GAME DAY: Jets at Stars

DALLAS, Texas -With one game left before the Winnipeg Jets hit the five-day player break and All-Star Weekend, head coach Paul Maurice is confident his group will be ready for puck drop tonight against the Dallas Stars.
His confidence comes from the fact the players have their fathers, brothers, and other family members in attendance.
"The nice thing about the guest trip is going into that break is you know the players are going to be focused. They want to put a good show on for the dads and their guests," said Maurice. "That's a positive for us."

The group was at Bridgestone Arena as the Jets skated to a 5-1 win over the Nashville Predators to open the trip.
The win was Winnipeg's fourth in a row, the third time this season the Jets have put together a streak of that length.
With a victory tonight, the Jets would match their season-best five-game win streak from December.
"Obviously there is a big two points on the line and we want to keep our streak going, keep playing the right way, and keep critiquing the little things we want to improve on," said defenceman Joe Morrow.
"The break doesn't start until 10 pm tonight. I think everyone in here knows that."
The Jets will go with the same line-up as Thursday night in Nashville, including Connor Hellebuyck getting the start in goal:
Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler
Laine-Little-Roslovic
Perreault-Lowry-Tanev
Lemieux-Copp-Appleton
Morrissey-Trouba
Kulikov-Myers
Morrow-Niku
This will be the third meeting of the season between the Jets and Stars. Each team has picked up a 5-1 win on home ice this season.
"This game is a little unusual because it's a real match-up game. We've had some success with it at home, but you go back to the game we played in here, we got into the penalty box too much and their power play cost us the game," said Maurice. "They'll move people around. They're trying to develop some checking forwards here to play against your top end. Shift length is real critical in that, face-offs is a real important part of this game tonight."
While the Jets have won four straight, Dallas has done the opposite - suffering four straight losses to Los Angeles, Tampa Bay, St. Louis, and Philadelphia over the last nine days.
Still, the Stars hold the top wildcard spot in the Western Conference at 50 points, tied with the Colorado Avalanche (who sit third in the Central Division with one less game played).
Tonight's game against Winnipeg wraps up a four-game home stand for the Stars, who are 14-8-2 on home ice.
"They play solid. They have a lot of good players. They play solid D. They have a big line that will make you pay and you have to grind for every inch," said Mark Scheifele, who had an assist in Winnipeg's 5-1 win over Dallas on Jan. 6.
He says when the Jets offence is playing well, the five skaters on the ice are keeping things simple.
"We're holding onto the puck. We're taking shots when we have the opportunity," said Scheifele. "The biggest thing is we get traffic in front and that creates a little bit of chaos."
Puck drop is set for 6 pm CT at American Airlines Center.
ICE CHIPS
Maurice gave an update on the injuries to Dustin Byfuglien, Nikolaj Ehlers, and Ben Chiarot following the morning skate in Dallas.
He said "if we absolutely needed" Chiarot, he could play. But he'll remain out of the line-up against Dallas with his lower-body injury. It's expected Chiarot will be good to go coming out of the break.
Byfuglien (lower-body) has resumed skating back in Winnipeg. The earliest window for his return comes after the break.
"He has to get into practice first. Dustin is a guy who is going to walk in the door and say 'alright coach I'm ready to play,'" said Maurice. "So we'll have to see if we can get him on the ice once first."
As for Ehlers - out since Jan. 4 with an upper-body injury - the wait might be a bit longer.
"Nik is probably still a week after the break before his window opens up," said Maurice. "We won't rush that."
-- Mitchell Clinton, WinnipegJets.com
GAME NOTES
Tonight's Game
The Winnipeg Jets finish a two-game road trip and complete their pre-all-star schedule tonight against the Dallas Stars...The Jets beat the Nashville Predators 5-1 on Thursday...The Jets are off from the player and all-star breaks from Jan. 20-27...Winnipeg's next action is Jan. 28 in Philadelphia against the Flyers.
