GAMEDAY: Bruins at Jets

WINNIPEG - The Winnipeg Jets lost the first game of their four-game homestand 4-1 to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday evening. The Jets will now look to get back into the win column Tuesday night when the Boston Bruins visit Canada Life Centre for their first meeting of the season.

Monday the Jets recalled Nikita Chibrikov and assigned Brad Lambert to the Manitoba Moose. Chibrikov will play in his second NHL game tonight, his first game came in the Jets regular season finale against the Vancouver Canucks. That experience will help the Jets second round pick calm the nerves a little.

“It helps a lot when you make the debut. One of the first steps to become an NHL player so a little bit more confidence,” said Chibrikov.

“But it’s a new season, it’s the regular season going and it’s not the last game (of the season). So, it’s a little more pressure here. So, I’m ready for this game and try to do my best to help the team to win this game.”

Lambert played four games with the Jets and just missed out on his first NHL goal in Chicago. Chibrikov will join the second line on the right side with Vlad Namestnikov in the middle and Cole Perfetti on the left.

“We felt that both Lambo and Chibby had good training camps and if something happened to our top six that we wanted to get a look at them. With (Nikolaj) Ehlers being out this is a little bit by design,” said Scott Arniel.

“Really liked what Lambo did for us but we want to see Chibby too. On the Vladdy stuff, Vladdy’s played real well for us in that hole (second centreman), he moved over to the wind and now he’s back in the middle. Good timing for it.”

Suddenly scoring goals has become a challenge for the Jets, who still are third in the league with 103. Winnipeg has been held to one goal in five of their past nine games. Scott Arniel has said that he feels the team is making one extra pass instead of shooting the puck.

“Sometimes you don’t want to deliver pucks because there isn’t someone at the net. You want to make that one extra play because you feel like your opportunity might not be as great and you want to get it somewhere better,” said Adam Lowry.

“Sometimes to create that chaos, to create those next plays you got to force teams to collapse, you got to force teams to make reads off loose pucks and things like that. So, I think that’s something we definitely need to get back too. Be a little more direct.”

The Bruins come into town having won seven of nine games under interim head coach Joe Sacco. Boston is starting their five-game road trip in the Manitoba capital and have seen improvements in many departments, since November 19, they’ve allowed the second fewest goals in the league, their penalty kill is at 90.9% and they have been the best team in terms of giving up the fewest high danger chances.

“They’re still a structure team. Joe’s been there awhile, a long time with that group. So, they still are the Bruins,” said Arniel.

“They have a way of playing. They haven’t really changed a whole lot. They knew they had a lot of areas they had to improve, and they’ve done that.”