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Stop us if you’ve heard this before: The Winnipeg Jets will be looking for a solid response tonight after a poor outing in their previous game. Yes, it’s become a bit of a running theme with the hot-and-cold hockey club, which can’t seem to sustain any positive momentum lately.
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It’s a favourable matchup at least on paper, with an Anaheim Ducks team that is among the worst in the NHL, sold off some key assets at the trade deadline (Adam Henrique, Sam Carrick), has a couple other important players out of the lineup with injury (Trevor Zegras, Leo Carlsson) and just played Thursday night in Minnesota, suffering a hard-fought 2-0 loss to the Wild.
“Minnesota’s fighting for a playoff spot and Anaheim gave them everything they could handle,” Jets coach Rick Bowness said.
“It’s a very determined group. It’s a hard-working group. They’ve got enough skill to do some damage if you let them. They’re getting great goaltending. So, it’s going to be a very tough game, because there’s no quit in that group. And you give them a lot of credit, from where they are in the standings. But I know a couple of guys on that team are Killer and Gudy (Alex Killorn and Radko Gudas), they’re great competitors and that’s going to rub off on everybody else in that room.”
The Jets are making multiple lineup changes from the group that lost 4-2 to the Nashville Predators on Wednesday night.
Top centre Mark Scheifele returns from a one-game absence owing to illness, declaring himself 100 per cent after today’s morning skate.
“There’s no worse feeling, that’s for sure. We thought it was all past us, but I guess it wasn’t. Just happy to be feeling better,” Scheifele said of being the latest Jet felled by the flu.
Laurent Brossoit gets the start in net, looking to pick up where he left off last Friday night in Seattle when he recorded a 17-save shutout.
Forward David Gustafsson and defencemen Nate Schmidt and Logan Stanley, who were all healthy scratches last game, are expected to play. Cole Perfetti, Dylan Samberg, and Colin Miller will also take turns in the press box as Bowness tries to manage his roster during an extremely busy stretch (Winnipeg’s fifth game in the past eight days).
Here’s some other information to get you set:
FROM THE PRESS BOX
MIKE SAYS: You’ve got to feel for Gabe Vilardi, who can’t seem to catch a break. The 24-year-old forward will miss an eighth straight game – and his 27th of the year – to injury. Unfortunately, those numbers are going to continue to grow.
“He has an enlarged spleen. So, at this point there’s no timetable,” Bowness revealed this morning.
The diagnosis came this week as doctors were trying to get to the bottom of another (undisclosed) medical issue which flared up 15 days ago as the Jets were playing a game in Dallas. Vilardi took regular shifts for the first two periods, then sat on the bench for the third. He hasn’t played, or even skated, since.
Winnipeg Jets forward Gabe Vilardi has been diagnosed with an enlarged spleen. (MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES)
Vilardi will not join the team on a five-game road trip that begins Sunday in Columbus. Whether he’ll be available before the regular season ends remains to be seen.
“They’re treating it as best they can. I don’t have the medical answer for it, but it is being treated… He’s in good hands here,” said Bowness. “He’s a great kid, and he’s overcome a few injuries in his early career. So, you hope when this is behind him, he gets a chance to get healthy and play consistently. We certainly miss him.”
The Jets need others to help pick up the slack, including wingers Kyle Connor and Nikolaj Ehlers who had really rough nights against the Predators. They’ll start on opposite lines tonight as Bowness tries to find the right mix in his top six.
KEN SAYS: The latest in the line of up-and-down showings means the Jets will be looking for another bounce-back effort as they welcome the Ducks, who have lost four consecutive games and five of the past six.
The Jets will be thrilled to have Scheifele back in the lineup and there’s no doubt his presence was missed on Wednesday as the group struggled to generate enough offence while falling behind 4-0 early in the third period. Scheifele is producing at roughly a point-per-game pace (57 points in 58 games) and is on the verge of his ninth consecutive 20-goal campaign.
The Winnipeg Jets will be happy to have centre Mark Scheifele back in the lineup for Friday’s game against the Anaheim Ducks. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)
Jets right-winger Mason Appleton is riding a nice little hot streak, chipping in six points during his past six games, including the first power-play marker of his career Wednesday. After going through a dry spell as a line, the trio of captain Adam Lowry, Nino Niederreiter and Appleton are back to chipping in with regularity while also going up against the opposition’s most skilled players. That’s an important development for a Jets team that now has 12 forwards in double-digits in goals.
It’s the first time Ducks centre Ryan Strome will be in the lineup against the Jets since he knocked Kyle Connor out of the game on Dec. 10 with a knee injury that kept the high-scoring winger out of the lineup for 16 games. That’s not to say there will be retribution on the menu, but one would expect the Jets will be looking to find Strome for a clean hit if the opportunity presents itself.
“You play every guy hard. Obviously, we didn’t like it but that’s a long time ago. We have KC back and he’s healthy. You just play every guy hard,” Scheifele said this morning when asked if there could be lingering issues.
Ducks winger Frank Vatrano is having a solid season, with a team-leading 29 goals and 50 points in 66 games, while Mason McTavish is a young centre on the rise but has been limited to one assist during the past six games.
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