Winnipeg Jets hockey will once again be played at Canada Life Centre tonight on the night before Halloween. The 7-3-0 Winnipeg Jets return home for the first of two games after a one game road trip. Connor Hellebuyck stood tall in net, Logan Stanley had a rare multi point night, and Kyle Connor ended the game on the first shot of overtime for a 4-3 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday. Tonight’s opponent is the Chicago Blackhawks, a team that has exceeded expectations through their first 10 games of the season.

The injury report for the Jets remains the same, with no new updates as of late. Cole Perfetti is out with an ankle injury and Adam Lowry is recovering from off-season hip surgery. Dylan Samberg continues to recover from the broken wrist he injured prior to the regular season. All three players are recovering well, and it’s looking like there’s a good chance that all three of them will be back and in the lineup by the end of November.

The Blackhawks injury report is almost empty, as they’ve managed to stay healthy throughout their first 10 games. Shea Weber is listed on the Blackhawks injury report, however he’s a non-rostered player that was acquired in the off-season as a move to increase their total team salary. Ilya Mikheyev was added to the injury report last night and is listed as day-to-day. Mikheyev didn’t play on Tuesday against the Senators, and his status remains questionable for tonight’s game.

Connor – Scheifele – Vilardi

Namestnikov – Toews – Iafallo

Niederreiter – Barron – Nyquist

Koepke – Ford – Pearson

Morrissey – DeMelo

Stanley – Pionk

Fleury – Schenn

Hellebuyck

Comrie

The unconfirmed starting goalie is Connor Hellebuyck, who again had one of his best starts of the season (so far) on Tuesday, making 32 saves on 35 shots. Eric Comrie will likely get his next start (if not tonight) on Saturday or Tuesday, as the team continues to look for the right spots to give Comrie starts early in the season. There hasn’t been any updates on the line combinations as of Wednesday night, so we’ll see if the Jets continue to experiment with their 2nd, 3rd and 4th forward lines. I quite enjoyed the line combos they used last game, as every player seemed to manage their roles well, including Namestnikov who was on the 2nd line wing.

Greene – Bedard – Burakovsky

Teravainen – Nazar – Bertuzzi

Donato – Dickinson – Dach

Lafferty – Foligno

Vlasic – Rinzel

Grzelcyk – Murphy

Kaiser – Levshunov

Crevier

Knight

Soderblom

The Blackhawks, with Mikheyev injured, went with 11 forwards and 7 defencemen last game. The move worked pretty well, and Connor Bedard scored his 1st career hat trick. Shifting to the blue line, the Blackhawks have a trio of young defenceman that have shown good development this season: Alex Vlasic, Sam Rinzel and Artyom Levshunov. Looking at the Blackhawks’s stats through 10 games, their isn’t really one line that has been more productive than the others. Connor Bedard leads the team with 6 goals and 6 assists for 12 points in 10 games. Spencer Knight is the unconfirmed starting goalie. Knight has been quite amazing to start the season, posting a 4-2-1 record with a 2.11 GAA and a .930 SV% (a top 10 save percentage in the league).

This might be the 1st time I’ve ever said Logan Stanley is the Jets player to watch, but he’s been surprisingly good this season. The 27-year old is off to a terrific start to the season, scoring 2 goals and 4 assists for 6 points in 10 games. Stanley picked up 2 assists in the game against the Wild, and Jets fans are finally noticing some positive developments in his game on both ends of the ice. Stanley is temporarily (until Samberg returns) on the Jets 2nd defence pairing with Neal Pionk. The pair has gained some good chemistry thus far, and having Stanley play with Pionk (rather than a more defensive defenceman in Schenn), allows Stanley to focus on his defensive play while also helping generate some offence when Pionk sets them up in the opponent’s zone.

The Blackhawks lineup is full of young players with plenty of potential, including Frank Nazar. The 21-year old is making the most of his opportunities in the top 6 forward group in his 2nd full NHL season. The 13th overall pick from the 2022 NHL Draft is currently scoring at a point per game pace, 11 points in 10 games, good enough for 2nd on the Blackhawks behind Bedard. Nazar has a dynamic mix of skill and speed, and when he’s at his best he can make defenders look silly as he generates scoring chances at a high rate.

Puck drop is set for just after 7:00 pm CT. Jets fans will hopefully be able to celebrate a win on the last Jets game in October. Tonight’s game is poised to be a fun one, as the Jets play their 3rd straight game against a Central Division opponent. Stay tuned here at Jets Nation for a recap of the action, as the Jets look to improve to 8-3-0 on the season.