GAMEDAY: Jets vs Canadiens

WINNIPEG -After a successful road trip that saw them go 3-1-1, the Winnipeg Jets return home for a quick two-game home stand against the Montreal Canadiens.
But for all the joy that the road trip finale - a 5-2 victory over the North Division leading Toronto Maple Leafs - brought, there is still the case of the "outlier."
That's what Jets head coach Paul Maurice called the lone regulation loss on the road trip, a 7-1 setback to the very same Canadiens the Jets will host tonight at Bell MTS Place.
"I've felt that in games that we were not good, we knew it, and there haven't been a whole lot," said Maurice, speaking to his team's resilience this season as they hit the halfway mark tonight.
"In periods of games we've struggled, they've been able to make an adjustment and get stronger, and we've come back and won a bunch of games, or won a bunch of games when we didn't score the first goal or were trailing at a point in time," Maurice said. "It's not just we played harder, we played a little smarter, got a little more defined in our game, and we stayed patient throughout that game."

The Jets (17-8-2) experienced all those situations in their last three games against the Maple Leafs, where they earned five of a possible six points.
They didn't score the first goal in the opening game, they trailed at some point in all three, but they found a way to battle back.
Maurice anticipates his club will be able to handle anything that comes at them tonight against a Canadiens team that the Jets have beaten in three of four meetings this season.
"I thought when the division got put out there were two teams - I didn't like how we played against Calgary, and I didn't like how we played against Montreal," said Maurice.
"Our last game is an exception, we hope, but I've liked the way we've played against Montreal better this year.
"Hopefully this year with all the games we play against Montreal, we can get to a better understanding of what it is we need to do to beat them regularly."
The Jets will ice the same line-up tonight as the one that earned the 5-2 win in Toronto on Saturday. The only change comes in goal, where Connor Hellebuyck will get the call after Laurent Brossoit's 20-save performance in Toronto.
Stastny-Scheifele-Wheeler
Connor-Dubois-Ehlers
Copp-Lowry-Appleton
Perreault-Thompson-Lewis
Morrissey-DeMelo
Forbort-Pionk
Stanley-Poolman
Pierre-Luc Dubois has two goals and three points in four games against Montreal this season, including the overtime winner back on Mar. 4.

That goal was the result of the Jets using three forwards in overtime, something they've done on a few occasions so far this season.
The goal was set up by Dubois' line mate Nikolaj Ehlers, who used Kyle Connor as a decoy before finding Dubois in the high slot.
He says the priority isn't necessarily getting revenge for the 7-1 loss against Montreal, but making sure there isn't a let-down after such a strong game against Toronto a couple nights ago.
"We're happy about that, but it doesn't mean as much if you come back here and play not your best and you lose," said Dubois. "We look up in the standings, and to move up you're going to have to win consecutive games a lot of the times throughout the season, and you can't lose two in a row. So tonight's a big game, forget what happened the last time we played them. And it's sure important tonight getting another two points and keep moving up."

The Canadiens (12-8-7), who have dropped their last two games, will start Carey Price in goal, giving him 700 career starts in the National Hockey League.
But before the Jets can concern themselves with who is in goal for their opponent, they have to ensure they're much better defensively than they were in their last meeting with the Canadiens.
"They're a team that goes hard to the net, shoot a lot of pucks, converge a lot. It's not easy," said Dubois. "You can forget one stick, it can be a small stick, like guys in front of the net but that's what scores the goal. So we have to be on our game tonight."
Puck drop is set for 7 pm CT.
-- Mitchell Clinton, WinnipegJets.com
Game Notes
The Jets have points in nine of their past 11 games (8-2-1), which included a season high four-game winning streak from Feb. 19-27.
Mark Scheitele had his team-leading 10th multi-point game of the season on Saturday. He leads the Jets in scoring this season with 36 points (12G, 24A) in 27 games.
Nikolaj Ehlers has three goals in his past two games to lead the Jets in goal scoring this season with 14 goals.
READ THE GAME NOTES