GAMEDAY: Jets vs Blues

WINNIPEG -As the Winnipeg Jets try to get back into the win column tonight, their opponent - the St. Louis Blues - might be exactly the team they need to face.
Not because it's an easy two points - definitely not - in fact, no one has been able to beat St. Louis so far this season.
So why the Blues?
Well, it seems they're the team the Jets match up well against. Last year, Winnipeg was 3-0-1 against St. Louis.
"Those were, I felt, our better games against teams like this because we knew the challenge ahead of us, we accepted that," said defenceman Dylan DeMelo. "We knew it was going to be a tough game and we played to that style. We're going to have to do that again tonight and we're going to have to do that a lot more going forward."

In the three wins the Blues have this season, they've only given up five goals, and that includes a 2-0 shutout victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday.
That same night, the Jets dropped a 4-1 score to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The focus tonight, in DeMelo's mind, is to be more physical - but not necessarily in the way it's traditionally thought of.
"There is a physicality to being inside, winning battles, and being strong net front at both ends of the ice. You don't have to run somebody over to be physical in this league," said DeMelo. "That's something that in the last couple games we can do a better job, at both ends of the ice, is not giving up easy goals and try to get some dirty ones."
The Jets won't make any changes to their line-up tonight from Saturday, outside of sticking with the same line combinations they finished the night with after head coach Rick Bowness made a shuffle on this third and fourth lines.

The projected line-up, with Connor Hellebuyck getting the start in goal, looks like this:
Connor-Scheifele-Appleton
Perfetti-Dubois-Wheeler
Barron-Lowry-Gagner
Maenalanen-Gustafsson-Jonsson-Fjallby
Morrissey-Pionk
Dillon-Schmidt
Stanley-DeMelo
Special teams is also an area of focus for the Jets tonight.
Sunday's off day meant no formal practice on the power play and penalty kill units, but they did work some reps into the end of morning skate on Monday.
Winnipeg's power play currently sits 23rd in the NHL at just over 14 percent, while the penalty kill is 26th.
"I think we can be a little quicker in certain scenarios," said Connor. "Skating, getting into holes, getting open for another guy, not letting it get stagnant on either wall or up top. Once you slow it down on the penalty kill, it's easier to adjust."
St. Louis made good on their lone power play opportunity against Edmonton on Saturday and made sure that goal, scored by defenceman Torey Krug five minutes into the first, held up as the eventual game-winner.
DeMelo knows that penalty kill units across the league have a tough assignment every night in the NHL, with all the skill and speed that teams roll out on a nightly basis.

That's no different against St. Louis, whose power play ranks eighth in the NHL at this early point of the season.
Still, DeMelo feels there are certain details the Jets can clean up in their own end of the rink to give themselves the best chance to be successful tonight.
"We can do a better job of getting in lanes, deterring shots, bearing down on some clears. Those things we can control," he said. "It's a work in progress at this point. We've done some good things, maybe didn't get the result on some of the goals against. We've got some new personnel that's coming in and PK-ing.
"We've done some good things but I definitely think there is a lot of work we need to do with it."
Paying attention to those details on special teams tends to translate into the team's five-on-five play, and head coach Rick Bowness feels that can lead to success in front of the opposition's net - a spot he feels the Jets haven't got to with enough regularity this season.
"We need more of that. We're getting good looks," Bowness said. "We had some great looks off the rush, but man, it's a tough league to score in, especially against these guys (the Blues), who have given up five goals in three games. We've just got to get greasy goals. We'll get them."
ICE CHIPS
Dylan Samberg skated in a non-contact jersey in the morning skate.
The defenceman was injured in the win over the Colorado Avalanche on October 19, but finished the game and ended with 15:35 of ice time.
Bowness expects the defenceman to be available to play at some point of the three-game road trip, which begins Thursday in Los Angeles.
-- Mitchell Clinton, WinnipegJets.com
Game Notes
Winnipeg's five-game home winning streak dating back to last season ended with Saturday's loss.
The Jets are 1-1-0 against their Central Division counterparts this season. The of Winnipeg's first 21 games this season are against Central Division teams. Winnipeg went 14-6-6 against divisional opponents last season, and have a winning record in each of the past five seasons they've been in the Central.
The Jets are 2-for-14 on the power play to start the season, but are 0-for-4 in their past two contests. The Jets finished 17th in the NHL with a power play that clicked at 21.1 percent last season.
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