It’s a battle of two teams that are each in a bit of a slump as of late. One team is seemingly lost in the woods, has fans frustrated and media trying to put positive spins on management and coaching moves that seem illogical. The other team is the Winnipeg Jets.
This is their third and final meeting this season.
Winnipeg Jets (24-12-2 / 1st Central)
@
Edmonton Oilers (18-17-3 / 6th Pacific)
December 31, 2018 – Puck drop: 8:00 PM CST
Rogers Place – Edmonton, AB
TV: TSN 3 – Radio: TSN 1290
 |  |  |
vs MIN: 3-1 Loss | Last Game | vs SJS: 7-4 Loss |
2-3-0 (2 L) | Last 5 Games | 0-5-0 (5 L) |
Patrik Laine – 24 | Goal Leader | Connor McDavid – 21 |
Blake Wheeler – 44 | Assist Leader | Connor McDavid – 35 |
Scheifele / Wheeler – 49 | Points Leader | Connor McDavid – 56 |
28.57% (2nd) | The Power Play | 21.55% (12th) |
82.14% (10th) | The Penalty Kill | 76.47% (26th) |
Connor Hellebuyck (16-11-1 / .909 SV%) | Starting Goalie | Mikko Koskinen (11-6-1 / .918 SV%) |
L vs MIN (22-24/ .917 SV%) | Last Goalie Start | L vs VAN (2-6 / .333 SV%) |
11-6-0 on road | Road v Home Record | 10-8-1 at home |
Jets Player To Watch
#81 Kyle Connor – Left Wing
The Jets offense has seemingly dropped off the face of the earth over the last as they’ve only managed one goal in four of their last five games and a big part of that drop off has been due to the slump of Kyle Connor who has gone point less in his last eight games played. In fact his entire December wasn’t very good with just three goals and one assist in 14 games played. Perhaps he’s working on trying to keep the cost of his next contract low, but the Jets need him to find the play that had people suggesting that he was developing into a line driver instead of just merely a passenger.
| Scor | Scor | Scor | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Date | Tm | Opp | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | S | SHFT | TOI | HIT | BLK | ||
| 25 | @ | W | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 23 | 16:43 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 26 | @ | W | 0 | 0 | 0 | -3 | 0 | 5 | 24 | 19:38 | 1 | 0 | |||
| 27 | @ | W | 0 | 1 | 1 | -1 | 0 | 2 | 18 | 17:57 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 28 | L | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 22 | 24:03 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| 29 | W | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 19 | 17:42 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| 30 | W | 2 | 0 | 2 | -1 | 0 | 5 | 20 | 20:26 | 0 | 1 | ||||
| 31 | W | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 22 | 19:08 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| 32 | @ | W | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 0 | 5 | 23 | 19:19 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 33 | W | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 20 | 19:21 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| 34 | @ | L | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 0 | 3 | 21 | 19:17 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 35 | @ | W | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 23 | 19:39 | 0 | 2 | |||
| 36 | @ | W | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 20 | 21:09 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 37 | L | 0 | 0 | 0 | -3 | 0 | 3 | 19 | 17:13 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| 38 | L | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 2 | 25 | 21:31 | 0 | 0 |
Provided by Hockey-Reference.com: View Original Table
Last Jets Game
“Not great, Bob!”
Jets Notebook
- Tonight is the rubber match of the three game season series between the two teams. Both games were settled in 5-4 overtime wins, the Oilers winning on Oct 16 and the Jets returning the favor on December 13. The Jets have earned a point in each of the last five games against Edmonton going back to last season.
- With Dustin Byfuglien now out due to injury for the next four weeks at the very least, the Jets have called up Sami Niku on Monday morning. He won’t play tonight but could draw in the new year.
- The Jets have won seven of their last eight games on the road.
- Winnipeg has not lost three games in a row yet this season. The last time they did (in the regular season that is) was in March of 2017.
Oilers Player To Watch
#19 Mikko Koskinen – Goalie
There was a brief moment midway through this past month where a lot of Oilers fans and media felt that the 30 year old Finnish goaltender was about to take over as the Oilers number one guy in net as he had a 11-3-1 record and three shutouts along the way.
Since then he’s lost his last three games in a row with save percentages below .900 and the last game was especially bad as he gave up four goals on six shots faced against the Vancouver Canucks.
