Jets White Out
Fansided

Winnipeg Jets look to ride the lightning against Tampa Bay

By RJ Beaulieu

TAMPA, FL - JANUARY 27: Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy (88) makes a save on a shot from Winnipeg Jets forward Blake Wheeler (26) during the GEICO NHL Save Streak competition during the NHL All-Star Skills Competition on January 27, 2018 at Amalie Arena in Tampa, FL. (Photo by Mark LoMoglio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
TAMPA, FL - JANUARY 27: Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy (88) makes a save on a shot from Winnipeg Jets forward Blake Wheeler (26) during the GEICO NHL Save Streak competition during the NHL All-Star Skills Competition on January 27, 2018 at Amalie Arena in Tampa, FL. (Photo by Mark LoMoglio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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The Winnipeg Jets will bump heads tonight with the visiting and league-leading Tampa Bay Lightning. Will they get a much-needed win to remain atop the central division? Or will they get keelhauled?

The Winnipeg Jets stand at 66 points atop the central division. That’s one win behind the west leading Las Vegas Golden Knights(68). However, it is only one point behind the Nashville Predators(65) and three behind the St. Louis Blues(63).

The Winnipeg Jets are 8-2-2 since star center Mark Scheifele went down with an upper-body injury. Despite also having injuries to Dmitry Kulikov, Adam Lowry, Steve Mason, and Shawn Matthias the Jets will have to continue to push forward to get much-needed wins. In addition, Paul Maurice added some bad news yesterday as he announced that defenseman Jacob Trouba would be out 6-8 weeks with an ankle injury.

Injuries

Tampa Bay Lightning All-Star Victor Hedman has been moonlighting during his injury time recently. But don’t expect to see him for some time yet in a Bolts uniform. Ondrej Palat is out for another month with a lower-body injury. Backup Peter Budaj will also be out with a leg injury.

Good News Everyone!

More from Jets White Out

All may be looking better for Winnipeg here soon though as lots of good news came out of the Monday afternoon team practice. Adam Lowry announced that he might be ready to play in Tampa for Tuesday night. Mark Scheifele and Dmitry Kulikov also skated earlier in the morning showing that their return is not as far away as we thought.

This will leave only Matthias and Mason as unknowns for their redeployment. Given that Mason has two concussions in as many months it would be wise to take his return extra slow. That, of course, depends on the play of the backup goaltender. Speaking of which…

Starting Goaltenders

Michael Hutchinson will be starting in net for Winnipeg per Paul Maurice. This will give Connor Hellebuyck some much-needed rest from the All-Star game. As our own Dylan Pare’ reminded us, it will also give Hutch the chance he has worked for in the minors to prove the Jets brass wrong for burying him in Manitoba.

The Lightning’s Jon Cooper is yet to tip his hand as to who will start in net for Tampa Bay. However, it will most likely be Louis Domingue as Andrei Vasilevskiy will also need some rest from his All-Star appearance and backup Peter Budaj is still out.

Three Things To Watch For

Nikita Kucherov – The leagues leading scorer further pressed his mark on the season by getting a hat-trick in the All-Star game. Just to give you an indication of how badly he can get inside players heads, take it from All-Star goaltender Mike Smith as reported by Sportsnet:

"Local favourite Nikita Kucherov followed that up by scoring a disgusting fake shot that just slid between Braden Holtby’s legs for a hat trick (the same cheeky move Kucherov pulled during a shootout on Buffalo’s Robin Lehner last year).Mike Smith was lying on floor of the Pacific dressing room trying to take a nap when he saw Kuch’s trick on TV.“He did that and I couldn’t sleep anymore. I was having nightmares,” Smith laughed. “I would’ve just skated out at him and given him a flying poke-check if he tried to embarrass me like that.”"

Kuch is on fire right now and could, therefore, send the Jets down in flames if they are not careful.

Michael Hutchinson – Per the Winnipeg Free Press, having an ax to grind is a powerful inspiration to an athlete:

"Being sent down is getting demoted. There’s no way of sugar-coating it. It sucks. I was pissed off. There’s still days when you come to the rink and you’re still pissed off that you’re down there. You can just sulk and let your game turn to crap, or you can use it as motivation and to prove the people that put you there wrong, and show that you should be up at the NHL level. So that’s what I’m trying to do, is prove people wrong."

Next: Will Eric Comrie ever become our goalie?

The Winnipeg Jets Defense – How will they fare against one of the NHL’s most dangerous offenses? Will players on the back-end like Josh Morrissey, Ben Chiarot, and Tucker Poolman be able to step up and stand tall against the thunderhead that the Lightning can bring?

Tune in to a possible foreshadowing of this years Stanley Cup Final and see.

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