User Rating: / 0
PoorBest 

Friday, 23 December 2011 13:15

Written by Seth Rorabaugh

A preview of the Jets.

When and where: 8:30 p.m. EST; MTS Centre.

TV: Root Sports; TSN-Jets.

Record: 16-13-5, 37 points. The Jets are in ninth place in the Eastern Conference and second place in the Southeast Division.

Leading Scorer: Evander Kane 25 points (15 goals, 10 assists).

Last Game: 4-0 home win against the Canadiens, last night. Ondrej Pavelec made 27 saves for the Jets.

Last Game against the Penguins: 2-1 home win, Oct. 17. Marc-Andre Fleury made 32 saves for the Penguins.

Thrashers Jets Player We Would Bet Money On Scoring: Alexander Burmistrov (above). In five career games against the Penguins, he has five assists.

Ex-Penguins on the Jets: Chris Thorburn, RW.

Ex-Thrashers/Jets on the Penguins: Jason Botterill, assistant general manager; Pascal Dupuis, RW; Chris Kunitz, LW; Todd Reirden, assistant general manager.

Useless Thrashers/Jets Trivia Vaguely Related to the Penguins: Former Penguins forward Marian Hossa holds the Jets/Thrashers franchise record for consecutive games with a point at 11.

Best Thrashers/Jets Video We Could Find: Ilya Kovalchuk, then of the Thrashers, once had an excellent commercial with Markus Naslund, then of the Canucks:

Probable goaltenders: Marc-Andre Fleury (17-7-2, 2.29 GAA, .916 SV%) for the Penguins and Ondrej Pavelec (12-11-5, 2.87 GAA, .910 SV%) for the Jets.

Injuries: Defenseman Paul Martin ("lower body") is questionable. Defensemen Robert Bortuzzo (head), Kris Letang (head), Zbynek Michalek (head), centers Sidney Crosby (head), Dustin Jeffrey (knee) and right winger Richard Park (foot) are on injured reserve. For the Jets, defensemen Randy Jones ("upper body") and Derek Meech ("lower body") are on injured reserve.

-Potential lines and defensive pairings: The Penguins did not skate with a full crew this morning. Their primary lines against the Blackhawks Tuesday were:

Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Matt Cooke - Jordan Staal - Tyaler Kennedy
Steve Sullivan - Joe Vitales - Pascal Dupuis
Jason Williams - Craig Adams - Arron Asham

-Consider this a guess at their defeensive pairings:

Matt Niskanen - Brooks Orpik
Simon Despres - Alexandre Picard
Ben Lovejoy - Brian Strait

-The Jets primary lines and defensive pairings against the Canadiens last night were:

Evander Kane - Alexander Burmistrov - Blake Wheeler
Andrew Ladd - Nik Antropov - Kyle Wellwood
Tanner Glass - Jim Slater - Antti Miettinen
Tim Stapleton - Chris Thorburn - Eric Fehr

Tobias Enstrom - Dustin Byfuglien
Mark Stuart - Zach Bogosian
Johnny Oduya - Ron Hainsey

Notes:

-The Penguins recalled Strait from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (PG+).

-"It's a great atmosphere. Like you're playing in a playoff game." - Manitoba native Arron Asham on playing in Winnipeg.

-Deryk Engelland is suspended.

-Sullivan has 699 career points.

-Picard has 49 career assists.

-Martin has 197 career points.

-Our live blog begins at approximately 8:15 p.m Please tune in.

(Photo: Marianne Helm/Getty Images)

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed