GAMEDAY: Avalanche at Jets

WINNIPEG -The Winnipeg Jets kick off a four game homestand against the Colorado Avalanche tonight at 6 pm CT.

The Jets sit in third place in the Central Division two points behind the Avalanche and one behind the Dallas Stars who won their game on Friday night 5-4 over the Ottawa Senators.

Winnipeg beat the Avalanche 4-2 last week in Denver and do hold a game in hand on Colorado who has claimed the Central title the last two seasons. The Jets liked their effort in Denver but know they need to improve in a couple areas to be successful tonight.

"We gave Nathan MacKinnon a little too much room out there. He was obviously a big factor in that game, he is in every game. But I think we can do a better job of getting on him early, slowing him up a little bit. Because once he gets a step on you, he's gone. So I think that's something we can do better," said Jets head coach Rick Bowness.

"I think we were a little too passive sometimes in the neutral zone, which, again allowed them to come at us with speed with their defence jumping up. So there's a couple of things we know that we have to do better tonight that we didn't do in Denver. Now did we play a good game? We won the game obviously but we're not going into this game thinking just duplicate what we did there. No, we have to make some improvements."

Nine Niederreiter and his linemates Adam Lowry and Mason Appleton will likely draw the assignment of shutting down the MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Valeri Nichuskin line. Like his coach, Niederreiter 

"It's definitely going to be a tough game. They dont want to lose against us and we dont want to lose against them," said Niederreiter.

"It's going to be a tight match. We expect the best out of Colorado, we know how good they can be."

PROJECTED LINEUP

There will be no lineup changes tonight and that means Connor Hellebuyck will get another shot between the pipes have allowed two goals or fewer in his last nine starts including the win in Denver.

As for the Avalanche, they did not have Nichuskin the last time these two teams met. Bowness touched on what his presence will mean for the Central leaders.

"Size,strength, his battle when he gets around the net and he's fast. A lot faster than you realize, a big, strong guy that hangs onto pucks," said Bowness.

"And he gets control of it in the o-zone, he's tough to handle because of the size and the strength and again he's really strong on his feet, he's tough to knock off the puck. And he's really dangerous around the net. So he gives that line or whatever, the power play a totally different look."

The Jets are 2-1-1 in their past four games against Colorado at Canada Life Centre. Winnipeg has scored four goals or more in three of the four games.