Time: 6:00 PM CST
Channel: TSN3
Radio: CJOB
The Winnipeg Jets are playing the Arizona Coyotes again in a rare home game in January. The game is also at 6:00 pm, but not on a national broadcast (what happened to Hometown Hockey and Wednesday Night Hockey)?
Anyways, the Coyotes have struggled this year and after getting a well-earned win in Buffalo, the Jets won in emphatic fashion in Pittsburgh the next night. They are coming home for a brief reprieve on a high that they will want to build on against the much worse Coyotes.
The Coyotes were never supposed to be good this year. Their season is going according to plan as they look to build a team in the desert (don’t come at me, they have rarely been good since moving from Winnipeg). To do this they are attempting to be in the range to move up in the draft to get Connor Berard. The Coyotes are where they want to be which can sound odd even though it is correct because it is hard to imagine a team taking on the number of dead contracts they have taken on over the years without a plan in place.
The Jets are once again plagued by illness. This is the second time it has been noted that illness has ripped through the room and there has to be a way that they can try to control it. They could ask players to start masking up again at certain times and stay home when they have a minor cold (at least from practice) because what they are currently doing seems less than ideal. It appears that Ville Heinola is still with the Manitoba Moose, but it was also expected that he was too sick to play and the Jets needed help up front. Good times still happening.
Aside from the negative illness issues, the Jets have been getting some help from their top line in a huge way. While the second line is touch and go offensively, their top line has been money. The combination of Kyle Connor, Pierre-Luc Dubois, and Nikolaj Ehlers has been amazing for the Jets and it is a shame that Ehlers was out for so long earlier this season. The team will be in good shape if their play continues.
No clue which goalie is expected to start, but there are many games coming up where Connor Hellebuyck could be given a rest without putting the Jets in a weird place, so expect him to start tonight and not have David Rittich start back to back games.
