Time: 8:00 PM CST
Channel: TSN3
Radio: CJOB680/Power 97
A busy evening for the NHL’s Central Division, with everyone except the St. Louis Blues in action. The Winnipeg Jets game against the Colorado Avalanche is the only match where division rivals will be playing head-to-head, so a lot of movement in the standings could occur.
Currently, the Avs are in 1st place with 34 pts, but they have played one more game than the Jets (30 pts). The Dallas Stars are ahead of Winnipeg by a point (31 pts) with equal games played and they will be visiting the Washington Capitals tonight. The Arizona Coyotes are hot (5 game winning streak) and only trail the Jets by 2 pts (28 pts), so they could potentially tie Winnipeg by beating the visiting Philadelphia Flyers. In other words, things are pretty tight in our division and a win tonight would be huge for the Jets to maintain their top 3 positioning.
Looks like Colorado has gotten some good news, as defensemen Cale Makar and Bowen Byram appear to be returning to the line-up in time to face our Winnipeg Jets. Lucky us, right?
Tonight’s starters are expected to be Connor Hellebuyck (.912%) and Alexandar Georgiev (.902%) and here are the full projected lines for this evening’s clash:
Winnipeg Jets Lineup
Forwards
Connor – Scheifele – Ehlers
Perfetti – Vilardi – Iafallo
Niederreiter – Lowry – Appleton
Barron – Gustafsson — Jonsson-Fjallby
Defense
Morrissey – DeMelo
Dillon – Pionk
Samberg – Stanley
Goalies
Brossoit
Hellebuyck
Scratches: D – Schmidt & D – Chisholm
Injuries: F – Namestnikov, D – Heinola, F – Kupari
Colorado Avalanche Lineup
Forwards
Drouin — MacKinnon– O’Connor
Wood — Colton — Rantanen
Tatar — Johansen — Kiviranta
Cogliano — Olofsson — MacDermid
Defense
Toews — Makar
Byram — Manson
J. Johnson — Malinski
Goalies
Georgiev
Prosvetov
Injuries: F – Landeskog, F – Lehkonen, F – Nichushkin, G – Francouz, & D – Girard
Can Winnipeg start their road trip off with a victory and extend their winning streak to three? Which forward trio of the Jets will step up in this game? Can Scheifele continue to play a solid 2-way game? Can the newly formed VIP line start getting their names on the scoresheet consistently? If Winnipeg continues to win, will the coaches keep on healthy scratching Nate Schmidt? So many things to find out the answers to, tune in tonight to see how it plays out.
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