Time: 9:30 pm CST
Channel: TSN
Radio: CJOB680
Still a couple hours plus away from puck drop on Winnipeg’s game versus Vegas, but since the line ups are known, thought I would get the Game Day Thread up a bit earlier than normal.
The Jets injury woes have extended beyond the NHL franchise and is now impacting a couple of their young prospects. The latest update has Gabe Vilardi rehabbing his knee injury, but he isn’t up for skating yet. Recently the Manitoba Moose have revealed that the injury that caused Chaz Lucius to miss that last couple AHL games is a concussion (first of his career from what I could quickly find online) and it doesn’t sound like he’ll be ready for their games this weekend. Finally, the injury bug made it’s way to the OHL and found goalie prospect Dom DiVincentiis, who has been listed as week-to-week by the North Bay Battalion.
Moving on to Winnipeg’s upcoming match, my crystal ball tells me that special teams will be a key if the Jets wish to walk away with a couple of points. We all know that our team has struggled with anything other than 5 skaters aside, so it’s not surprising that the stats heavily favour the hometown Knights.
Special Teams:
Power Play
Vegas: 22.9% (8-for-35)
Winnipeg: 11.8% (4-for-34)
Penalty Kill
Vegas: 89.7% (26-for-29)
Winnipeg: 71.9% (23-for-32)
Tonight’s goaltending match up features the veteran Connor Hellebuyck going up against young Logan Thompson. Vegas’ goaltending has been excellent to start the year, which is clearly shown in Thompson and Hill’s save percentages (.931 & .923% respectively). Hellebuyck really struggled in his opening games, resulting in his save percentage being a lowly .898%. The good news for the Jets is that over his past three starts, Winnipeg’s starter has .927 save % so it appears his game is headed in the right direction.
Winnipeg Jets Lineup
Forwards
Connor – Scheifele – Iafallo
Perfetti – Namestnikov – Ehlers
Niederreiter – Lowry – Appleton
Barron – Kupari – Gustafsson
Defense
Morrissey – DeMelo
Dillon – Pionk
Samberg – Schmidt
Goalies
Hellebuyck
Brossoit
Injured: Gabe Vilardi
Vegas Golden Knights Lineup
Forwards
Barbashev — Eichel — Marchessault
Cotter — Stephenson — Stone
Dorofeyev — Karlsson — Amadio
Carrier — Howden — Kolesar
Defense
Martinez — Pietrangelo
McNabb — Theodore
Hutton — Pachal or Korczak
Goalies
Logan Thompson
Adin Hill
Injured: Nicolas Hague, Nicolas Roy, Zach Whitecloud
Which Winnipeg Jets will step up tonight to give the Vegas Golden Knights their first regulation loss of the 2023-24 season? Obviously Hellebuyck will need to be solid, but the Jets will need more stars if they wish to end the Knights’ hot streak. Winnipeg currently has four forwards with a shooting percentage of at least 20% with Gustafsson (28.6%), Appleton (23%), Scheifele (21.1%), and Lowry (20%). Another random Winnipeg stat was brought up in the comments section, but worth re-noting as Samberg is one of three NHLers with a significant amount of ice-time that haven’t been on for a 5 on 5 goal against. Not sure how long he can keep that up now that he is playing with Schmidt.
Let me hear whether you think the Jets will make it worthwhile staying up late on a work night to watch the whole game? Or will Winnipeg become the first team Vegas beats twice this season?
