GAMEDAY: Jets at Bruins

BOSTON - The Winnipeg Jets continue a three-game road trip on Monday when they visit the Boston Bruins for the second meeting between the two clubs this season. The Jets started the road trip with a 2-1 overtime win against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday afternoon.

The Jets held an optional skate this morning at TD Garden that everyone but Brenden Dillon and Nikolaj Ehlers attended. Both Dillon and Ehlers are expected to play. Mark Scheifele (lower body) took part of the entire skate with his teammates, he will not play tonight but Rick Bowness said he took another step forward and is day-to-day. 

Gabe Vilardi and Cole Perfetti returned to the ice after missing yesterday's practice. Perfetti is expected to play and Vilardi is a game time decision. If Vilardi doesn't play expect Alex Iafallo or Ehlers to take his place on the right side of Adam Lowry and Kyle Connor.

The Jets captain is coming off playing a career high 21:46 against the Senators on Saturday afternoon.

"Yeah, that's up there but again without Mark (Scheifele) it's double duty, triple duty because now he's getting that extra power play time," said Bowness after the morning skate.

"He's always going to kill penalties, he's always going to play his regular shift and now the extra minutes are going up because of the power play. Injuries force you into these situations and you handle it the best you can."

Lowry joked about his minutes going up in the absence of the Jets leading scorer.

"I'm a 14-16 minute guy. I always joke the game is 44 minutes long and it's 0-0. It's different. Some of it's managing the minutes. You can't be as physical in certain instances, things like that. You get an opportunity to play with highly skilled guys whether it was KC and Gabe or Nikky before KC came back," said Lowry.

"Sometimes you get into that mind set where you have to defer a little too much. I found myself doing that a little too much against the Islanders. It's one of those things you don't want to slow them down. You want to get them the puck in space, create lanes and allow their creativity and their skill to take over. Hopefully we can find a couple (goals) and it can be a difference maker for us tonight."

The Jets played a solid game beating the Bruins back before the Christmas break 5-1. Bowness expects a much tougher contest at TD Garden this evening.

"When we played Boston the last time they were off a little bit. Now they're playing a lot better than they were when we played them before. So we're going to get the true Boston Bruins tonight," said Bowness.

"Again there are lulls in the schedule for everybody and you're playing that team and they're just off.  And we certainly saw a Boston Bruins team that was off the last game and we're going to see a much better team tonight. 

The schedule is challenging for the Jets ahead of the break with two games against the Leafs and tonight's battle with the top team in the east.

"Yeah, listen these are the fun games to play right? You're going head to head with one of the top teams in the league. So you're in the middle of January here, some games aren't as important as others it seems," said Bowness.

"But this certainly is a big game for both teams. So these are the games the players should enjoy. You're going head to head with the best. So it should be a hell of a hockey game and we feel good where we are."

The Bruins power play is ranked third in the NHL right now but Winnipeg's penalty kill is ready for the challenge having surrendered just one power play goal in their last eight contests.

"It's the little things to be honest. We haven't changed things philosophically, we're still killing the same way. It's just finding a way to get that extra clear, that extra blue line denial" said Morgan Barron.

"We had some bad luck for the first little bit. We're a very capable group, everyone, all the penalty killers, all of the team believe. We had a great record on the kill last year."