The Winnipeg Jets are looking to get back in the win column on Sunday afternoon against the Dallas Stars. After a 15-1-0 historic start to the season, the Jets have cooled off over the last 8 games, going 3-5-0. A tough schedule, both in terms of travel and teams, may be playing a factor, but overall the team just hasn’t played the same level of hockey shown at the beginning of the season.

This afternoon is the 6th and final game of this long Jets road trip, against another tough opponent in the Stars.  The Jets remain at the top of the NHL standings at 18-6-0 to begin December, but they have 4 or 5 teams within reach of that top spot. The Stars sit 3rd in the Central division, currently holding a solid 14-8-0 record. The Winnipeg Jets have a 4-4-2 record overall in the past 10 games against the Stars, with most of these games being close contests that are decided by a goal or two.

A few injuries have affected the Jets over this road trip, but this morning head coach Scott Arniel told the media some good news regarding Nikolaj Ehlers. Arniel said that it “might not be as bad as initially thought” when it comes to Ehlers, and he’ll take warmup and will likely play this afternoon. In other lineup news, it appears that the Jets will still be without Ville Heinola and Colin Miller. Logan Stanley and Dylan Coghlan will remain in the lineup this afternoon, and Haydn Fleury will be tasked with staying on the 2nd pairing with Neal Pionk.

The Stars are rostering a fairly healthy lineup, but will be without young forward Logan Stankoven, who’s dealing with a lower-body injury. Special teams will continue to be a key factor in this game, as the Stars rank 21st in PP and 6th in PK. The Jets no longer hold 1st overall in PP, falling to 2nd at 32.4%. As for the penalty kill, the Jets continue to remain in the middle of the league, sitting 19th at 78.3%. The Stars are 9-2-0 at home this season, so the Jets will need their special teams to be efficient on both ends of the ice if they want to try to succeed at American Airlines Arena.

After going with Eric Comrie last game, Connor Hellebuyck will be back in goal this afternoon. Jake Oettinger will be in goal for the Stars, who was pulled in the last matchup against the Jets after allowing 4 goals on 15 shots. It should be another great battle between two of the best American goalies in the league, as final decisions are close to being announced for February’s 4 Nations face-off tournament.

Overall, I expect this game to be a low scoring, battle tested contest on this Sunday afternoon. The Jets need to continue to try to find ways of generating more shots on goal, and they’ll need to start finding some depth scoring if they want to start getting back in the win column. The projected lineup isn’t what it was at the start of the season, but it should still be a winning roster if the Jets get back to the style of play that was winning them almost every game in October. Puck drop is at 3:30 pm CT, and make sure to check back here at Jets Nation for a post game instant reaction / recap to this afternoon’s action.

Connor – Scheifele – Vilardi

Perfetti – Namestnikov – Ehlers

Niederreiter – Lowry – Appleton

Barron – Kupari – Iafallo

Morrissey – DeMelo

Fleury – Pionk

Stanley – Coghlan

Hellebuyck

Comrie