NIKU PLAYING FOR FIRST TIME SINCE JANUARY
Tucker Poolman won't play tonight so that means Sami Niku will come into the lineup for his first game since January 19th. Niku will play on his natural left side with Dylan DeMelo on the Jets third defence pairing, Nathan Beaulieu will play with Josh Morrissey and Neil Pionk teams up with his usual partner Derek Forbort. Niku is averaging 12:26 of ice time in his three games this season.
"He's a puck moving defenceman and that's going to be critical here tonight against Montreal," said Paul Maurice.
"A very quick forechecking (team), really good sticks. So having a guy who can make those five or 10 foot passes inside to relieve the pressure is going to be really important for us."
TOUGH TREND AGAINST HABS
The Jets have gone 0-3-1 in their last four games at Bell MTS Place against Montreal, a team who has traditionally given Winnipeg a tough time here in Manitoba or in Quebec.
"I'm still going off two games from last year and it seems like we've had some tough nights against this team," said Maurice.
"It's usually a high volume, high chance game going both ways. I think our style has changed. I like our offensive style change."
SHOOTERS MENTALITY
One of the reasons Maurice is happy with the Jets offensive style change is the entire team is starting to get that shooters mentality. It's helped them generate more offence in tight and forced them to step away from generating their offence from the perimeter.
"What we would like to do is drive the speed of the game through the neutral zone," said Maurice.
"We're a bit more direct with our offensive game. We're getting more tipped goals, more action around the net."
FIRST GAME FOR HABS NEW COACH
The news came down yesterday that Claude Julien and assistant Kirk Muller were relieved of their duties and Dominique Ducharme would take over as the interim head coach. Montreal also named Alex Burrows as an assistant coach, the former Manitoba Moose forward will step behind an NHL bench for the first time in his career.
