The National Hockey League’s season begins tonight and not far behind it will be the start of the season for the Winnipeg Jets.
The Jets open their season with a four-game road trip, the first of which comes tomorrow in Boston against the Bruins. Now that the roster is set, let’s take a look at how the lines will look tomorrow, based on how Paul Maurice has been rolling them in practice this week.
Reunited for the umpteenth time will be the Jets first line of Andrew Ladd, Bryan Little, and Blake Wheeler. While not my favorite utilization of the three (I’m partial to the look with Wheeler and Mark Scheifele together), they give the Jets a steady top unit that plays in both ends of the rink.
Speaking of Scheifele, he’ll centre the second unit with Mathieu Perreault and Nikolaj Ehlers. This line was united for the last preseason game against Calgary and Ehlers performed his best in the preseason when placed on Scheifele’s line. Although that is a small sample size, you hope some chemistry has been developed as Ehlers begins his NHL career in the top six.
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The third line is another line Maurice had together for the latter half of the preseason: Adam Lowry centreing Alexandre Burmistrov and Drew Stafford. We’ll see how this line performs early on as all three have questions, most pressingly if Stafford can repeat what he did when he came over Buffalo last season and what exactly will Burmistrov do. All three of these players have top-six potential and this could be a really good third line for the Jets. It could also be the first line broken up should Maurice decide to switch things up.
The fourth line features two rookies that made the team in camp: Nic Petan and Andrew Copp. They’ll be joined by veteran Chris Thorburn. Petan has not been used in a checking role in the past but his energy and skill level is a welcoming upgrade on what’s been used in this spot in the past.
On the back end, we’ll likely see Tyler Myers with Toby Enstrom and Dustin Byfuglien with Ben Chiarot. That will leave Jacob Trouba with Mark Stuart on the final pairing.
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Winnipeg Jets forward Mark Scheifele (55) celebrates his goal with teammates on Vancouver Canucks goalie Eddie Lack (31) during the second period at MTS Centre. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Fedyck-USA TODAY Sports