Tampa Bay Lightning at Winnpeg Jets

The Winnipeg Jets have managed to grab points in four straight games coming out of the Olympic break to keep their slim playoff hopes alive. They face a huge challenge tonight in trying to keep that streak going, facing a talented and likely surly Tampa Bay Lightning squad.

“That’s a 20-man unit over there, that’s the best in the East. I don’t know how they rank up with the rest, with Colorado and Dallas, but in my opinion — and I said it when we were down there — that’s the best team I’ve seen in the East from the teams that we played,” said Jets coach Scott Arniel.

“I know they’re on a little bit of a skid right now, but that’s a deep team. They’ve got those different offensive weapons, but they’re a heavy team and they defend really well. That’s probably the biggest thing, you can talk about the offensive side of things but their defensive numbers have been very, very impressive. And obviously they’ve got their goaltending going as well. That’s a good mix, when you can defend like that and then go out and have your top players be your top players.”

Tampa has lost three straight games, including a 5-1 setback Tuesday night in St. Paul.

“They’re probably an angrier group, that’s for sure,” said Arniel.

“At this time of year, they’ve still got their own battles going in the East. It doesn’t matter what opponent it is, for us, it’s about us getting to our game. We have to do a really good job of defending against a team that transitions well and is really good in the offensive zone.

“The other thing is that we have to get inside. You can’t play on the outside against these guys, you have to try and get inside ice. They do a good job of protecting that slot area and don’t allow a lot of second opportunities. We have to be good. We know the importance of these two points for us tonight.”

The Jets are expected to roll with the same lineup for a third-straight game, with Connor Hellebuyck in net and Ville Heinola as the lone healthy scratch. The Lightning are expected to roll with 11 forwards and seven defencemen, along with Vezina Trophy frontrunner Andrei Vasilevskiy between the pipes.

This is the second and final meeting this year between the teams, with Tampa winning 4-1 on Jan. 29 in their own building.

“I think in Tampa we really allowed their transition game, their speed game and the rush game to really dictate the style that the game was played,” said captain Adam Lowry.

“I think they do a really good job of generating chances off the forecheck, finding the slot and things like that. I think we really fed into their speed, their transition. They were missing some key guys back then that they have back in the lineup tonight.

“Some real dangerous players up front, some guys from the back end that can jump up and really hurt you as the second wave; they’ve got so many guys that can hurt you on these small mistakes, where they can create a lot out of something.”

Here’s some other information to get you set.

—Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe

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FROM THE PRESS BOX

MIKE SAYS: Colour me surprised that it appears the Jets will not hold anyone out of their lineup tonight for potential trade-related purposes.

“We have too many on the IR to be able to do that. As of this morning, what you are seeing is what you are getting for tonight,” Arniel said when I posed the question to him following the morning skate.

The Jets do have an extra healthy body here in Heinola, who could easily sub in for Logan Stanley or Luke Schenn on the back-end. They also have two open roster spots available, which could allow them to call up a pair of skaters from the Manitoba Moose, play them tonight, then send them back down on Friday.

Arniel did concede “that could change” by puck drop, and it’s worth noting Toronto Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube told reporters on Thursday morning they would have no such scratches, only for three players to ultimately sit when they faced the New Jersey Devils.

Still, you wonder if this means the Jets aren’t really in on much of anything related to potential deals and that Friday could be extremely quiet around here.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: they should be trying to sell as much as possible to recoup some lost draft capital. Stanley is clearly their top trade chip in terms of the return. If they aren’t moving him, then they best be announcing a multi-year contract extension.

Gabe Vilardi is always an interesting interview, and he delivered a few notable soundbites today when he spoke about his own play. Turns out, the Jets winger isn’t very happy with himself despite scoring twice in the past four games.

“I gotta find a way to help my teammates be better. And I’ll leave it at that,” he said.

Arniel chuckled when presented with Vilardi’s viewpoint.

Gabriel Vilardi (Matt Slocum / The Associated Press files)

“He’s a hard critic on himself. He really is. Half of my conversations with him are, ‘You’re not that bad. You’re not that bad. You’ve scored two goals in the past four games, like you’re not that bad,’” said Arniel.

