GAMEDAY: Jets at Canucks

VANCOUVER -As a seven-game road trip takes the Winnipeg Jets (18-11-2) to the west coast, they find themselves in somewhat uncharted waters.
Just two nights ago, they lost their second consecutive game in regulation for the first time this season. In fact, it's the first time that's happened since February of 2020.
Tonight, against the Vancouver Canucks (16-16-3), the Jets are looking to right the ship.
"What you want to make sure is that you have some confidence and hope that goes with it," said Jets head coach Paul Maurice, adding that no fans in the buildings - at home or on the road - means that drive has to come from within.

"You'd either get home a little bit more often and get the home crowd behind you and get the energy from that. You've got two or three days off in between some of the losses, where you'd get some rest," Maurice said. "You don't get those other places, you've got to find them within, find that confidence and find that positive feeling, so you can get your legs to the right level."
Whenever adversity pops up in a season, a team tends to lean on its veterans.
One of those veterans on the Jets roster is Paul Stastny, who will play his 977th career NHL game tonight.
No, it isn't a nice round number like 900 - or even 1,000, which he's slated to reach this season - but it is important to him.
His father Peter - who played with the Quebec Nordiques, New Jersey Devils, and St. Louis Blues from 1980-1995 - finished his career with 977 career games.
"I think it's special. We've talked about it. I knew going into this season that would be a number I'd be able to hit," said Stastny. "That's probably the only number I could beat him in stats wise. Just to equal the same amount of games, it's special. It's special for him, for me, and for the Stastny legacy."
The older Stastny accumulated 1,239 points and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1999.
The 35-year-old Paul Stastny sits on 744 career points heading into tonight.
"What a great thing for father and son to share," said Maurice. "There will always be that special pride the next night, when the son surpasses the father. They'll joke around about it. I'm sure at the table there might be some stats that favour the father over the son. But, I'm sure that there is a tremendous amount of pride by his dad and rightfully so."
Nothing makes a milestone feel better than a win, especially given the small bump in the road the Jets have hit over the past couple games.
Rogers Arena in Vancouver might be just the place for things to change. The Jets have won six straight games in the Canucks' home rink, however - they're going up against a very different Canucks team than the one they saw earlier this month.
The first two days of March saw the Jets split a two-game series with Vancouver at Bell MTS Place. At that time, Vancouver was 3-10-2 in their last 15 games.
Since then, though, the Canucks are 7-1-1 and have points in their last five games - and they've done it without Elias Pettersson.
"All of a sudden if you're missing a star player like that, an offensive player, everyone's role changes a little bit. Everyone plays a little more, everyone plays a little different role," Stastny said. "They won seven of nine but you could also look at what Pettersson brings is anytime he's on the ice, a dynamic superstar like that can score anytime. You miss that. The overall team game, I think everybody tightens up a little bit."
Winnipeg sits third in the North Division, one point up on the Montreal Canadiens and three up the Canucks.
However, the Canucks have played four more games than the Jets. Part of that was the 11 games Vancouver played in 17 days in January, while the Jets had eight in 16.
The month of March seems to be when the Jets are making up those games, as they're in the middle of a grind that sees them play 17 games in 31 days.
The current road trip is part of a stretch of 12 of 14 away from home.
"You look at the standings and two points are crucial right now for teams that are inside the line and outside the line," said Josh Morrissey. "It's going to be a big couple of games and like I said, they're feeling it. So we're going to expect their best and we're going to have to bring the same."
Line-up wise, the Jets will make a slight tweak on the blue line tonight, reuniting Morrissey with Tucker Poolman. This comes after four games with Dylan DeMelo on Morrissey's right side.
"Out of all the guys on the blue line, we've played the most games together, between the two of us, of anyone I have played with here, for sure. So there would be a familiarity there," Morrissey said. "Tucks has been playing really well, and he's been getting better and better. His game has been as good as I think I've ever seen him play, which is awesome."
With that change, the Jets line-up is expected to look like this:
Stastny-Scheifele-Wheeler
Connor-Dubois-Ehlers
Copp-Lowry-Appleton
Perreault-Thomson-Lewis
Morrissey-Poolman
Forbort-Pionk
Stanley-DeMelo
Connor Hellebuyck will start in goal for the Jets, while Thatcher Demko gets the call for the Canucks.
Puck drop is set for 9 pm CT.
-- Mitchell Clinton, WinnipegJets.com
Game Notes
The third game on a seven-game road trip takes the Winnipeg Jets into Vancouver to take on the Canucks.
The Jets play 17 games in 31 days in March.
The Jets are in a stretch of playing 12 of 14 games on the road.
Winnipeg is on a six-game winning streak in Vancouver.
Winnipeg is 8-6-1 on the road this season and have a point in three of their past five road games (2-2-1).
Nikolaj Ehlers tallied his 10th multi-point game of the season on Saturday, which is tied with Mark Scheifele for the team lead.
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