On the Road Again
The Jets are 13-8-0 on the road this season...Thursday's win ended a two-game road losing streak and improved the Jets to 9-3-0 in their past 12 road games...Winnipeg hasn't lost three consecutive road games in regulation since Dec. 10-20/16...Blake Wheeler leads the Jets in scoring on the road this season with 22 points (3G, 19A) in 21 games, while Patrik Laine has 16 goals in 21 games...Brendan Lemieux has scored all five of his goals this season on the road, including two on Thursday.
Perfect PK
After allowing a power play goal in six consecutive games, the Jets are a perfect 12-for-12 on the penalty kill in their past three games, including going 4-for-4 on Thursday against Nashville...The Jets are 10-5-0 this season when their opponent has four power play opportunities or more in a game and are 84.9% on the penalty kill in those 15 games...On three occasions this season the Jets have given their opponents six or more power play opportunities in a game and Winnipeg is a perfect 21-for-21 on the penalty kill in those games.
Connect Four
The Jets are on a four-game winning streak, which is the third time this season Winnipeg has had a winning streak of four games or more...A win tomorrow would match the Jets longest winning streak of the season of five games, which they did from Dec. 9-16...On the flip side, the Jets have lost consecutive games just twice this season...Winnipeg has scored four goals or more in all four games during the winning streak and in six of their past seven games...Five members of the Jets are averaging a point per game or better in the past seven games, led by Blake Wheeler's 10 points.
Busy Time
The Jets finish a stretch of nine games (6-2-0) in 16 days tomorrow leading into the player and all-star break from Jan. 20-27...After the all-star break, the Jets also have a busy schedule with 11 games in 20 days.
VIEW FULL GAME NOTES
Against the Central
The Jets are 10-6-0 against Central Division teams this season...Since the start of the 2016-17 season, the Jets are 44-23-4 against Central Division teams, which is first in the NHL...In that same time frame, Blake Wheeler leads all NHLers in scoring against the Central Division with 91 points (27G, 64A) in 71 games, while Mark Scheifele is second with 84 points (34G, 50A) in 63 games.
Multi-Point Nights
Brendan Lemieux scored twice on Thursday for his second multi-goal game of the season...His two multi-goal games are the two multi-point games of his career...The defence pairing of Sami Niku and Joe Morrow each had two assists against Nashville for their first multi-point games of the season...It was Niku's first career multi-point game, while it was Morrow's first multi-point game since Feb. 3/18 when he was with the Montreal Canadiens.
Winner, Winner
Rookie Mason Appleton scored his second career goal on Thursday, which stood up to be his first career game-winning goal...In 95 career games in the AHL with the Manitoba Moose, 10 of Appleton's 30 goals are game-winning goals, including four of eight goals this season.
Terrific Tenders
In seven games since Jan. 6, goaltender Connor Hellebuyck and Laurent Brossoit have combined to go an NHL-best 6-1-0 with a 2.12 goals-against average and .937 save percentage...Hellebuyck is 4-0 with a 2.28 GAA and .925 save percentage, while Brossoit is 2-0-0 with a 1.50 GAA and .962 save percentage...They have stopped 30 or more shots in four of the seven games and turned away 80 of 82 shots in the past two games.
Seeing Stars
Jets forwards Blake Wheeler and Mark Scheifele have been selected to represent the Jets as members of the Central Division team at the 2019 NHL All-Star Game...Wheeler, who is making his second consecutive all-star appearance, leads the Jets in points (60) and also leads the Jets and ranks tied for second in the NHL in assists (51)...Scheifele is making his first all-star appearance...He is tied for first on the Jets in goals (25) and is second in assists (33) and points (58)...He is also in the top 15 in the NHL in goals and points...Head coach Paul Maurice has been selected as the head coach of the Central Division team, based on the Jets being in first place in the Central Division at the midway point of the season.
Pre-All-Star Performances
Mark Scheifele and Patrik Laine share the team lead with 25 goals, which is the most a Jets player has scored in a season before the all-star break since relocation...Blake Wheeler's 51 assists is the most a player has notched before the all-star break in franchise history and his 60 points are the most by a player since relocation...Wheeler is the only player in franchise history to be averaging more than an assist per game heading into the all-star break and his 1.28 points per game is second...Schefiele's plus-18 rating is currently tied for a franchise record for best plus-minus rating before the all-star break.