Game Five Preview and GDT: Winnipeg Jets versus Vegas Golden Knights

Time: 2:00 PM CST

Channel: CBC, NBC

Radio: TSN1290

The Winnipeg Jets are facing elimination for the first time in this series and the road to a win is full of struggles. The Jets have struggled to break through the Vegas Golden Knights defences following game one and when they do, Marc-Andre Fleury has been nearly unbeatable.

The Jets are still looking for a breakthrough from Nikolaj Ehlers and Patrik Laine. It has been a tough start to the playoffs for these two, but they both look like they are ready to break out (well, Ehlers seems to affected by malaise again and that is putting a damper on his play). On the other hand, the Jets have also been burned by their third pairing of Tyler Myers and Ben Chiarot. While Dmitry Kulikov has recently returned to health and the partnership between him and Myers was successful, I can understand the Jets being gun-shy about playing a guy coming off a back injury in the playoffs.

Winnipeg Jets Lineup:

FORWARDS:

81 Kyle Connor/ 55 Mark Scheifele/ 26 Blake Wheeler

27 Nikolaj Ehlers/ 25 Paul Stastny/ 29 Patrik Laine

85 Mathieu Perreault/ 18 Bryan Little/ 40 Joel Armia

13 Brandon Tanev/ 17 Adam Lowry/ 9 Andrew Copp

DEFENCE

44 Josh Morrissey/ 8 Jacob Trouba

39 Tobias Enstrom/ 33 Dustin Byfuglien

7 Ben Chiarot/ 57 Tyler Myers

STARTING GOALIE

37 Connor Hellebuyck

Riding the pine: 35 Steve Mason

Scratched: 16 Shawn Matthias, 56 Marko Dano, 5 Tucker Poolman, 70 Joe Morrow, 52 Jack Roslovic, 15 Matt Hendricks

Injured: 5 Dmitry Kulikov (back, indefinite)

Vegas Golden Knights Lineup:

FORWARDS

81 Jonathan Marchessault/ 71 William Karlsson/ 19 Reilly Smith

57 David Perron/ 56 Erik Huala/ 18 James Neal

24 Oscar Lindberg/ 21 Cody Eakin/ 89Alex Tuch

40 Ryan Carpenter/ 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare/ 75 Ryan Reaves

DEFENCE

3 Brayden McNabb/ 88 Nate Schmidt

27 Shea Theodore/ 5 Deryk Engelland

47 Luca Sbisa/ 6 Colin Miller

GOALIE

29 Marc-Andre Fleury

RIDING THE PINE

30 Malcolm Subban

Pre-Game Music:

Prediction:

I really don’t care because season five of Brookyn 99 is on Netflix tomorrow and it is a holiday.