GAME DAY: Devils at Jets

WINNIPEG – The Jets have reached the midway point of a five game homestand when they host the New Jersey Devils at Canada Life Centre tonight at 7 pm CT.

The Devils will be missing star players Nico Hischier (upper body) and Jack Hughes tonight, Hughes was on a roll before his injury with 20 points in his first 10 games of the season. But even without those two players in the lineup, the Jets expect a big challenge from one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference.

“They’re still one of the best transition young fast teams in the league. Whether that’s coming from the back end or their forward group, which transitions really well. From the top of their circles in their end of the rink to the top of our circles in our end of the rink, they are a really lightning quick team. They come in waves,” said interim head coach Scott Arniel on Monday.

“You watch some video of their last few games its four man rush all the time. It’s always people coming. A little bit like we’ve seen on this last road trip when we saw Arizona, we saw Montreal, Detroit, they push the pace. It’s a high octane shift every time you’re out there. Our puck management, what we’ve talked about the last couple weeks, making those young teams defend, making them play in their own end of the rink really goes a long way to us having success.”

Even without Hischier and Jack Hughes, the Devils are number one in the NHL on the power play at 38.5 per cent. The Jets penalty kill over their last four games has been 11-for-13 and is gaining confidence as the season wears on.

“I feel like we’re being more aggressive,” said Dylan Samberg.

“We’re playing more together as a unit, and we are having success because of it.”

PROJECTED LINEUP

Connor-Scheifele-Iafallo

Perfetti-Namestnikov-Ehlers

Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton

Barron-Gustafsson-Kupari

Morrissey-DeMelo

Dillon-Pionk

Samberg-Schmidt

Hellebuyck

CONNOR SECOND STAR OF THE WEEK

On Monday, the NHL announced the Three Stars of the Week and Jets forward Kyle Connor was the league’s second star. Connor has now been named one of the league’s stars six times in his career after he put up five goals and eight points last week.

“We had a lot of good players on our team play well last week but it’s good to get the recognition I guess,” said Connor.

“Scheif and Iafallo had great weeks as well. Obviously, those guys don’t get recognized, I’m excited about the way this team has been playing so far and looking forward to what we can do down the road here.”

Connor clearly has chemistry with Scheifele since they have been playing together for so long but what has been a pleasant surprise is how well Alex Iafallo has meshed with the top line.

“He’s an easy player to read and that’s a compliment to his game, I think. He plays so hard,” said Connor.

“You know when he has the puck, he’s taking it to the net or making a strong play. Nothing too crazy or turning the puck over and that’s made it really easy to play with him.”