The Oilers need a lot of help pretty much everywhere outside of Connor McDavid, but if Koskinen can rebound and regain the form he had in the first part of the season, it would go a long way in help righting the ship in Edmonton.
| Goal | Goal | Goal | Goal | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Date | Tm | Opp | DEC | GA | SA | SV | SV% | ||
| 12 | W | W | 1 | 32 | 31 | .969 | ||||
| 13 | @ | L | L | 3 | 24 | 21 | .875 | |||
| 14 | W | W | 0 | 24 | 24 | 1.000 | ||||
| 15 | @ | W | W | 4 | 43 | 39 | .907 | |||
| 16 | W | W | 1 | 32 | 31 | .969 | ||||
| 17 | @ | L | L | 3 | 29 | 26 | .897 | |||
| 18 | L | L | 5 | 44 | 39 | .886 | ||||
| 19 | L | L | 4 | 6 | 2 | .333 |
Provided by Hockey-Reference.com: View Original Table
Last Oilers Game
Groundskeeper #1: [In Japanese] They’re still shitty.
Groundskeeper #2: Hai.
Groundskeeper #2: Hai.
Oilers Notebook
- Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli has been busy
rearranging chairs on the Titanictrying to help his hockey club get back on track by pulling off a couple of deals on Sunday. He did so by dealing sub-average defenseman Chris Wideman for also sub-average (but slightly younger) defenseman Alex Petrovic from the Florida Panthers. Not contend with one head scratching move, he then traded away popular grinding forward Drake Caggiula and sub-average defenseman Jason Garrison for some guy playing in the Swedish Hockey League and somewhat average defenseman Brandon Manning.
Wait… they traded for…
Goddamnit Chiarelli.
Let’s see how our friends over at OilersNation are taking this news…
Manning, who is infamously known for breaking Connor McDavid’s collarbone in his rookie year and allegedly admitted intent to do so, is not a good defenceman. He has three points in 27 games this year playing 15.5 minutes a game and his goals for/against isHe, without a doubt, is not a better defenceman than Kris Russell, Alex Petrovic, Matt Benning, or Jason Garrison, so what is the point in bringing in another bottom-tier defender?Let’s not even get started about how bad the optics are of trading for a player who seriously injured your franchise player, and best player in the world.
No matter how bad you think your hockey team has it, just be glad it isn’t the Oilers.
Even if the Oilers somehow win this game – and given how the Jets have played recently, it could happen – it still might be a loss for Oilers fans because it would just re-affirm how much of a “genius” Chiarelli is.
Be sure to check out our Twitter feed for any late mid-day updates to the game lineups!
You can also get up to the minute lineup combos for the Jets
including power play and penalty kill lines by checking out our line combo page.
You can also get up to the minute lineup combos for the Jets
including power play and penalty kill lines by checking out our line combo page.
Winnipeg Jets Lines
| LW | C | RW | Forwards |
|---|---|---|---|
 NIKOLAJ EHLERS Rating: 78.1#14 LW |  MARK SCHEIFELE Rating: 86.7#4 C |  BLAKE WHEELER Rating: 80.4#8 RW | FL1 Rating Rating: 81.74#1 FL1 |
 KYLE CONNOR Rating: 75.9#24 LW |  BRYAN LITTLE Rating: 72.7#95 C |  PATRIK LAINE Rating: 80.0#11 RW | FL2 Rating Rating: 76.19#9 FL2 |
 MATHIEU PERREAULT Rating: 73.3#74 LW |  ADAM LOWRY Rating: 74.0#60 C |  BRANDON TANEV Rating: 70.9#89 RW | FL3 Rating Rating: 72.73#10 FL3 |
 ANDREW COPP Rating: 71.9#75 LW |  JACK ROSLOVIC Rating: 69.3#173 C |  BRENDAN LEMIEUX Rating: 72.1#77 RW | FL4 Rating Rating: 71.09#7 FL4 |
| DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS | Defense | |
|---|---|---|
 JOSH MORRISSEY Rating: 74.7#28 LD |  JACOB TROUBA Rating: 76.6#24 RD | DL1 Rating Rating: 75.63#13 DL1 |
 BEN CHIAROT Rating: 70.5#107 LD |  JOE MORROW Rating: 71.3#70 RD | DL2 Rating Rating: 70.93#27 DL2 |
 DMITRY KULIKOV Rating: 69.9#118 LD |  TYLER MYERS Rating: 74.2#33 RD | DL3 Rating Rating: 72.04#12 DL3 |
| GOALIES | |
|---|---|
 CONNOR HELLEBUYCK Rating: 75.0#17 G1 |  LAURENT BROSSOIT Rating: 66.2#64 G2 |
Edmonton Oilers Lines
Forwards
Jujhar Khaira – Connor McDavid – Ty Rattie
Ryan Spooner – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Jesse Puljujarvi
Tobias Rieder – Leon Draisaitl – Kailer Yamamoto
Milan Lucic – Kyle Brodziak – Zack Kassian
Defence
Darnell Nurse – Alex Petrovic
Caleb Jones – Adam Larsson
Brandon Manning – Matt Benning
Goalies
Mikko Koskinen – Cam Talbot
