The Winnipeg Jets will be participating in their 3rd pre-season game on Wednesday evening, as the Edmonton Oilers visit the Canada Life Centre to tangle with our hometown boys. The Albertan franchise will be looking to sweep Winnipeg after their overtime victory over the Jets on Sunday. The puck will be dropping shortly after 7 pm CST and the game will be available for viewing on TSN.
The Jets are sitting with a 0-1-1 record with 4 exhibition matches left to play before the regular season gets underway, while the Oilers are 1-2-0 with 5 games left on their slate. While Edmonton won’t be fielding anywhere near their opening day roster, Winnipeg’s coaching staff has their lineup full of expected NHLers. Here is the projected lineup for the Jets, via IllegalCurve:
Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Namestnikov-Lambert-Ehlers
Niederreiter-Lowry-JAD
Gustafsson-Kupari-Ford
Morrissey-DeMelo
Samberg-Pionk
Stanley-Miller
Lundmark-Salomonsson
Kahkonen
DiVincentiis
At the forward position, coach Scott Arniel will be deploying at least 7 of their regular skaters: Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele, Gabriel Vilardi, Vladislav Namestnikov, Nikolaj Ehlers, Nino Niederreiter, & Adam Lowry. The staff will be adding a couple possible 4th liners or press box watchers in David Gustafsson & Rasmus Kupari to that mix, along with three NHL hopefuls in Jared Anderson-Dolan, Parker Ford, and speedy Brad Lambert.
It is certainly nice to see the coaches giving Lambert a long look at the 2C position and Vladdy, Fly, & Lambo have the potential to be an exciting trio to watch. I probably shouldn’t read too much into the lack of Mason Appleton on the 3rd line, but I guess it is possible Arniel is considering breaking up last year’s checking line. Would have loved to see Nikita Chibrikov be given a shot in that right wing role, but Anderson-Dolan (JAD) looked pretty good in his pre-season debut so we’ll see how he does versus the Oilers. The spunky & feisty Ford will get another shot to impress the staff with his tenacious forecheck as he joins the Gus Bus & AJF on the 4th line.
Since there are four sets of defensemen in the projected lineup, I am not entirely certain which pairings will get into tonight’s contest. If it ends up being the top 3 duos, then it could be the fans first look at what could be the opening day defensive lineup. With Ville Heinola on the shelf, it certainly gives Logan Stanley the inside track to the 3rd LD position. The final pairing includes a couple of d-men likely bound for the Manitoba Moose this season, though I am not sure that I would expect the pair to play together that often since they are both right-handed.
Free agent goaltender signing Kaapo Kahkonen will get a chance to exorcise the demons of his first pre-season game, likely hoping that a stronger game will put him back in the hunt for Connor Hellebuyck’s back up role. I wonder if young Dominic DiVincentiis will get the opportunity to make an appearance for half of the match, because if Bucky wants to play 2 & a half contests and Winnipeg only has 3 exhibition games remaining there won’t be much opportunities for Dom or Thomas Milic to take the crease.
Once again, I have been unable to find clarity on the Edmonton Oilers’ projected lineup for this evening, I was able to find out that the coaching staff isn’t planning on playing any of their top 3 forward units. So the Winnipeg Jets should have a great chance to pick up some goal scoring confidence and a victory in Manitoba tonight. See you back here tonight to chat about the game…enjoy your Wednesday!!
BTW: Cole Perfetti will make his pre-season debut on Friday against the Minnesota Wild. Will be nice to see a supposed 193 lb Fetti on the ice.
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