The Winnipeg Jets will face off against the New York Islanders. The Isles are currently hanging on to the final Eastern Conference wild card spot. The Jets are sitting at second in the Central Division, only one point behind Nashville.
Starting goalies
Once again we should expect to see Connor Hellebuyck in the crease. With a win against Edmonton on Wednesday, he improved his record to 19-4-5. I expect another solid performance out of him tonight, and I think it’s a game where he’s capable of putting up a shutout.
Jaroslav Halak will likely be in net tonight. Halak is 11-8-2. He has a 2.96 GAA, and a save percentage of .908. Halak has yet to have a shutout this season.
Injuries
Tonight will be the first game without Mark Scheifele in the Winnipeg Jets lineup, as he’s out for 6-8 weeks. It’ll obviously be hard without him, but as long as other guys step up we should be fine. We also still have Tobias Enstrom and Dustin Byfuglien out until sometime in January. We are now without three of our key players, and we must pray that the trend doesn’t continue.
The Islanders will also be short of three key players tonight. Johnny Boychuk, Calvin De Haan, and Nikolay Kulemin wont be out on the ice tonight.
Shawn Matthias
Tonight we will have Shawn Matthias in the lineup due to the absence of Scheifele. He will be on the fourth line, Perreault will move up, and Wheeler will be on the top line as a center. This could be a “last chance” game here for Matthias in Winnipeg. If he struggles yet again, don’t be surprised to see a young guy come up from the AHL to take his spot in the lineup.
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Predictions to wrap it all up
I think tonight the Jets will for sure be able to take a win tonight. The Islanders are battered up, which is really going to work against them. Sure, we’ve got injured players, but we are such a deep team that we can handle it.
Now we will see if the Jets can bring it without major pieces on our team playing tonight.