GAMEDAY: Jets vs Panthers

WINNIPEG -A four-game home stand wraps up tonight for the Winnipeg Jets on Canadian Armed Forces Night, and not only will the Jets be trying to earn a victory for themselves and the military members in attendance, they'll also be trying to do so against a familiar face.
Paul Maurice, who coached the Jets from January 2014 until December 2021, will be behind the bench for tonight's opponent - the Florida Panthers.
"He invested a lot into this organization and the amount of time he spent helping us build and get to a point where we can be competitive and have a chance to win," said Jets forward Blake Wheeler. "It's a good opportunity for us against a really good team tonight. And obviously having Paul back there, it'll be a good reception for him tonight for everything he's done for the organization as well."

A win tonight would give the Jets (15-7-1) three wins on the home stand with the only setback coming against Columbus last Friday. However, even though Winnipeg came out on top of a 5-2 score against Anaheim on Sunday, they had to pull themselves out of a 2-0 hole in order to do so.
"A couple games that weren't up to our standard," is how Wheeler characterized the last two outings. "We were fortunate to turn it around in the second period last game and get a win, but we expect more out of ourselves, so hopefully we can get off to a good start tonight and have a good night tonight."

Wheeler, who has 10 points over a five-game point streak, believes the key to getting off to a strong start tonight is about the Jets playing to their identity.
Head coach Rick Bowness will trust the same players as in Sunday's win to do just that, as he won't make any line-up changes - including in goal, where Connor Hellebuyck will get his 19th start of the season, and play in his 400th career game tonight.
The lines are expected to look like this:
Perfetti-Scheifele-Wheeler
Connor-Dubois-Eyssimont
Barron-Lowry-Maenalanen
Jonsson-Fjallby-Gustafsson-Gagner
Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Samberg-Schmidt
Bowness put the 26-year-old Eyssimont with Pierre-Luc Dubois and Kyle Connor partway through the win over the Ducks on Sunday, and feels the young forward has earned the opportunity to start there against Florida.
He feels Eyssimont brings energy every shift he plays.

"If you really watch him, you'd notice something he does pretty much every shift," said Bowness. "That's what we need him to do. Listen, he can make mistakes because he's working so hard, that's going to happen. We'll live with that and we'll make those better."
The Panthers (12-9-4) come into Winnipeg at the end of a five-game road trip. That trip started with two losses (in overtime in Edmonton and in regulation against Calgary) before two consecutive 5-1 victories over the Vancouver Canucks and Seattle Kraken.
"Paul has got them in more of a 1-1-3 in the neutral zone, much like they did here (in Winnipeg) last year," said Bowness. "With the puck, it's an offensive-minded team that gets the puck and goes. Their D, they're not always looking to make plays and the wingers aren't looking for it. They're just going.
"They're going to flip it out, they're going to get into some foot races and they hope they get in behind your D because they're very dangerous."
The changes in personnel are also something that caught the eye of Mark Scheifele in the off-season.
"The (Jonathan) Huberdeau, (MacKenzie) Weager for (Matthew) Tkachuk trade was substantial over the summer," said Scheifele. "You put stock in that. They've had a good little run on this road trip and we have to be prepared for a team that's feeling good and we have to get off to a good start and stick to that all night.

Offensively the Panthers are led by Tkachuk, who has 34 points this season, 12 more than his next closest teammate in Carter Verhaeghe. As a team, Florida leads the league in average shots on goal per-game at 38.6 - three more than the next closest team (New Jersey).
"I don't get beat up with that, the volume," said Bowness. "The analytics will tell you that we've cut down drastically the number of Grade As in front of our (net) and that was the focal point going into training camp. We're going to continue with that."
And they'll also continue keeping the focus on what they can control. On a night when there is sure to be a tribute video to Maurice, memories are sure to come back to the players.
But they know for 60 minutes, and possibly even longer, they'll need to stay locked in on the task at hand.
"If you start letting all of that noise distract you, it affects the way you play," said Bowness. "We've talked enough about that. I just keep the focus on us and what we have to do to be successful tonight, we don't bring in all of the other noise."
Puck drop is set for 7 pm CT.
-- Mitchell Clinton, WinnipegJets.com
Game Notes
The Winnipeg Jets finish off a four-game home stand on Tuesday night when the Florida Panthers come to Canada Life Centre for the only time this season.
The Jets are sixth in the NHL with a 0.674 points percentage, which also ranks first in the Central Division and third in the Western Conference.
Josh Morrissey is fourth in the NHL among defenceman with 26 points (5G, 21A) in 23 games, which also leads the Jets in scoring. Morrissey's 21 assists rank tied for third among NHL defencemen.
Winnipeg's 23 games play this season is tied for third fewest in the NHL this season and five less than the NHL-leading San Jose Sharks with 28, but that will change in December. Winnipeg plays 15 games in 30 days from Dec. 2-31, a stretch that includes three back-to-backs.
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