GAMEDAY: Capitals at Jets

WINNIPEG - The Winnipeg Jets are looking to get their homestand back on track with a Saturday night matchup against the Washington Capitals. The Jets have dropped three in a row and are hoping that a pre-game celebration will get them ready to go.

The Jets will celebrate Nino Niederreiter becoming the first Swiss born player to reach 1000 games in the NHL.

“We’d love to be on a five-game win streak for his 1,000^th game. But we’re going to celebrate him and obviously try to come out with a great effort for his big night,” said Josh Morrissey.

“He’s a great guy, great teammate, always positive. Just really happy for him and his family. I think everyone involved in the game knows the hours and the work it takes and commitment and sacrifice.”

Niederreiter remembers his first game in the NHL.

“It goes by fast. I do got to say that. I mean, the first game, I know it was against Dallas, and I know I had a shot on net, and that's about it,” said Niederreiter.

“But remember, from that game, you're just kind of like living a dream, and then you go to 500 games where kind of comes up fairly fast, and then the last to 1000, kind of a grind where, it's, I mean, there's a lot up and down through your career, and you got to go through some trades and whatnot.”

Head coach Scott Arniel said he enjoys what the Swiss forward brings to the room each and every day.

“He giggles and laughs. He's a little bit sarcastic with the guys. It's fun, just the joking and camaraderie around the guys is good. He's been around a long time and been through a lot of experiences,” said Arniel.

“Did you say mysterious? I don't know if I'd put mysterious on him. Ninety-nine percent of the time he's pretty jovial. He enjoys coming to work every day.”

Make sure to watch the Jets pregame show "The Check In" with Sara Orlesky and Jamie Thomas LIVE at 12:30 CT and you can watch it after on YouTube, X and Facebook.

The Jets didn’t have a skate today and Arniel was not releasing any lineup information Saturday. One of the big questions heading into the game against the Capitals is could this be the night that Connor Hellebuyck makes his return?

Friday afternoon, Arniel said that when Hellebuyck returns he warned his team that one guy can’t do it all.

“Yes, sort of two parts. Yes, in the sense of we can't give up the Grade A's that we've been giving up no matter which goalie's in there. And the other side is if you take (Connor) McDavid out of Edmonton, you take (Nathan) MacKinnon out of Colorado, you take some of these guys off of these teams, these Hart Trophy type players, it is a blow to your team,” said Arniel.

“When that's a goaltender, that's obviously a whole different ballgame, so to have him back in the fold will be major for us in that sense. At the end of the day, when that happens, and hopefully the group in front of him recognizes it: we can't give up that kind of looks.”

This homestand has presented the Jets some of the best teams in the NHL, Dallas (2^nd overall), Boston (10^th) and this evening’s opponent, Washington is fourth overall.

“Yeah, that's the that's the beauty of this league. You always get the best,” said Neal Pionk.

“So, couple hot teams coming in here, but we got to regroup and have some confidence in our game going in against a good Washington team.”

Capitals defensemen have scored 23 goals this season, tied for the most in the NHL. They have

accounted for 21.9% of the teams goals this season (23 of 105), 3rd highest % in the NHL. Jakob Chychrun (11) and John Carlson (6) are always jumping up into the play.

“Their D is very active. It’s not just those two, but all six. They do a real good job of finding ice and getting shots through. I think last time we played them they had 13 shots from their back end, 13 or 14,” said Arniel.

“And they also have bodies that are in and around their net, that’s part of their makeup, how they go about creating some of their offence. I think they’re No. 2 in the league on the analytic side of things when it comes to offence.”

Puck drop is scheduled for 6 CT.