This afternoon, on the final day in January, the Jets will play their third game of their current four game road trip. The Jets lost in Tampa Bay against the Lightning 4-1 on Thursday. It was a strong performance from Connor Hellebuyck, who made 33 saves on 36 shots, but the Lightning took a 3-1 in the 2nd period and never looked back. This afternoon, the Jets battle against the back to back current Stanley Cup Champions, who are 6-4-0 in their last 10 games and eight points out of a playoff spot. The Panthers are in the middle of a super close Eastern Conference playoff race, while the Jets are still trying to get out of the bottom five of the league standings.

The now 29th overall 21-25-7 Winnipeg Jets and 15th overall 28-22-3 Panthers will clash at Amerant Bank Arena, with these two teams looking for a win to start their weekend. We’ve now reached the end of the month with the busiest part of regular season schedule. After this afternoon, the Jets have 2 more games in February before the upcoming 3 week Olympic break.

The Jets and Panthers met once recently this regular season. The season series started nine days ago in Winnipeg, where the Panthers squeaked out a 2-1 shootout win. These two teams have been fairly very evenly matched in their recent matchups, with the Jets winning six of the last ten. With a win tonight the Jets would tie the season series 1-1 against this Atlantic Division team who is trying to claw their way back into a playoff spot.

The injury report for the Winnipeg Jets still has three names: Haydn Fleury has an upper body injury and is still listed as “week-to-week”. Neal Pionk continues to be listed as “week-to-week”, but he practiced in a non-contact jersey yesterday. Colin Miller had knee injury recently and is still considered “week-to-week”. The Panthers injury report is slowly diminishing, with just four names as opposed to seven when they last played the Jets. Jonah Gadjovich should return away the Olympic break from his upper body injury, while Seth Jones’ upper body injury will keep him on the long-term injured reserve.  Brad Marchand and Anton Lundell are both currently “day-to-day” with undisclosed injuries.

Connor – Scheifele – Vilardi

Perfetti – Toews – Iafallo

Niederreiter – Lowry – Namestnikov

Koepke – Barron – Pearson

Morrissey – DeMelo

Samberg – Salomonsson

Stanley – Schenn

Hellebuyck

Comrie

The unconfirmed starting goalie is Connor Hellebuyck, as Eric Comrie will very likely start one of the final two games before the Olympic break. After Hellebuyck’s most recent start, he now holds a 13-15-6 record with a 2.71 GAA and a .902 SV%. The Jets lineup is set to be unchanged from their last game, as is seems they’ve settled on some combinations that will be used before the Olympic break. As usual, there could be some announced lineup changes by the Jets prior to the game, so make sure to stay tuned to the Jets official X/Twitter account for any late lineup additions or changes prior to puck drop.

Verhaeghe – Rodrigues – Reinhart

Samoskevich – Bennett – Tkachuk

Luostarinen – Schwindt – Marchand* (day-t0-day)

Vilmanis – Kunin – Greer

Forsling – Ekblad

Mikkola – Balinskis

Bjornfot – Petry

Bobrobsky

Tarasov

The Panthers lineup is missing a few key players, but still features several underrated gems and some forward line shuffling from their last matchup against the Jets. Looking at the Panthers’ player stats through 53 games, Sam Reinhart continues to lead the way with 52 points. Sergei Bobrovsky is the unconfirmed starting goalie, who watched Daniil Tarasov get the win against the Jets last week. Bobrovsky continues to be a very solid starting NHL goalie alongside Tarasov, and Bobrovsky now holds a 20-15-1 record with a 3.08 GAA, 3 shutouts and a .873 SV%.

This afternoon the player to watch from each team will be a player who will be representing Team Canada at the upcoming Winter Olympics. Despite what some see as a somewhat “quieter” season, Josh Morrissey continues to be among the elite defencemen in the league. Morrissey’s continued success hasn’t been talked about enough this season, as he continues to provide a fantastic two-way play style. In 53 games, Morrissey has 10 goals and 32 assists for 42 points. The group of Jets defencemen wouldn’t be anywhere near the same without Morrissey, who continues to do what makes him so great on a nightly basis.

After a fantastic playoffs last season, Sam Reinhart is once again leading by example in this Panthers lineup full of depth. Reinhart’s career high in goals is 57 back in 2023-24, and although he may never surpass that total, he’s still on pace to have another point per game season. In 53 games this season, Reinhart has 27 goals and 25 assists for 52 points. The Jets will need to watch out for Reinhart early and often, who enjoys to showcase his goal scoring abilities in a variety of situations.

Puck drop in Sunrise, Florida is set for just after 3:00 pm CST. This afternoon’s game will be a chance for the Jets to close out the month of January with a win against this Atlantic Division opponent. Stay tuned here at Jets Nation for a recap of the action, as the Jets look to defeat the current back to back Stanley Cup Champions.