Time: 7:00 PM CST
Channel: TSN3
Radio: CJOB
The Winnipeg Jets and Tampa Bay Lightning are playing tonight in a game that will see the Jets welcome four players back to the fold. Nikolaj Ehlers will be returning after not playing since October 17. Tonight will also see the return of Blake Wheeler, Cole Perfetti, and Nate Schmidt. It appears that Ville Heinola is out of the lineup in lieu of Schmidt.
The Jets will need all the offence they can get as the Lightning are known to be a very offensively capable team. However, the Jets will be able to match their goaltending thanks to Connor Hellebuyck being excellent and one of the best goalies in the league (Andrei Vasilevskiy also fits in this category). The biggest place for the Jets will be on defence this game. We all know Josh Morrissey is excellent (and now going to the All Star Game), but the Jets defence is sometimes shaky and some of those more shaky members are still playing while Heinola, who has shown himself to be a steady presence on defence for the Jets.
That said, this will be the strongest Jets lineup in a long time. As long as the four returning players is not too much for the lineup can be challenging in a different way than having four players out of the lineup. Hopefully all four players are up to game conditioning and will be ready to play at 100% from puck drop.
