as Jets netminders nursing concussions. With the injury, Eric Comrie has been called up to back-up Connor Hellebuyck.

St. Louis has fallen a few points behind of the leaders of the Central Division, but are still within striking distance. The Dallas Stars are nipping at their heels for the third and final playoff spot in the Central Division. I expect Central teams to take both of the wildcard spots, but that’s beside the point.

The Blues whallopped the Avalanche 6-1 last night, as Carter Hutton continues to play well in net. The Blues lost Joel Edmundson to a broken forearm, which will keep him out of the line-up for a while. He is the Blues only injured player who has played games this season, as their other two players on the shelf (Robby Fabbri and Zach Sanford) were injured in pre-season.

Brayden Schenn leads the team in goals, assists and points (math, duh). The off-season acquisition from the Flyers is on pace for a career year (his career best points total is 59), and has to be more than the Blues expected when they gave up Jori Lehtera and the 27th overall pick in this past draft (Morgan Frost).

This is the third game between these two teams this year, with a fourth scheduled to take place in St. Louis on the 23rd. The home team has won via shutout each time, with the Blues winning 2-0 on December 16 and the Jets prevailing 4-0 the very next day.

Will St. Louis sing the Blues?

Will the Jets fly too close to the sun and, like Icarus, fall flaming into the sea?

Tune in this evening! Same Jets time (7 PM CST), Same Jets channel (TSN 3)!

Winnipeg Jets: 32-13-9

Stat Leaders:

Goals: Patrik Laine (24)

Assists: Blake Wheeler (44)

Points: Wheeler (58)

Goalie Stat Leaders:

Wins: Connor Hellebuyck (28)

Goals Against Average: Hellebuyck (2.32)

Save Percentage: Hellebuyck (.924)

Minutes: Hellebuyck (2,586)

Special Teams: PP 24.1% (3rd), PK 82.2% (9th)

St. Louis Blues: 33-20-3

Stat Leaders:

Goals: Brayden Schenn (23)

Assists: Schenn (30)

Points: Schenn (53)

Goalie Stat Leaders:

Wins: Jake Allen (18)

Goals Against Average: Carter Hutton (1.70)!!!!!!

Save Percentage: Hutton (.944)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Minutes: Allen (2,138)

Special Teams: PP 16.4% (27th), PK 81.7% (14th)

Winnipeg Jets

FORWARDS

29 Patrik Laine / 55 Mark Scheifele / 26 Blake Wheeler

85 Mathieu Perreault / 18 Bryan Little/ 27 Nikolaj Ehlers

81 Kyle Connor / 9 Andrew Copp/ 40 Joel Armia

56 Marko Dano/ 19 Nic Petan / 52 Jack Roslovic

DEFENCE

44 Josh Morrissey/ 57 Tyler Myers

39 Toby Enstrom/ 33 Dustin Byfuglien

7 Ben Chiarot/ 5 Dmitry Kulikov

STARTING GOALIE

37 Connor Hellebuyck

Riding the pine: 1 Eric Comrie

Scratched: 3 Tucker Poolman, 48 Brendan Lemieux

Injured: 13 Brandon Tanev (week-to-week, upper body), 15 Matt Hendricks (day-to-day, upper body), 17 Adam Lowry (Upper body...again), 34 Michael Hutchinson (Indefinite, concussion suffered Tuesday), 35 Steve Mason (out since January 12, resumed light skating concussion), 16 Shawn Matthias (upper body, out since January 13), 8 Jacob Trouba (Out six to eight weeks from January 29, ankle)

St. Louis Blues

FORWARDS

20 Alex Steen -- 26 Paul Stastny -- 91 Vladimir Tarasenko

17 Jaden Schwartz -- 10 Brayden Schenn -- 21 Patrik Berglund

23 Dmitrij Jaskin -- 71 Vladimir Sobotka -- 32 Tage Thompson

9 Scottie Upshall -- 28 Kyle Brodziak -- 49 Ivan Barbashev

DEFENCE

4 Carl Gunnarsson -- 27 Alex Pietrangelo

19 Jay Bouwmeester -- 55 Colton Parayko

29 Vince Dunn -- 41 Robert Bortuzzo

STARTING GOALIE

34 Jake Allen

Riding the pine: 40 Carter Hutton (Might start, but he played last night so this is my guess)

Scratched: 22 Chris Thorburn ( :( ), 25 Chris Butler, 46 Jake Walman

Injured: 15 Robby Fabbri (Out since September, torn ACL), 12 Zach Sanford (Out since September, dislocated shoulder), 6 Joel Edmundson (Out since yesterday, broken forearm)