Jets preseason game #4

Winnipeg Jets (0-2-1)
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Edmonton Oilers (4-0-0)

WINNIPEG JETS LINES & NOTES

• The Jets lost a tight 1-0 game to Minnesota on Thursday night and saw their preseason record (which again doesn’t mean anything, except it means everything) to 0-2-1. They spent Friday working with former official Paul Devorski about penalties and how not to take so many. They probably could have just gone to Twitter to ask fans for advice, but bringing in Devorski was probably a wiser choice.
• Tucker Poolman continues to impress this preseason and there is talk in a few different circles that he is closing in on an opening night roster spot. It’s important to note that hes coming off double shoulder surgery this past summer and you wouldn’t be able to tell with how he’s played thus far. Another solid performance – especially in a game where he shares ice with Chiarot and Kulikov – two players he will need to leapfrog over on the depth chart – could give Paul Maurice a very tough decision going into the last week of preseason games.
• The two men who should be your Manitoba Moose goaltending tandem will be the two dressed for the Jets tonight. Hutchinson is expected to start and depending on how things go may see two periods of action and then Comrie may come in at the start of the third.
• While the defense has some steady, NHL worthy talent, the forward group is mostly comprised of AHL-bound players and guys fighting for a spot in the “bottom six”

EDMONTON OILERS LINES & NOTES

• The Oilers are 4 and 0 in the preseason and Connor McDavid has only played in one of those games. Again, you can question the importance of wins and losses in preseason, but that’s impressive.
• Much like Tucker Poolman for the Jets, Kailer Yamamoto is turning a lot of heads in Oil Country. The Oilers first round pick from this past summer’s entry draft was realistically only supposed to play the first few games and then be returned to his junior team in Spokane to play out the season, but with four goals in this preseason – two of them scored last night in a win over the Vancouver Canucks – it’s getting harder to see the Oilers justify sending him back down to junior. He’ll at least likely make the team for opening night and get his standard ten games played before the Oilers pull the trigger on what they want to do.