The Winnipeg Jets should have a real test on their hands tonight when the Vegas Golden Knights visit the Canada Life Centre.
The defending Stanley Cup champions haven’t appeared to miss a beat after a summer of celebrating, as they are coming in with a 4 game winning streak. Vegas picked up three 4-1 victories over the Kraken, Sharks, and Ducks before squeaking a 3-2 shoot-out win over the Stars.
The hometown Jets are coming into the game with a 1-2 record, while playing well in two of the three matches. Coming off a disappointing performance versus the Kings, the coaching staff and players will be aiming for a much tighter defensive game on Thursday against a powerful offense.
Bowness & co were forced to make changes to Winnipeg’s lineup due to the injury to Gabe Vilardi, but they took the chance to make a lot of alterations to the forward units. Not one of the four lines will remain intact and defenseman Logan Stanley will make his season debut, as veteran Nate Schmidt heads to the press-box as a healthy scratch. Last but certainly not least, goalie Laurent Brossoit will get the nod against his former team, as you can see from the projected lineups below:
Winnipeg Jets
Connor-Scheifele-Appleton
Ehlers-Namestnikov-Perfetti
Iafallo-Lowry-Niederreiter
Barron-Kupari-Gustafsson
Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Stanley-Samberg
Brossoit
Hellebuyck
Vegas Golden Knights
Barbashev–Eichel–Marchessault
Cotter–Stephenson–Stone
Howden– Karlsson–Amadio
Carrier–Roy–Kolesar
McNabb–Theodore
Hague–Korczak
Hutton– Pachal
Thompson
Hill
How will putting the forward units into a blender play out? Will the new defensive pairings limit high-danger chances?
The first line certainly will be losing out on some scoring touch, but Mason Appleton is the best Winnipeg Jet at creating turnovers in the offensive end. So, hopefully Apples can free up pucks for the elite scorers he will be playing with. Does the move of Cole Perfetti to the wing signal the end of the center experiment or is it a temporary measure? Who knows, though the head coach said it was an attempt to get a bit more offense from the 2nd line. With Vladislav Namestnikov moving to the 2C spot, it necessitated dropping Nino Niederreiter to the 3rd line. That unit will probably get a lot of shifts as a checking unit against Vegas’ top lines tonight. The final forward change sees David Gustafsson making his debut on the 4th line.
Puck drops at 7 pm Central, feel free to join us here to discuss the positives and negatives of tonight’s match. Go Jets Go!!
