GAMEDAY: Kraken at Jets

WINNIPEG - The Winnipeg Jets only have three home games left in the regular season, and it looks like they will have to win all of them starting tonight when they host the Seattle Kraken.

The big news heading into the battle with the Kraken is the return of Nino Niederreiter and Vlad Namestnikov after lengthy absences. Niederreiter underwent surgery in early March following playing for Switzerland at the Milan Olympics. Meanwhile, Namestnikov sustained a lower body injury when the Jets were in Anaheim, their second game out of the Olympic break.

"Obviously this time of year, I know I keep saying it, it’s fast-moving water. It’s the pace of where the games are at. But these guys have helped us, they’ve got a history here. At the same time these are veteran guys who have (helped) at key times of the year," said head coach Scott Arniel. 

"We grinded them hard here in the last week, conditioning wise to get that part of it, make sure that’s up to where it needs to be. Now it’s just getting their touches and kind of getting used to, as the game goes on, getting a bit more comfortable for them.”

Niederreiter said he had been dealing with a knee issue since the beginning part of the season. The Swiss forward had two big reasons to want to play through the issue, his 1000^th game and of course, the Olympics.

"After the whole recovery process now, I feel like maybe I should have done it before the season, and in the off-season kind of figuring out a way to deal with it," said Niederreiter.

"But, like I said, you never know how the outcome is going to be. So, I want to give myself the best chance possible to be a part of those two events and I wish I could have finished the season but I am glad I did eventually."

Both players were on the Jets recent road trip which Namestnikov said was Important after such a long time away from their teammates.

“Yeah, it was a good road trip, long road trip, we had a couple team bonding activities there. Went to the Cubs game,” said Namestnikov.

“But it was just good being around the guys for the mentals and just being part of the team.” 

The bad news is Morgan Barron got hurt (lower body) in Columbus and is now out week-to-week. So the Jets lines looked like this during the morning skate.

On Saturday, Kyle Connor recorded the 50th multi-goal game of his career, joining Mark Scheifele (55) as the only players in franchise history with 50 or more multi-goal games. Connor became the ninth-fastest U.S.-born player to reach the mark, trailing Auston Matthews (388 GP), Pat LaFontaine (432 GP), Joe Mullen (528 GP), Jeremy Roenick (562 GP), Mike Modano (607 GP), John LeClair (611 GP), Jimmy Carson (611 GP) and Keith Tkachuk (619 GP). Connor is now four goals shy of his third 40-goal season, and he currently trails only Ilya Kovalchuk (5) for the most such seasons in franchise history.

“Yeah. It is awfully fun playing with 81,” said Mark Scheifele.

“He is an amazing shooter. He knows where to go. He is an absolute treat to play with.”

Make sure to watch the Jets pregame show LIVE at 12:30 CT or later in the day on YouTube, X or Facebook.

Now the Jets will face a Kraken team that is just three points behind them in the Western Conference standings. Seattle arrives in the Manitoba capital 2-6-2 in their last ten games. Winnipeg did not get any help on the out-of-town scoreboard from Sunday as the St. Louis Blues won in Denver 3-2 and also have 78 points like the Jets.

“We can’t do anything about what’s happening with the other teams. All we can do is take care of our own business,” said Arniel on Saturday.

“It may have to be we have to go 6-0, win all six games. Just focus on Seattle next. Take our moment here to enjoy this one but then turn our minds and our focus to that next game.”

Scheifele is now two points shy of reaching 900 in his career, becoming the 136th player in NHL history and the 22nd active player to hit the mark. Scheifele will become the first player in franchise history to reach the milestone and join Jonathan Toews as the only two active players on the team to hit 900. The 33-year-old is set to become the second player from the 2011 NHL Entry Draft to reach 900 career points, behind only Nikita Kucherov (1119).

Puck drop is scheduled for 6:30 CT.