SEATTLE - The Winnipeg Jets begin a short two-game road trip tonight looking for some revenge in Seattle.
Earlier this week, Seattle beat the Jets 4-3 at Canada Life Centre, and now Winnipeg plans to flip the script at Climate Pledge Arena.
Laurent Brossoit will get the start in goal for the Jets (39-17-5). The netminder is 7-1-1 in his last nine and stopped 17 of 19 shots in his last outing, a 5-2 victory over Buffalo. In his career, Brossoit is 2-0-0 against the Kraken with a 0.962 save percentage.
In front of him, the Jets will only make one change, with Nate Schmidt drawing in on the blue line and Logan Stanley coming out.
Another Jets defenceman - Brenden Dillon - says the Jets know what to expect in the rematch with the Kraken.
"They’re fighting for their lives,” said Brenden Dillon. “They’re already playing playoff hockey. St. Louis was a similar situation where they have to pretty much sprint to the finish line. Seattle, even though they’ve traded Alexander Wennberg, they still feel they can make the playoffs and they still feel confident.”
The Kraken (28-23-11) are six points back of a wildcard spot in the Western Conference, and signed Jordan Eberle to a two-year extension on Friday morning. Two of Seattle's goals in their 4-3 win over Winnipeg on Tuesday came off the rush, an area that Mark Scheifele said is an area of focus for the Jets.
"It’s being connected with whoever you’re out with on the D-pair," said Scheifele, who recorded his 700th career point in the loss. "When you have that cohesiveness and know where guys are and have good spacing all over the ice, it makes it tough for teams to get those odd-man breaks."
Tuesday’s 4-3 setback at Canada Life Centre was one of those nights when the five-on-five stats leaned in Winnipeg’s favour. Natural Stat Trick had the high-danger chances at 8-7 in favour of the Jets, the expected goals were 2.78-1.41, and the overall shot attempt differential was 58-41.
"We have to play better than we did last game regardless of what the analytics tell you,” said head coach Rick Bowness. “We just went over that with the video today. We have to tighten up the rush, we have to pick up their D coming up on the play, just little things like that.”
Puck drop is set for 9 pm CT.
PROJECTED LINES
Connor-Scheifele-Namestnikov
Ehlers-Monahan-Iafallo
Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton
Barron-Gustafsson-Perfetti
Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Samberg-Schmidt
VILARDI UPDATE
Gabriel Vilardi, who hasn't played since an upper-body injury kept him out of the third period against Dallas back on February 29, is improving back in Winnipeg.
"He’s feeling better. He was going to push his workouts a little bit harder today," said Bowness. "We are hoping that he will be back on the ice on Monday, and then we’ll see where we are with him. But he is obviously out for the weekend, he is making improvements, and we’re hoping that he can get back on the ice as soon as possible.”
