At the Rink: Devils at Jets

WINNIPEG -- The Winnipeg Jets could have forwards Alexander Burmistrov and Drew Stafford back in their lineup against the New Jersey Devils at MTS Centre on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; SN, MSG+ 2).

Stafford has missed the past three games because of an upper-body injury. Burmistrov missed a 4-1 home loss against the Nashville Predators on Thursday because of an undisclosed injury.

Coach Paul Maurice said he is “reasonably confident” Burmistrov and Stafford will dress.

“We’ll give them the afternoon to make sure that they feel as well as they did [Saturday] morning, and then we’ll have to make a decision.” Maurice said.

Injured forwards Adam Lowry (upper body) and Mark Scheifele (lower body) will not play.

Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck will start for the 18th time in the past 20 games. Devils goaltender Corey Schneider will start for the 11th time in the past 12 games.

New Jersey will have two lineup changes. With defenseman John Moore on injured reserve, Seth Helgeson will replace him in a pairing with Damon Severson. The Devils recalled Helgeson from Albany of the American Hockey League on an emergency basis Friday. Helgeson, who played 22 games with New Jersey in 2014-15, will make his season debut.

Forward Bobby Farnham returns from a four-game suspension and replaces Sergey Kalinin (illness). The move provides a third-line opportunity for Farnham.

“The message to him is he has to play his game,” coach John Hynes said. “Just because sometimes a guy plays a different spot in the lineup they think they have to do something differently. For him, the reason he had success was because he played a certain way, so regardless of who he plays with, we’ve got to make sure that he plays to his identity as a player.”

In a stretch of nine of 10 games at home, the Jets are eight points behind the fifth-place Colorado Avalanche in the Central Division. Winnipeg has two games in hand on the Avalanche, who visit the Dallas Stars on Saturday.

“We understand the situation that we’re in and how valuable the points are each and every night, so I don’t think it goes over our head in here,” captain Andrew Ladd said. “We understand what is going on.”

The Devils, who on Saturday announced forward Jiri Tlusty will be out 3-4 months following wrist surgery, bring three consecutive wins into a two-game road trip that continues Tuesday against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“We’ve been getting off to good starts,” Schneider said. “We’ve been getting leads early. I think that we play better when we have the lead early in games, so I think that’s a key for us.

“We can’t look past [Saturday] and have an eye on the [2016 Honda NHL All-Star Game] break. We have to make sure that we keep the foot on the pedal here and finish these two games off starting [Saturday].”

Here are the projected lineups:

DEVILS

Mike Cammalleri - Adam Henrique - Lee Stempniak

Joseph Blandisi - Travis Zajac - Kyle Palmieri

Reid Boucher - Jacob Josefson - Bobby Farnham

Tuomo Ruutu - Stephen Gionta - Jordin Tootoo

Andy Greene - Adam Larsson

Eric Gelinas - David Schlemko

Seth Helgeson - Damon Severson

Cory Schneider

Keith Kinkaid

Injured: Patrik Elias (right knee), Jon Merrill (upper body), John Moore (lower body), Jiri Tlusty (wrist surgery),

Scratched: Stefan Matteau, Tyler Kennedy

JETS

Andrew Ladd - Bryan Little - Blake Wheeler

Drew Stafford - Mathieu Perreault - Nikolaj Ehlers

Chris Thorburn - Alexander Burmistrov - Joel Armia

Matt Halischuk - Andrew Copp - Anthony Peluso

Jacob Trouba - Dustin Byfuglien

Toby Enstrom - Tyler Myers

Mark Stuart - Ben Chiarot

Connor Hellebuyck

Michael Hutchinson

Injured: Grant Clitsome (back), Adam Lowry (upper body), Ondrej Pavelec (knee), Mark Scheifele (lower body)

Scratched: Patrice Cormier, JC Lipon, Adam Pardy

Status report: Hynes said Moore could be able to return after the All-Star break…Scheifele’s return could be near. “Unless something changes over the next two practices, he is starting to look pretty strong, and he is very close,” Maurice said.

Who's hot: Stempniak has three goals and two assists in his past five games…Ehlers has three goals and an assist in his past five games.