Winnipeg Jets at Nashville Predators

Howdy from Music City, where the Winnipeg Jets will be looking to stop their nose-dive in the NHL standings by facing the worst team in the league.

Easy, peasy? Not so fast. Tonight’s opponent, the Nashville Predators, are suddenly within four points of them after winning two straight outings. That gap could close to just two points should the home team get a regulation victory.

Yes, that’s how far Winnipeg has fallen as a result of losing four straight games and eight of the last 11. The latest came Friday night in Raleigh, where a 1-1 tie through more than 51 minutes of play ended up as a 5-1 defeat. That left them 0-2 on this five-game road trip.

It wasn’t just the late third period implosion that had head coach Scott Arniel fuming, but the sluggish start by his squad in front of a goaltender, Thomas Milic, who was making his NHL debut.

“We had a lot of guys that forgot to show up at the start of the game,” Arniel told the Free Press.

“To come out and start the game that way — in a building like this, knowing the opposition isn’t going to be sitting back and is going to come hard — that’s for all of us. You know, the young and old, whatever, part of your profession is being prepared for games.”

There was no morning skate with the back-to-back outings, so lineup projections are sketchy. We suspect forward Cole Koepke draws into the lineup, but whether he replaces Tanner Pearson, Gustav Nyquist or someone else won’t be known until puck drop. It’s also possible defenceman Luke Schenn comes in as well, perhaps for Colin Miller.

Defenceman Neal Pionk will not be ready to play, missing a third straight game with a lower-body injury.

Eric Comrie will start in net for the Jets, looking to notch his first win since taking over as the starter following arthroscopic knee surgery to Connor Hellebuyck. Nashville is expected to go with Justus Annunen, although they might be tempted to go right back to Juuse Saros who stopped 24 of 27 shots in Friday’s 4-3 win in Chicago.

This is the second of three meetings between the clubs and the only one in Nashville this year. The Jets beat the Predators 4-1 on Oct. 18 at Canada Life Centre and will host their Central Division rivals again on March 17.

Here’s some other information to get you set:

—Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe

FROM THE PRESS BOX

MIKE SAYS: Arniel basically hit the emergency button last night by calling out his team in public. As pointed as he was while speaking with me outside the team’s room in Raleigh, you know the words he had behind closed doors were even more harsh.

How the Jets respond is going to be fascinating — and very telling.

If they come out tonight playing like a motivated group, then mission accomplished. Message delivered and received. But what happens if we see another flat, uninspired effort? What other cards might Arniel have left to play?

The “in case of emergency break glass” option right now is splitting up his top trio, which happens to be the only line accomplishing anything. He may have no choice.

The Jets are going absolutely nowhere if Mark Scheifele, Gabe Vilardi and Kyle Connor are the only forwards generating offence, as they have been now for four straight games. Maybe putting them on two or three different lines might light a fire under some of their teammates.

With each passing game, it’s becoming more and more apparent that the only thing the Jets accomplished through free agency last summer was getting older and slower. They are getting exposed on a nightly basis, and the cracks in the foundation really show when you don’t have Hellebuyck around to cover them all up.

Newsflash: He’s not coming back for at least three more weeks. Given how they’re playing, the Jets could be entirely out of the playoff picture by then if things don’t turn around quickly.

What if this is truly who they are? It’s worth noting that five of Winnipeg’s 12 wins this year have come against the teams currently ranked 30th (Vancouver), 31st (Calgary, three times) and 32nd (Nashville). So, that means they have 7 wins in 18 games when you exclude the three worst clubs.

This team appears to be in deep trouble.

KEN SAYS: Jets forward Cole Perfetti has shown some frustration in recent games, due to his limited offensive production since returning from a high ankle sprain. Friday’s game was another example of the volume and quality of the scoring chances he’s still been able to create, though the frustration revolves around the inability to finish them.

