JNGD.81 Flight Plan: Jets Host Flames In Penultimate Regular Season Contest
6 years ago
The Jets are back at home for the final two road games of the season as they will make a bit of a push to not only make a run at the Central Division regular season crown which is only thee points away being held by the Nashville Predators, but they are also still in the hunt for the President’s Trophy.
Calgary Flames (36-34-10)
@
Winnipeg Jets (50-20-10)
April 4, 2018 – Puck drop: 7:00 PM CST
Bell MTS Place – Winnipeg, MB.
TV: TSN3 – Radio: TSN 1290
Recently for the Jets…
Winnipeg kept rolling right along with their third win in a row Tuesday in Montreal after 22 year old Kyle Connor netted his third OT winning goal which also happened to be his 30th of the season. Also scoring in the game were youngsters Nik Ehlers (age 22), Jack Roslovic and Sami Niku (21) and Patrik Laine (19). The Jets are now 9-1-0 in their last ten games. Also interesting to note that the Jets haven’t lost a regulation game in April since 2014 and haven’t lost at all in the Month of April since 2016.
Recently for the Flames…
The Flames recently ended a seven game losing streak by squeaking out a win over the Edmonton Oilers, but on Tuesday they fell back into their bad habits in a 3-1 loss to the Arizona Coyotes. Right now to watch the Flames play, it would seem like half the team is rather uninterested in playing competitive hockey and the other half of the club doesn’t have the talent to carry the full team to victory. It’s rather telling when you’re goalie is the one willing to get into the face of Milan Lucic and have that followed up by Tanner Glass going needlessly up three weight classes to take Lucic to task. Just as bad is the Flames power play which hasn’t scored a goal in their last 12 games.
Recently between both teams…
This is the third (and of course final) meeting between the two teams with Calgary holding a bit of an edge having won the first meeting back on October 7 – that was the second game of the infamous two game start for the Jets – but the Jets coming back with a little bit of revenge with a shootout win on January 20.. That game in Janurary was the first time in the last 12 that a Jets / Flames contest had been decided by a single goal. Connor Hellebuyck has a 1-0-1 record against the Flames with a .883 save percentage.
What FlamesNation is saying…
Ari over at FlamesNation is already looking to the future:
Though it does leave me wondering: does Foo look this good now because he’s one of a few players with something to play for, and because he automatically gets first line time alongside Johnny Gaudreau? If Foo had been called up back when Klimchuk was, or Andrew Mangiapane, and played in the bottom six, would he look just about ready for the show? Is this an over-enthusiastic, premature celebration of him that could have benefited another player had he been afforded the same opportunities?I guess September will be a good time to find out. In the meantime, everything’s good with Foo; even if he’s getting all the good chances right now, he’s doing a lot with them, and that’s encouraging.
Winnipeg Jets Lines
FORWARDS
Kyle Connor – Mark Scheifele – Blake Wheeler
Nikolaj Ehlers – Paul Stastny – Patrik Laine
Mathieu Perreault – Bryan Little – Jack Roslovic
Andrew Copp – Adam Lowry – Brandon Tanev
DEFENCE
Josh Morrissey – Jacob Trouba
Tucker Poolman – Dustin Byfuglien
Ben Chiarot – Tyler Myers
GOALIES
Connor Hellebuyck – Steve Mason
Calgary Flames Lines
FORWARDS
Johnny Gaudreau – Sam Bennett – Spencer Foo
Michael Frolik – Mikael Backlund – Troy Brouwer
Micheal Ferland – Nick Shore – Curtis Lazar
Tanner Glass – Mark Jankowski – Garnet Hathaway
DEFENCE
Mark Giordano – Dougie Hamilton
Brett Kulak – Michael Stone
Matt Bartkowski – Rasmus Andersson
GOALIES
Mike Smith -Jon Gillies
Gameday prediction
Another night against a non-playoff bound team, another chance for the Jets to sharpen their game leading into the playoffs. Here is hoping the focus tonight is cutting down on sloppy defense and avoiding bad penalties. Jets win 4-2.
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