What’s this one gonna be like? Colorado Avalanche @ Winnipeg Jets round 1 game 2 game day

Tonight’s game will be an interesting one. The Winnipeg Jets are back in action tonight at Canada Life Centre for game 2 of their 1st round matchup against the Colorado Avalanche. Game 1 was super, and I mean super action packed, with 13 goals in a 7-6 win for the Jets. Apologies for not being able to do a game preview for game 1, I was spending the day getting ready to witness some Winnipeg Jets playoff hockey, while also checking out the other games going on in the same day. That being said, I’m ready for game 2 tonight!

The interesting part about previewing tonight’s game is that it’s really tough to predict how the game will go. Will both teams play a structured game in both ends, resulting in a low scoring game? Will it be another relatively high scoring game? Any other possibilities? There’s many questions that each team probably asked themselves after game 1, and we’ll see what adjustments are made for game 2. The Jets are looking to take a 2-0 series lead, and extend their win streak (that goes back to the regular season) to 10 games.

The Jets players seem to understand what changes they need to make heading into game 2 tonight. One of the players who spoke to the media this morning was defenceman Dylan DeMelo. In terms of what the team needed to do, compared to how the team would make adjustments during the regular season, DeMelo said

The Jets seem to feel a bit fortunate that they were able to skate away with a win last game. They did score 7 goals on 23 shots, but they were outshot 46-23 which is never ideal, especially in the playoffs. The players seem to agree that the Jets need to go back to the style of play that has been successful for them throughout the season, so they’ll look stick to their gameplan in game 2.

One thing that the Winnipeg Jets will look to keep the same from game 1 is the crowd. The Winnipeg Whiteout was out in full force in game 1, both inside and outside the arena. The energy and performance from the crowd even got some praise from Pat McAfee, who hosts his own popular show online that covers American football.

It’s safe to assume that the crowd will bring the same energy as they did in game 1, but will the lineup be the same for game 2? Morgan Barron remains out day-to-day with a lower-body injury, but apart from him the rest of the line combinations seemed to work pretty good. One line to look out for in game 2 which was held scoreless is game 1 is line 2: Nikolaj Ehlers, Sean Monahan and Tyler Toffoli.

No surprise who’s starting in goal for the Jets, it’ll be Connor Hellebuyck, following his 40 save performance in game 2. The Avalanche, however, face a bit of a goalie dilemma early in this series. Alexandar Georgiev had a pretty poor performance in game 1, but the Avalanche will be hoping he is able to bounce back in goal in game 2. Avalanche backup goalie Justus Annunen remains ill, and this morning they called up Ivan Prosvetov from the Colorado Eagles to serve as the backup to Georgiev for tonight’s game.

Game 1 was certainly a roller coaster of emotions for both the players and the fans, so it’ll be very fascinating to see how the Jets respond tonight in game 2. There’s no real telling how this game might go, you’ll just have to tune in at puck drop at 8:30 pm CT to find out for yourself!

Connor – Scheifele – Vilardi

Ehlers – Monahan – Toffoli

Niederreiter – Lowry – Appleton

Gustafsson – Namestnikov – Iaffalo

Morrissey – DeMelo

Dillon – Pionk

Stanley – Samberg

Hellebuyck

Brossoit