JNGD.S8G1 Flight Plan: Jets Take Flight In St. Louis To Open Season

5 years ago

Welcome to the eighth season of Winnipeg Jets hockey, a season that has all the potential to be the best seen in Winnipeg hockey history. Expectations are high as many experts and “insiders” have picked the Jets to dominate this season, have a deep playoff run and some have even suggested a lifting of the Stanley Cup is in the cards for your local hockey club.

The journey to all of that starts tonight in St. Louis where the Jets will face a Blues team that just narrowly missed the playoffs last season and then made significant improvements to their scoring depth over the summer.

Winnipeg Jets (0-0-0)
@
St. Louis Blues (0-0-0)

October 4, 2018 – Puck drop: 7:00 PM CST
Enterprise Center – St. Louis, MO.
TV: TSN 3 – Radio: TSN 1290


Patrik Laine – 44	Goal Leader	Vladimir Tarasenko – 33
Blake Wheeler – 68	Assist Leader	Brayden Schenn – 42
Blake Wheeler – 91	Points Leader	Brayden Schenn – 70
23.36% (5th in NHL)	The Power Play	15.45% (30th in NHL)
81.75% (9th in NHL)	The Penalty Kill	79.65% (18th in NHL)
Connor Hellebuyck (44-11-9 / .924 Sv%)	Starting Goalie	Jake Allen (27-25-3 / .906 Sv%)

Stats are from the 2017-18 Season

Jets Notebook

The Jets finished the pre-season with a 4-3-0 record in what was a bit of a grind schedule wise that didn’t really allow the team to ice a full roster. The pre-season action did raise a few concerns with team defense – specifically allowing odd-man rushes and cross ice passes for scoring chances. The Jets will want to tighten that up as the regular season gets underway.
Eyebrows were raised as Nik Ehlers practiced on a line with Kristian Vesalainen and Jack Roslovic in what could either be the team’s third or dare we even say fourth line? One of the big things to look out for is just how coach Paul Maurice rolls the lines tonight as it sure does seem like he has four skilled lines and will need to find playing time for his bottom six forwards that includes the TLC line which has grown a reputation for being an effective shutdown unit against other teams top lines.
No significant injuries for the Jets to open the season. Nic Petan is still on bereavement leave and his return is unknown.

Blues Notebook

The Blues – like the Jets – had a 4-3-0 record in the pre-season. The forward group for the Blues looks much more improved and deeper with the additions of Ryan O’Reilly, Tyler Bozak, David Perron and Patrick Maroon.
The Blues also have an injection of youth to start the season as forwards Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou and Sammy Blais all made the club as well. Blais led the Blues in pre-season scoring with four goals.
St. Louis opted to carry nine defensemen and no reserve forwards. Robert Bortuzzo has one regular season game to serve for his elbowing suspension.
Carl Gunnarsson is on long term IR for a torn ACL as he is still recovering from that injury suffered in March and may not be back until November at the earliest. Defenseman Joel Edmundson and forward Robby Fabbri are day to day with groin issues.

Recently between both teams…

The Jets and Blues split the four games they played last season, each taking a win at home and a win on the road. For what it’s worth, the Jets would have won the season series 10-5 on aggregate goals if that was a thing that truly mattered. The Jets two wins were Connor Hellebuyck shutouts as he bumped up his career numbers against the Blues to a very respectable 4-2-0 with a .944 save percentage.

Player ratings courtesy Corsica.Hockey

Winnipeg Jets Lines

LW	C	RW	Forwards
KYLE CONNOR Rating: 76.3#23 LW	MARK SCHEIFELE Rating: 82.6#7 C	BLAKE WHEELER Rating: 81.8#5 RW	FL1 Rating Rating: 80.26#3 FL1
MATHIEU PERREAULT Rating: 74.2#55 LW	BRYAN LITTLE Rating: 72.5#87 C	PATRIK LAINE Rating: 82.6#3 RW	FL2 Rating Rating: 76.42#6 FL2
KRISTIAN VESALAINEN	JACK ROSLOVIC Rating: 71.6#117 C	NIKOLAJ EHLERS Rating: 75.7#30 RW	FL3 Rating Rating: 73.67#6 FL3
ANDREW COPP Rating: 71.2#83 LW	ADAM LOWRY Rating: 72.0#104 C	BRANDON TANEV Rating: 69.6#118 RW	FL4 Rating Rating: 70.93#12 FL4

DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS		Defense
JOSH MORRISSEY Rating: 73.3#37 LD	JACOB TROUBA Rating: 77.4#15 RD	DL1 Rating Rating: 75.34#15 DL1
BEN CHIAROT Rating: 71.9#64 LD	DUSTIN BYFUGLIEN Rating: 81.1#4 RD	DL2 Rating Rating: 76.53#5 DL2
JOE MORROW Rating: 72.3#55 LD	TYLER MYERS Rating: 76.0#24 RD	DL3 Rating Rating: 74.14#2 DL3

GOALIES
CONNOR HELLEBUYCK Rating: 74.9#17 G1	LAURENT BROSSOIT Rating: 69.3#57 G2

St. Louis Blues Lines

LW	C	RW	Forwards
PATRICK MAROON Rating: 72.8#47 LW	RYAN O’REILLY Rating: 78.8#21 C	VLADIMIR TARASENKO Rating: 83.7#2 RW	FL1 Rating Rating: 78.46#12 FL1
JADEN SCHWARTZ Rating: 78.5#12 LW	BRAYDEN SCHENN Rating: 76.9#33 C	JORDAN KYROU	FL2 Rating Rating: 77.74#2 FL2
ALEX STEEN Rating: 73.8#42 LW	TYLER BOZAK Rating: 73.7#62 C	DAVID PERRON Rating: 72.6#53 RW	FL3 Rating Rating: 73.33#8 FL3
IVAN BARBASHEV Rating: 70.7#101 LW	ROBERT THOMAS	SAMUEL BLAIS Rating: 72.1#69 RW	FL4 Rating Rating: 71.41#7 FL4

DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS		Defense
JAY BOUWMEESTER Rating: 71.7#74 LD	ALEX PIETRANGELO Rating: 80.7#7 RD	DL1 Rating Rating: 76.19#11 DL1
VINCE DUNN Rating: 73.2#41 LD	COLTON PARAYKO Rating: 76.9#16 RD	DL2 Rating Rating: 75.04#8 DL2
CHRIS BUTLER Rating: 70.1#109 LD	JORDAN SCHMALTZ Rating: 72.1#58 RD	DL3 Rating Rating: 71.13#20 DL3

GOALIES
JAKE ALLEN Rating: 70.3#50 G1	CHAD JOHNSON Rating: 68.1#64 G2

Be sure to check out our Twitter feed for any late mid-day updates to the game lineups!

Gameday Prediction

The poor start to last season is still fresh in the minds of fans and media alike, so you have to know the players as well would like to avoid that a second time around. The Blues seem to be much improved on paper but it hasn’t quite come together for them in the pre-season. The Jets get “serious” now and take the opener with a 5-3 win.

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