Against the Hurricanes, there were signs of progress from Perfetti, as he generated three shots on goal and seven shot attempts, but he was thwarted on a breakaway by Brandon Bussi as he tried to sneak a shot through the five-hole. Then, in the third period, when Perfetti thought he had a clear lane to stuff the puck past the right leg of Bussi on a courageous net drive, some great hustle by Hurricanes winger Jackson Blake prevented Perfetti from even getting a shot off.

Winnipeg Jets forward Cole Perfetti. (Connor Hamilton / The Associated Press files)

With just one goal and three points in nine games back, Perfetti is someone that is trying to ignite the offence but he’s among the nine forwards not on the top line that are mired in a serious offensive drought.

On the back end, Arniel provided a glimpse into the future by pairing Elias Salomonsson with Josh Morrissey for most of the final two periods. Salomonsson is just two games into his NHL career and he’s handling the steep learning curve pretty well.

Although he was on the ice for two more goals against at five-on-five (making it four through two games), Salomonsson is doing some of the things that will make him an NHL regular before long. There’s a poise under pressure that is already evident and once he gets a bit more comfortable, you can expect his physical play to increase as well.

Salomonsson was inches away from scoring his first NHL goal early in the third period, when he took a pass from Connor and rattled his shot off the iron. The skating ability that is one of his best traits has been evident, though the underlying numbers still need some work, even if the eye test says he’s adapting nicely after his promotion from the American Hockey League.

Salomonsson was on the ice for six scoring chances for and 12 scoring chances against and the numbers even more lopsided when it comes to the high-danger chances he was on for (one for, seven against). That’s not to suggest Salomonsson is the culprit on the majority of the breakdowns that are occurring when he’s on the ice, but when the game slows down for him a bit more, those numbers are bound to improve.

Salomonsson is someone who might be a regular partner for Morrissey in the future and it was interesting to see the Jets’ top D-man draw the parallel to his rookie season, when he found himself paired with Dustin Byfuglien. It will be interesting to see if Morrissey and Salomonsson see some extended time together and if Arniel and Dean Chynoweth want to see a bit more of Dylan DeMelo and Dylan Samberg together.

Predators centre Ryan O’Reilly has two goals and five points during his past three games after going four games without a point. He’s leading the Preds in points with 18, which is one more than Filip Forsberg has. O’Reilly is expected to see a healthy dose of Scheifele’s line tonight.

PROJECTED LINES

WINNIPEG JETS

FORWARDS

Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Niederreiter-Lowry-Iafallo
Pearson-Namestnikov-Perfetti
Barron-Toews-Nyquist

DEFENCE

Morrissey-DeMelo
Samberg-Salomonsson
Stanley-Miller

GOAL

Comrie
Milic

INJURED: G Hellebuyck (knee surgery), D Fleury (concussion protocol), D Pionk (lower-body)

HEALTHY SCRATCHES: D Schenn, F Koepke

NASHVILLE PREDATORS

FORWARDS

Stamkos-O’Reilly-Evangelista
Forsberg-Haula-Wood
Bunting-McCarron-Wiesblatt
Schaefer-Svechkov-Jost

DEFENCE

Hague-Josi
Skjei-Perbix
Stastney-Blankenburg

GOAL

Annunen
Saros

INJURED: F Marchessault (lower-body), F Smith (upper-body), F L’Heureux (lower-body)

HEALTHY SCRATHES: D Wilsby, D Barron

NOTABLE QUOTABLE

Jets coach Scott Arniel on the fragile state of his squad right now:

“It’s a veteran group. These guys have been here. They know what it takes to play in this league. They know that’s not good enough.

“Whether it’s only playing two periods or it’s having breakdowns where you give up goals on back-to-back shifts, whatever those scenarios might be, when you have guys that have been in this league, you’ve got to find a way. You’ve got to find a way to be better and not allow those things and those moments to happen.

“We’re scrambling, we’re fighting for our lives here. You know what, we’ve got a divisional game (Saturday) and we’ll go right back at it. There’s not much time to even dwell on this. We’ve got to get in and get ready for Nashville.”