Winnipeg Jets at Anaheim Ducks

Was Scott Arniel just being coy or was he simply waiting to get a final green light from the medical team before making a declaration on the status of Nikolaj Ehlers?

After the Winnipeg Jets had wrapped up a 4-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night, the head coach was non-committal when asked if Ehlers was an option for Wednesday’s game against the Anaheim Ducks.

“That’s tomorrow’s decision,” Arniel told reporters in San Jose. “We’ll talk (Wednesday).”

Since the Jets aren’t holding a morning skate with the team playing on consecutive days for the third time this season, any lineup changes won’t be fully revealed until the pre-game warmup.

However, the Jets may have provided a further hint when they placed defenceman Dylan Coghlan on waivers on Wednesday afternoon.

That’s the type of move that could be a precursor to activating Ehlers from injured reserve and inserting him into the lineup on the second line with Vladislav Namestnikov and Cole Perfetti.

Jets winger Nikita Chibrikov, who has two goals and three points in four games since he was recalled from the Manitoba Moose of the American Hockey League could fall in the questionable category after blocking a shot on the inside of his right knee in the first period on Tuesday.

Chibrikov swapped places in the lineup with Alex Iafallo and finished with 8:50 of ice time, his lowest total in four games.

It’s also possible that Ville Heinola is back on the third pairing for this game after he was a healthy scratch during the past two games.

What we do know is that Eric Comrie will be making his eighth start of the campaign for the Jets and will be looking to snap a four-game losing skid, though he’s been pretty sharp in those outings and just hasn’t received much offensive support when he’s been between the pipes.

For those keeping score at home, the Jets have scored six goals in those last four Comrie starts.

The Ducks are expected to counter with Lukas Dostal, who is sporting a .920 save percentage and 2.69 goals-against average for a team that doesn’t defend particularly well.

The Jets are in the midst of a 5-1-1 stretch that has them back atop the NHL overall standings with 47 points and a .712 winning percentage.

On Tuesday in San Jose, the Jets’ top line of Mark Scheifele (one goal, two assists), Gabe Vilardi (three helpers) and Kyle Connor (two goals) combined for eight points — though two of those markers came on the power play that is back to being the top-ranked unit in terms of efficiency in the NHL.

Connor’s second marker moved him into a tie with Blake Wheeler for third place in franchise history for goals (262).

“I wasn’t aware, but that’s obviously a pretty special player that I look up to. I was lucky enough to get to play with him as well and learn a lot from,” Connor told the team’s website. “Yeah it’s a pretty cool milestone for sure.”

Anaheim is coming off a 4-3 overtime win over the Columbus Blue Jackets that snapped a five-game losing skid that saw them outscored 20-7.

They’ve made a pair of trades recently to change the mix on the blue line, bringing in former Jet Jacob Trouba from the New York Rangers while shipping out Cam Fowler to the St. Louis Blues and Urho Vaakanainen to the Broadway Blueshirts.

Trouba was acquired on Dec. 6 and has suited up in four games with his new team, averaging just under 20 minutes per game on the blue line.

The Ducks’ roster also features Jets’ second-rounder Jansen Harkins.

Harkins has two assists in 16 games with the Ducks after signing a two-year deal with Anaheim back in July.

Here’s some other information to get you ready:

—Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe

FROM THE PRESS BOX

MIKE SAYS: Can the Jets finally beat the back-to-back blues?

Following Tuesday’s triumph in San Jose, Winnipeg now has gone 3-0 this season in Game 1 of the hockey equivalent of a double-header. However, they are 0-2 so far in Game 2, with losses in Nashville (after winning the previous night in Pittsburgh) and at home against Columbus (after winning the previous afternoon in Chicago).

The Jets have five more sets of back-to-backs this season, and you can already go ahead and mark Comrie’s name down in ink as starting all these contests. That would give him 13 overall on the year, and I suspect by the time the dust settles on the 82-game regular season slate he will be right around 20 starts. No doubt he’d like to snap his personal four-game losing streak that comes on the heels of three straight victories to start his latest stint as Connor Hellebuyck’s understudy.

