In Tuesday's 6-4 win over Nasvhille, head coach Paul Maurice flipped Nikolaj Ehlers and Kyle Connor in the top two left wing spots, and leaves that as a possibility to start tonight's game against a Bruins team that has points in eight of their last ten games.
"One of the things that's happened with Kyle Connor is his first game when we brought him back up was against Minnesota," said head coach Paul Maurice. "He played with (Bryan Little) and (Patrik Laine) and they really had a hard time moving the puck. But he's a completely different player in my mind now.
"(Kyle)'s got a different kind of speed than Nik. Nik, so much of his speed is with the puck and it's more dynamic. Kyle is more straight line. What he does well now is he gets in and gets on it.
"If we leave it here tonight, that's what we're looking for. For that kind of maturity in his game, just play the game that he's capable of playing."
GAME DAY: Jets look for third straight win tonight at Boston
6:00pm CT - TV: TSN3; Radio: TSN 1290
The Bruins (17-10-5) may have to do some line shuffling of their own tonight, as Brad Marchand, Riley Nash, and Ryan Spooner are listed as game time decisions due to illness.
Boston is already without 31-year-old centre David Krejci, who will miss his third straight game with an upper-body injury tonight.
Despite that, Maurice knows the Atlantic Division's third place team will be a test tonight.
"There's things the Boston Bruins have done for the past 20 years, and that's still there," said Maurice. "But their game has changed, as a lot of teams have, with the young players coming in. Dynamic, real quick transition team, lots of short passes, lots of good support."
The Jets have gone 5-4-4 against the Eastern Conference this season, but only one of those wins came against the Atlantic Division.
"On the last road trip out East, we struggled a bit," said Mathieu Perreault.
"It's a little bit of a different style. I guess we're not used to seeing them much. Sometimes their systems stuff we're not used to, or different things like that. We won't focus on that too much. If we focus on our game plan and our work ethic, we should be OK."
Tuukka Rask was the first goaltender off the ice for the Bruins, while Connor Hellebuyck will get his third straight start, after making 29 saves in the win over the Predators.
"We looked at splitting these last two games with our goaltenders, but just felt he was right, feeling good," said Maurice. "Off a non-skate day for us yesterday, he was in the best position to play his game."
Puck drop is set for 6 pm CT.
- Mitchell Clinton, WinnipegJets.com
JETS GAME NOTES
Tonight's Game
The Winnipeg Jets finish their pre-Christmas schedule with a three-game road trip this week, which continues tonight against the Boston Bruins...The Jets defeated the Nashville Predators 6-4 Tuesday night to begin the trip on a winning note...After tonight's game, the Jets play the New York Islanders on Saturday before the three-day Christmas break.
Jets vs. Bruins Notes
- The Jets have lost three in a row to the Bruins, including both of their games last season by a 4-1 score.
- Winnipeg has been outscored 14-4 in the three games.
- The Jets have won just one game at the TD Garden since the franchise moved to Winnipeg for the 2011-12 season - Oct. 8/15 6-2 - and are 1-10-3 as a franchise in their last 14 games in Boston.
- Of the 30 meetings between these two franchises in Boston, 14 have been decided by one goal, while two were ties.
That's Offensive
Tuesday's win marked the 18th time this season the Jets scored four goals or more in a game, which is tied for the most in the NHL...The Jets are 16-1-1 when scoring four or more goals in a game this season...Winnipeg is tied for the NHL lead in December with 36 goals...On the season, the Jets are third in the NHL with 117 goals in 35 games.
Facing the East
The Jets face an Eastern Conference opponent in their last two games before the Christmas break...The Jets are 5-4-4 against the Eastern Conference this season, but are 1-3-2 against the Atlantic Division...Winnipeg's lone win over an Atlantic Division team was a 5-0 shutout of the Ottawa Senators on Dec. 3...Blake Wheeler leads the Jets with nine points (3G, 6A) in six games against Atlantic Division teams.
Three Would Be Nice
A win tonight would give the Jets their third winning streak of the season of three games or more, which would match the number of three-game winning streaks they had last season...Since the start of the 2015-16 season, the Jets have had only six winning streaks of three games or more.
Road Win
Tuesday's win ended a six-game winless streak (0-4-2) on the road for the Jets...Winnipeg's previous win on the road came Nov. 24 at ANA 4-1...The Jets went 7-3-2 in their first 12 road games of the season before the six-game winless streak.
Middling December
After posting the second-best record in the NHL in November with a 9-3-2 mark, the Jets have a 5-4-1 record in December, which is tied for 10th in the NHL...The Jets have won back-to-back games for the first time since winning their first two games of December - Dec. 1 vs. VGK 7-4 W and Dec. 3 vs. OTT 5-0 W...During the past three seasons, the Jets have hovered around .500 in December with a combined record of 17-17-2 since 2015...Winnipeg's best record in December was 10-3-1 during the 2011-12 season, which won't be bested this season.
December Goals
Propelled by seven points in his first two games in December, Blake Wheeler is third in NHL scoring in December with 13 points (3G, 10A) in 10 games, while Patrik Laine is tied for ninth with 11 points (6G, 5A) in nine games...After a two-goal performance against Nashville, Nikolaj Ehlers is tied for second in the NHL in December with seven goals in 10 games.
Goal Scoring Duo
Patrik Laine and Nikolaj Ehlers share the team lead in goals with 17, which is tied for sixth in the NHL...With two goals against the Predators, Ehlers tallied his team-leading third multi-goal game of the season, while Laine scored for the second straight game...When Laine has scored in back-to-back games this season, he's gone on to post four- and five-game goal scoring streaks.
Multi-Point Nights
Five members of the Jets posted multi-point games on Tuesday against Nashville, led by Tyler Myers' three-assist game...It was the fourth three-assist game of Myers' career and first as a member of the Winnipeg Jets...Blake Wheeler had a goal and an assist for his team-leading 11th multi-point game of the season.
Jets vs. Bruins All-Time Records
Overall: 22-29-8
At Bell MTS Place: 5-3-0
At TD Garden: 7-15-7