After a disappointing loss at the hands of the Oilers on Saturday, the Jets need to regroup and pick up two points against the Sabres. The wildcard race is getting extremely tight and the Jets are beginning to lose ground. They desperately need to string a few wins together to get back above the playoff line. That first win will hopefully come tonight as the Sabres are coming to town. After a rough outing last weekend against Buffalo, the Jets need to flip the game around and get the win on home ice.

Here’s what to watch for in tonight’s game.

After missing four straight games, Josh Morrissey is back and ready to rumble.

Looking at a team’s record with and without a player can often be misleading, but the Jets went 1-3 without Morrissey in the last week. Obviously the losses aren’t solely because Morrissey was hurt, but he provides a steady presence on the back end that nobody else on the team does. It will certainly be a huge help to have him back in the lineup tonight.

As for the defensive pairings, it looks like Demelo is getting a promotion to play with the healthy Morrissey.

Kulikov and Pionk have been serviceable this season and with Poolman and Beaulieu back in the lineup, this is likely the best defensive lineup that we’ve seen all year. Demelo and Morrissey’s chemistry will definitely be something to watch for in this game. Who knows, maybe this is the new top pairing for the next number of years…

When looking back to the Buffalo game last week, it played out similarly to the Oilers game on Saturday. The Sabres took the early lead before Wheeler managed to tie the game in the first period. With nobody scoring in the second period, it was anyone’s game in the third. The Jets had one little mistake that gave Okposo a quick two on one chance. He beat Hellebuyck and the Sabres held on for the victory.

That’s an oddly similar story as the Oilers scored in the first period before Winnipeg came back to take the lead. Edmonton tied it before the third period and it was once again anybody’s game to win. With roughly the same amount of time left in the game, a similar slip-up gave the Oilers all the room they needed. Harkins got caught watching the play and Nugent-Hopkins shot the puck from nearly the same spot as Okposo did a week earlier. Instead of going high glove, Nugent-Hopkins went low blocker, but both times it ended up being the winning goal.

The point of this story is that Winnipeg needs to finish out the game. There can’t be that one mistake to give the opposition a scoring chance. If tonight’s game is close, the final ten minutes will be really interesting to watch. Will Winnipeg allow another late goal? Or will they finally be the ones to put the icing on the cake?

Everybody remembers the big trade of 2015 that sent Kane and Bogosian to the Sabres. It seemed that these two clubs would forever be linked by that one deal. However, when looking at the pieces of the trade five years later, there’s only one piece that is still with the team it was traded to. That lone piece was a draft pick which turned into Jack Roslovic. Both Kane and Bogosian have now moved on from Buffalo while Armia, Lemieux, and Myers have also left Winnipeg.

With all of the players involved in the deal no longer on the respective teams, the previous link to Buffalo no longer exists. The last link as mentioned before is Roslovic, but he came in the form of a draft pick and therefore was never actually property of the Sabres. With every piece now gone it seems that everyone can finally move on from the first blockbuster deal in Jets 2.0 history.

The Jets are desperate right now. They really need a win to stay competitive in the wildcard race. With a middling Buffalo team visiting Bell MTS Place, the Jets will take care of business, although it won’t be easy. The top line will do the heavy lifting as the Jets barely win a 4-3 final.