Memo to the Jets: Keep your heads up, fellas, for some dangerous Duck hunters. With Jacob Trouba now joining Radko Gudas in Disneyland’s backyard, Anaheim has two of the biggest, baddest blue-line bouncers in the NHL. Those two dish out punishing hits for breakfast, lunch and dinner, so Winnipeg skaters best be aware when they’re on the ice. In that sense, maybe giving Ehlers one more game to heal up wouldn’t be the worst idea.

Jacob Trouba from the New York Rangers was acquired by the Anaheim Ducks on Dec. 6. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson / The Associated Press files)

KEN SAYS: The offensive exploits of Connor (19 goals, 40 points) and Scheifele (18 goals, 37 points) have been something to behold for years, but it’s also been impressive to see the way that Vilardi is growing his game during his second season with the Jets.

The potential was evident when Vilardi was in the lineup last season, as he delivered 22 goals and 36 points in 47 games, but now that he’s been healthy and appeared in all 33 games to date, he’s riding an impressive hot streak, with four goals and 10 points during his past seven games. That moves him to fourth on the team in scoring with 13 goals and 27 points in 33 games.

By scoring multiple goals with the man-advantage during the past two games — including four-for-eight overall — the Jets have moved back into top spot in the NHL for power-play efficiency (31.7 per cent), leapfrogging the New Jersey Devils.

“Adjust to how they’re killing and be dynamic and unpredictable,” Connor told reporters. “We’ve done a great job of that this year, just scoring in different ways. It’s everybody chipping in, it’s a five-man unit scoring in different ways and taking whatever is available.”

The puck movement in Tuesday’s game was fantastic as the Jets capitalized on their two lone chances — with Cole Perfetti feeding Scheifele for a blistering one-timer and Vilardi finding Connor for a perfect shot that Alexandar Georgiev couldn’t handle.

That second Connor marker set the stage for a perfect redirection by Adam Lowry that represented the fourth game-winning goal of the campaign for the Jets’ captain.

My pre-season prediction for Vilardi was that he could eclipse 35 goals if he appeared in north of 75 games and while he’s got plenty of work to do, he’s having a dynamite season and is on pace to establish career-bests for goals (23) and points (41).

For the Ducks, they’re still fully in the rebuilding phase. It’s strange to see Mason McTavish off to a slow start, with three goals and 12 points in 23 games. His marker against the Blue Jackets snapped a nine-game goal-scoring drought. The third overall pick in the 2021 NHL Draft has the ability to be a true power forward and he’s currently playing on a line with rookie winger Cutter Gauthier, who was chosen fifth overall in 2022.

Troy Terry currently leads the Ducks in scoring with eight goals and 24 points in 29 games this season. Fellow winger Frank Vatrano (seven goals, 14 points in 28 games) is on an expiring contract and is someone that will generate interest leading up to the NHL trade deadline as a complementary scorer with some playoff experience, including a run to the Eastern Conference final with the Rangers in 2022.

PROJECTED LINES

WINNIPEG JETS

FORWARDS:

Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Perfetti-Namestnikov-Ehlers (game-time decision)
Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton
Barron-Kupari-Iafallo

DEFENCE:

Morrissey-Pionk
Fleury-DeMelo
Stanley/Heinola-Miller

GOAL:

Comrie
Hellebuyck

HEALTHY SCRATCHES: D Coghlan

INJURED: D Samberg (broken foot), F Gustafsson (concussion), F Chibrikov (lower body)

ANAHEIM DUCKS

FORWARDS:

Vatrano-Strome-Terry
McGinn-Carlsson-Killorn
Gauthier-McTavish-Fabbri
Johnston-Lundestrom-Harkins

DEFENCE:

Lacombe-Gudas
Dumoulin-Zellweger
Mintyukov-Trouba

GOAL:

Dostal
Gibson

HEALTHY SCRATCHES: D Helleson, F Leason

INJURED: C Zegras (lower body)

NOTABLE QUOTABLE

Jets head coach Scott Arniel on his team moving back into top spot in the NHL overall standings:

“We’re not real concerned about our standing in the league right now. We’re worried about our Central Division. We have three or four teams that aren’t going away and it’s going to be this way right until the end of the year. We’ve just got to take care of our business.”

WHAT WE’RE WORKING ON

Ken is working on an early story on the jockeying for position on the Jets’ defence corps depth chart. You can find the story in Thursday’s paper and online at winnipegfreepress.com. He will also provide the game analysis from Wednesday’s game in southern California for the online edition.