GAMEDAY: Lightning at Jets

WINNIPEG - The Winnipeg Jets kick off 2024 with a home game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Jets are coming off an impressive weekend where they swept a home and home series with their division rival Minnesota.

Winnipeg begins the day tied for second in the Central and are two points back of first place Colorado with two games in hand on the Avalanche. The Jets have points in eight straight games (6-0-2) and that is one off the franchise record set back in December of 2005.

Connor Hellebuyck will start in goal for the Jets, and he is coming off a December to remember as he went the entire month without losing a single start in regulation. Hellebuyck went 7-0-2 with a 1.88 goals against average and .934 save percentage.

The Lightning come into tonight’s game sitting in fourth place in the Atlantic Division and are 6-4-0 in their last ten games.

“Well, they are a great team over there. Clearly when you win Stanley Cup’s back-to-back, they’re a great team,” said Rick Bowness.

“They’ve got some elite players, elite goalie, elite forwards, elite defencemen. They’re a great hockey team. We have nothing but respect for them. Obviously Coop (Jon Cooper) does a great job with them. You’ve got to be ready when you play these elite teams.

The Jets fourth line of Dominic Toninato, Morgan Barron and Axel Jonsson-Fjallby has been outstanding. The trio has scored a goal in all three games since the Christmas break and Toninato scored the game winner and stopped a potential game tying goal by the Wild by blocking a shot with the clock winding down on Sunday. Toninato is on a three-game point streak heading into tonight’s game.

HARTMAN FINED

Meanwhile, a lot of reaction coming from NHL Player Safety’s fine for Wild forward Ryan Hartman high sticking Cole Perfetti in the face during the Jets 3-2 win over Minnesota on New Years Eve. Hartman was fined 4,427.08 for the incident.

“The league stepped in and did something about that. It didn’t feel nice. It was obviously, you know, he knew what he was doing,” said Perfetti.

“Hockey happens fast and the refs, it’s tough to get that off the draw. Everything happens so quickly, I’m glad the league looked after it. I wasn’t expecting anything major like a suspension. But it’s nice to just see there is a little bit of repercussions for that.”

Perfetti received some stitches after the high stick and did return to the game.

INJURY UPDATES

Both Rasmus Kupari (upper body) and Ville Heinola (lower body) joined the morning skate with white jerseys on. Bowness said both players are getting closer to returning and Kupari is ready for contact. The problem the Jets are facing is the lack of practice time upcoming, tomorrow is a travel day and Winnipeg will play three games in four nights on the road.