GAMEDAY: Oilers at Jets

WINNIPEG – The Winnipeg Jets lineup will be closer to the one that we will see on opening night in Edmonton as they play their third of six preseason games against the Oilers at Canada Life Centre (7 CT).

The Jets top line of Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor and Gabe Vilardi will be together, the top two defence pairings of Josh Morrissey and Dylan DeMelo and Dylan Samberg and Neal Pionk are reunited for the first time in a game this month.

“There's a lot of teams that have seven, eight exhibition games. We've got four to go. And these guys all know now it's starting to ramp up towards our opener against Edmonton. And so, I'm expecting us to one have that familiarity, they've been practicing quite a few days now,” said head coach Scott Arniel.

“They're pretty hungry again to get in a game, and I'd like to see our execution and all those things that we're looking for, our details that we start to ramp that up.”

Here are the lines and D pairings from the morning skate at hockey for all centre:

Vilardi already has one preseason game under his belt and is excited about the chance to be with Scheifele and Connor. The trio didn’t get to play a lot together last season because of injuries to Vilardi and Connor but it will be nice to see them tonight.

“I think it’s tough when you deal with injuries. Obviously, I had a few injuries last year that kept me out,” said Vilardi.

“In terms of when I was playing, it was fine. Something to carry on and kind of push myself to bigger goals for this year.”

Yesterday, the Jets worked on their special teams for the majority of their time on the ice. Tonight, there could be a chance or two to see the top power play unit of Morrissey, Scheifele, Nikolaj Ehlers, Connor and Vilardi and to see what they have been working on so far in camp.

“More interchanging parts, more reads out there, I guess,” said Vilardi of the new power play wrinkles.

“It’ll be an adjustment for sure. But I mean we really haven’t had that many reps at it. So, hopefully I can answer that in a couple weeks maybe.”

As for DeMelo, this will be his first game of the preseason following after he signed his four-year extension in the offseason. His pay cheque may be different, but his defence partner will not be with the pairing of DeMelo and Morrissey ramping up for another campaign.

“We feel great were we’ve been the last couple of years, but I don’t think we are satisfied. I think we want to continue to push the envelope and continue to not just better our individual statistics or our play,” said DeMelo.

“But improve collectively as a D pair. We think we can continue to get better in all aspects. For us, we have obviously done a great job the last couple of years building a great relationship and being big parts of this team. I think we are excited for another year together and another year of hopefully pushing the envelope and getting better.”