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.
