GAMEDAY: Jets at Oilers

EDMONTON -After enjoying 10 of their first 14 games at home, the Winnipeg Jets (8-5-1) will have to get used to living out of suitcases for a big chunk of their coming schedule.
Tonight's game against the Edmonton Oilers (9-7-0) is the first of a four-game road trip, but also the beginning of a stretch that sees the Jets play 16 of their next 22 away from Bell MTS Place.
As a group, the Jets are 2-1-1 on the road this season with both victories coming over the Ottawa Senators in January.
Coincidentally, tonight's game in Edmonton is Winnipeg's first since dropping a 2-1 decision to the Senators on Saturday - when Ottawa's game-winner came with 8.2 seconds left in regulation.
"Those sting. We've had a couple late ones, but if you look at the positive we've been in every game," said Nathan Beaulieu.
"Playing teams over and over, you feel like you have an opportunity to redeem yourself."

The Jets have been able to do just that so far this season. They're 4-0-1 following a loss of any kind, and will also get Jansen Harkins back in the line-up tonight as they try to improve that record.

Harkins has missed the last four games with a lower-body injury and will centre the fourth line with Trevor Lewis and Kristian Vesalainen on the wings.
Head coach Paul Maurice said that while the Jets will go with 12 forwards and six defencemen tonight (after two games with 11 and seven), he'd like to implement some sort of a hybrid of the two against the Oilers.
"I can drop players down or pull a player up in different parts of the game. I may get (Harkins) out to the wing for some shifts too, if I'm dropping a centre down," said Maurice. "In the structure that we had, I couldn't drop Kyle Connor down. We didn't have a centre and Kyle doesn't play centre. With Hark there, that's the other option. If I want to drop a guy down, it can be Nik Ehlers or it can be Kyle Connor."
Pierre-Luc Dubois will miss his second consecutive game. As a result, Winnipeg's line-up is expected to look like this, based on practice on Sunday:
Copp-Scheifele-Wheeler
Connor-Stastny-Ehlers
Perreault-Lowry-Appleton
Vesalainen-Harkins-Lewis
Morrissey-Poolman
Forbort-Pionk
Beaulieu-DeMelo
The Oilers have rattled off three straight wins and have victories in six of their last seven games.
Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl sit atop the league's point race with 28 and 26 respectively, but in the last three outings, Edmonton's secondary scoring has picked up the majority of the offence.

Out of Edmonton's last nine goals, only one has come from their elite duo.
"From an analytics point of view, they drive everything. But the back end is getting a little more involved now and producing points," said Maurice. "Now you have that good team feeling. The goalie (Mike Smith) comes back, that's a huge part of it. Even if they're not giving up a lot, that confidence in your goaltender goes through the whole team. We'll see a different animal here in the next two games."
Speaking of nine goals, that's the amount Ehlers comes into the game with, which leads the Jets in that category.
Ehlers has five points in the two meetings with the Oilers this season and a three-game point streak against Edmonton overall.
His line mate, Connor, has seven goals this season and feels the Jets need to be disciplined in their game tonight.
"They like to open the game up, but that's their style. We don't really like to feed into that. We have a game we like to play," said Connor.
"I don't think I'm looking at the line-up saying 'we're playing Edmonton, there is going to be some wide open ice.' That's not my mentality."
As a group, the Jets have been disciplined in terms of penalty minutes. They average just 7.1 penalty minutes per night, the sixth fewest in the NHL. While Edmonton's power play has fallen off it's nearly historic pace from last season, it still sits 10th in the NHL at 24.6 per cent in 2021.
The Jets are well aware of that fact. The Oilers scored two power play goals against the Jets on Jan. 26 (a 6-4 Winnipeg win) and another Jets penalty had expired just before Draisaitl's buzzer beating game-winner two nights earlier.

There is also a lot of confidence on the penalty kill for the Jets. Since the night Edmonton scored twice on the man advantage, the Jets have killed 16 of 17 opposition power plays.
"For us it's being really smart with our sticks and our body positioning," said Mason Appleton. "From there, you have to block shots, do little things, get the clears. It's a tough task at hand but one we're definitely up for."
With one quarter of the regular season already complete, tonight's tilt is a chance for the Jets get the road trip off to a good start against an Edmonton team sitting one point ahead in the North Division standings (Winnipeg has two games in hand).
These two games against the Oilers will be important.
"You play a team a few nights in a row, you kind of figure each other out," said Appleton.
"It's like a mini-series, and in a series you have a lot of tight hockey games. We want to clean things up in the last minute and not get scored on - easier said than done - but it just goes to show how good this division is."
Puck drop is set for 8 pm CT.
-- Mitchell Clinton, WinnipegJets.com
Game Notes
The Jets play 16 of their next 22 games on the road after playing 10 of 14 games at home to start the season.
Winnipeg is 2-1-1 on the road this season with both wins coming in Ottawa.
The Jets are 3-1-0 in their past four games in Edmonton and are 7-4-0 in Alberta since relocation.
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