GAME DAY: Preseason Game 4 - Jets vs Oilers

WINNIPEG -Skyler McKenzie could barely contain his excitement this morning.
The 20-year-old forward will play in his first NHL preseason game tonight, as the Winnipeg Jets host the Edmonton Oilers at Bell MTS Place.
"I'm super excited for tonight," said McKenzie, who feels a lot more confident in this year's camp than one year ago.
"(I have) a little bit more maturity coming into camp. Just trying to pride myself on the habits and details, and just trying to make a spot for myself on either the Jets or the Moose this year."

McKenzie was Winnipeg's seventh-round pick in the 2017 NHL Draft, and played three games with the Manitoba Moose during the AHL playoffs last season.

He scored his first professional goal during that three-game stretch, and that came after a WHL season in Portland where the Sherwood Park, Alberta native recorded a career-high 87 points in 72 games.
The offensive part of his game has always been there, but he's been working to round out his game. That work paid off when he signed his three-year entry-level contract with the Jets on July 3, 2018.
"It's grown tremendously," McKenzie said of his defensive game. "It's come a long way in the all-round aspect of the game. I'm just trying to keep on working on it every day."
Based on this morning's skate at Bell MTS Iceplex, McKenzie's line mates will be Dennis Everberg and C.J. Suess. The other lines looked like this, although Kyle Connor may not play tonight after taking a puck up high during a power play drill. Although Connor skated off under his own power, head coach Paul Maurice said the forward is fine, but may be held out for precautionary reasons.
Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler
Perreault-Little-Laine
Harkins-Reichel-Appleton
Everberg-Suess-McKenzie
Myers-Byfuglien
Morrow-Poolman
Schilling-Kulikov

Mathieu Perreault finished Friday's 4-3 overtime win over the Calgary Flames on the left wing with Bryan Little and Patrik Laine, and is looking forward to starting tonight's game against Edmonton in that spot.
"That's what training camp is for, trying different combinations," said Perreault, who is often the player Maurice moves around the lineup.
"I like that role," he said. "Tonight I'm playing the left wing, I played the right wing the first game I played. We're talking maybe centre eventually. Anywhere he wants me to be, I'll just get in there and give it all I have."
In Maurice's mind, experimenting with a number of combinations - both up front and on the blue line - is critical. Anything can happen over the course of an 82-game season, and he wants to be as prepared as possible.
"There are eight guys that I'm looking for different kinds of combinations. So when you do get into that stretch of the season, whether it's an injury, or you're trying to spark something, or you're trying to make a little line-up change to get a jump, that you have an idea of where to go," said Maurice. "You always go out with your line-up ready any given night. But I would say just about every night we hit the bench, we've got another line-up. A place that we're going to go if we don't like what we're seeing."

As a part of that experimentation, a number of forwards and defencemen have been playing on their off sides.
Maurice said a number of conversations take place with veteran players before he moves them from the left to the right, or vice versa, but Dmitry Kulikov - who coincidentally is a left-shot and playing on the right side tonight - doesn't mind.
"I think depth is a big key to any successful organization. You can never predict injuries or you can never predict whatever happens during the season," said Kulikov. "So you need that depth, players that can step in and fill holes and still be successful as a team. I think we have that. It's going to be a big key for us moving forward."
Puck drop is set for 7 pm CT at Bell MTS Place.
GAME NOTES
The Winnipeg Jets entertain the Edmonton Oilers tonight at Bell MTS Place in Winnipeg's fourth pre-season game of 2018 and third home pre-season game...The Jets edged the Calgary Flames 4-3 in overtime on Friday night to improve to 2-1-0 in the pre-season...Winnipeg fell 7-3 to the Oilers in Edmonton on Thursday night in the first meeting between the two sides in the pre-season...The Jets are back in action Monday night when they travel to Calgary to face the Flames.
The Buff Effect
Dustin Byfuglien, who is slated to play in his third pre-season game tonight, was named the game's first star in Friday's win after tallying a pair of goals, including the overtime winner...He didn't have a multiple goal game last season and tallied only one game-winning goal.
VIEW THE FULL GAME NOTES
Unlikely Leader
Defenceman Joe Morrow leads the Jets in scoring in the pre-season with three points (1G, 2A) in two games...He scored the game-winning goal in Winnipeg's 2-1 win over the Minnesota Wild on Monday and tallied two assists in Winnipeg's 7-3 loss to the Oilers on Friday...Morrow had 16 points (6G, 10A) in 56 games with the Jets and Montreal Canadiens last season, all of which were career highs.
Second Helping
The Jets top line of Blake Wheeler, Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor are scheduled to play for the second consecutive game...The trio combined for 77 goals and 208 points last season...Wheeler averaged more than a point per game with 91 points (23G, 68A) in 81 games, while Scheifele had exactly a point per game with 60 points (23G, 37A) in 60 games...Connor led all NHL rookies with 31 goals.
Orange Crushed
The Jets went a perfect 3-0 against the Oilers last season, including a pair of victories in Edmonton...The Jets outscored the Oilers 14-5 in the three games...Nikolaj Ehlers (3G, 2A) and Blake Wheeler (1G, 4A) paced the Jets against the Oilers last season with five points in three games...Ehlers had a hat trick in Winnipeg's first win of the season on Oct. 9 in Edmonton...Mark Scheifele also had four points (1G, 3A) in two games against Edmonton last season...The Jets are 8-5-0 in their last 13 regular season games against the Oilers...Since the franchise relocated to Winnipeg in 2011, Wheeler leads the Jets in scoring against Edmonton with 14 points (2G, 14A) in 16 games.
Road Start
For the first time since 2015, the Jets start the regular season on the road, as they begin the 2018-19 campaign at Enterprise Center in St. Louis against the Blues on Oct. 4 and follow up with their second game in Dallas against the Stars on Oct. 6...However, Winnipeg plays the bulk of their October schedule at Bell MTS Place, as the team has seven of their first 10 games at home...The Jets have a season-high six-game homestand from Oct. 14-24.
Pre-Season Sked
The Jets are in the midst of six games in eight days, including three back-to-back sets ...Winnipeg plays their usual pre-season counterparts twice each - Minnesota, Calgary, and Edmonton - and host the New Jersey Devils on Thursday in their lone pre-season game against an Eastern Conference opponent.