GAMEDAY: Jets at Flames

Two teams with streaks face-off tonight as the Winnipeg Jets open a two-game road trip against the Calgary Flames (5-6-2).
The Jets (8-3-1) want to continue a 6-0-1 run while the Flames will do everything in their power to snap a 0-5-2 stretch that has plagued them for most of November.
"They're going to come at us," said Jets head coach Rick Bowness. "Darryl (Sutter) is a great coach, they have an excellent hockey team over there. We know we're going to get the A-game from every one of them tonight."
Over the last couple days, every Jet has said that the Flames are playing much better than a seven-game winless skid would indicate.

In fact, as part of their prep for tonight's game against Calgary, Bowness and the coaching staff showed a particular stat to the team that will have them on their toes from the drop of the puck.
"I know Calgary's first 10 minutes of the last three or four games, they dominated the first 10 minutes," said Bowness, adding that Calgary outshot opponents by a combined 24-4 in the opening 10 minutes of the three games on their Eastern road trip.
"The Flames are 0-5-2 but A, don't be fooled by that but B, it's important (to focus on) us," said Bowness. "We keep 98 per cent of our focus on us and how we're playing."
Having three games in the last 11 days gave plenty of time for the Jets to assess what they needed to fix. Sure, they got five out of six points on that road trip, but they weren't happy with their game at all.

In the three wins the Jets picked up on their recent home stand, they've had much better starts than they did on a previous three-game road trip.
"We really took a look in the mirror and we had a lot of time off," said Kyle Connor. "We're starting to play together more as a team. Our last home stand, we're starting to come together."
Tuesday's 5-1 win over Dallas gave Winnipeg top spot in the Central Division. It's still early, but tonight's tilt in Calgary is an opportunity to create a bit of separation, and make use of the two games in hand the Jets have over Dallas.
But it's still early, and despite the recent run of success, Adam Lowry knows his team isn't taking anything for granted, especially with new systems to work on.
"I know we're 12 games in but it's going to be one of those things that you're constantly learning, constantly trying to get better at," said Lowry. "The defensive portion of our game is going to continue to be a work in progress… We have a great goalie in Helly and a great backup, but we can't expect to win games when we're giving up 45-50 shots. Continue to clean that up, it bodes well for our transition game and into our offensive game."

The Jets won't make any line-up changes tonight, so Connor Hellebuyck will get his 11th start of the season, with the projected lines expected to look like this:
Connor-Scheifele-Appleton
Perfetti-Dubois-Wheeler
Maenalanen-Lowry-Jonsson-Fjallby
Harkins-Gustafsson-Gagner
Morrissey-Pionk
Dillon-Schmidt
Samberg-DeMelo
Tonight's game marks the start of a two-game home stand for the Flames, which is sandwiched between two road trips out east
Calgary came up with one point in a loss to the Islanders to begin their previous road trip on Monday before falling to New Jersey and Boston.
After Monday's game against Los Angeles, the Flames hit the road again for a six-game road trip with stops in Tampa, Florida, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington, and Carolina.

But, in reference to what Bowness said after practice on Friday, the Jets aren't spending much time thinking about Calgary's schedule. Bowness expects his team to bring the standard they adhered to on the home stand to Scotiabank Saddledome.
"We're going to have a very hungry team coming at us tonight," he said. "But building off what we did on Tuesday, that's important. We came out of the gate very strong. It's what we want to do tonight."
Winnipeg was 2-1-0 against Calgary last season, then won both preseason games against the Flames prior to the start of the regular season.
"We had the bubble series with them. Over the past couple years in the Canadian Division, we've seen them a lot," said Connor. "We know they're going to work hard, we know they're going to come out and finish all their checks. They've been starting games really well. We have to be on our toes at the start here."
Puck drop is set for 9 pm CT.
-- Mitchell Clinton, WinnipegJets.com
Game Notes
The Winnipeg Jets play the first of two games this weekend when they visit the Calgary Flames on Saturday night. The Jets beat the Dallas Stars 5-1 on Tuesday night to go a perfect three-for-three on their recent home stand.
The Jets have extended their point streak to a season best seven games (6-0-1). It's the third longest point streak in the NHL this season.
The Jets have moved to fourth overall in the NHL wit ha 0.708 points percentage.
The Jets are a perfect 11-for-11 on the penalty kill in their past five games and 16-for-17 (93.3%) in their past six contests.
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