“Just Gabe, he does feel when he has the puck a lot more, when he’s making plays, he feels like he’s into the game. I hammer into him all of the time, those puck battles and those scenarios when he’s on the right side of people… It’s getting to the net.

“He’s not playing on the outside. He knows what it is that I’m looking for, so I just kind of remind him. I may look at a game and I think it’s a pretty good game. He may look at it, maybe he didn’t score, that it was a crappy game. That’s just Gabe.”

KEN SAYS: Jets top centre Mark Scheifele chipped in a pair of primary assists Tuesday before helping his team earn the second point available by scoring the OT winner, which was the 18th of his NHL career. Scheifele is up to 28 goals and 73 points for the season and he’s going to continue to be leaned on heavily during the stretch run.

Jets defenceman Dylan Samberg is coming off one of his best games of the season and not just because he scored his first goal in nearly a calendar year and set up the overtime winner.

Samberg was at his best defensively to go with that offensive production and he did an excellent job in a shutdown role against Connor Bedard. Although Bedard set up the go-ahead goal early in the third period, that came against the Jets third defence pairing, not with Samberg on the ice.

When Samberg is locked in defensively and moving the puck efficiently, he can have a big impact on the outcome, whether he’s chipping in offensively or not.

Dylan Samberg (Julio Cortez / The Associated Press files)

Some moves are being made around the league and given the prices, it should make for an interesting few hours leading into Friday’s NHL trade deadline. I still expect the Jets to be relatively active, though they might not move quite as many pending unrestricted free agents as I thought originally.

Strathclair product Conor Geekie was recalled by the Lightning this week and is set to play his second NHL game of the season.

The former Winnipeg Ice forward is having a strong season with the Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League, where he has 14 goals and 51 points in 47 games. I spoke with Geekie about his journey after the morning skate and he’s excited to be back up with the big club and playing in his home province.

The Lightning are in an interesting position, battling for top spot but fighting it a bit out of the break.

Nikita Kucherov is having a tremendous season and finds himself right in the thick of the race for the Hart Trophy, chipping in 31 goals and 96 points in 55 games, leaving him third in scoring behind Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon.

Kucherov is a magician with the puck on his stick and is both an excellent finisher and set-up man. Keeping your head on a swivel when he’s on the ice is essential.

PROJECTED LINES

WINNIPEG JETS

FORWARDS

Connor-Scheifele-Iafallo
Perfetti-Lowry-Vilardi
Nyquist-Toews-Duehr
Koepke-Barron-Pearson

DEFENCE

Samberg-Salomonsson
Stanley-DeMelo
Fleury-Schenn

GOAL

Hellebuyck
Comrie

Healthy scratches: D Heinola

Injured: D Morrissey (upper body), D Pionk (lower body), D Miller (lower body), LW Niederreiter (lower body), F Namestnikov (lower body)

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING

FORWARDS

Hagel-Cirelli-Kucherov
Guentzel-Point-Bjorkstrand
Girgensons-Gourde-Holmberg
Sabourin-Geekie

DEFENCE

Moser-Raddysh
D’Astous-Hedman
McDonagh-Cernak
Carlile

GOAL

Vasilevskiy
Johansson

Healthy scratches: None

Injured: D Crozier (abdomen), C James (leg), F Goncalves (undisclosed), F Paul (undisclosed), D Lilleberg (undisclosed)

NOTABLE QUOTABLE

Jets captain Adam Lowry on the emotional toll the trade deadline can take on a team like his, which may be in “sell” mode this year:

“I think the uncertainty is obviously the biggest thing. Once trades, if they do happen, that’s where the emotional side, the relationship side starts to come out. Now you have to say goodbye to a good friend, someone you’ve gone to work with and battled with over the years. It is a challenging time, obviously.

“From a fan aspect, it’s super exciting, you’re hoping your team adds. You’re seeing all the player movement around the league. From a personal side, it’s tough. You have guys uprooting their families. There’s a lot of things that go on behind the scenes. It’s not just the player getting traded, it’s the family. It’s the stuff that becomes tough to deal with around the trade deadline.”