EDMONTON - After a three-game stint at home, the Winnipeg Jets head to Rogers Place in Edmonton for a quick one-game trek against the Oilers.
The Jets (1-3-0) have the exact same record as the Oilers coming into the first of the three meetings between the two teams. While it's still very early in the regular season, a win would be a nice reward for a Jets team that has liked big chunks of their game this season.
"We had two bad periods against LA. Other than that, we’ve been playing pretty good," said head coach Rick Bowness after the morning skate. "We feel we’re playing better than our record. We do. We’ve had some really good games. We’re finding ways to lose and lose points, like we did in Calgary and we did in our last game."
That last game, a 5-3 setback against the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday, seemed to mirror Winnipeg's season so far. They came out flying early, and were especially dominant for a big chunk of the third (where the shot attempts at five-on-five were 30-9 in favour of the Jets).
But a late penalty, and a Jack Eichel power play goal, ended up being the difference.
"I don’t think we’re that far away," said Bowness. "The overall team game is better than the 1-3, and it’s better than the goals-against average - we’re 32nd in the league, that I’ve never been part of. I know it’s a small window. So the only way to go is up. We can still tighten things up, there’s no question, but I don’t think - and the players don’t feel - that we’re playing as bad as our record indicates."
PROJECTED LINE-UP
After sitting out last game for Logan Stanley's season debut, Nate Schmidt will draw back into Winnipeg's line-up tonight, with Connor Hellebuyck expected to start in goal.
The line rushes at the morning skate looked like this:
Connor-Scheifele-Appleton
Perfetti-Namestnikov-Ehlers
Iafallo-Lowry-Niederreiter
Barron-Kupari-Gustafsson
Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Samberg-Schmidt
OILERS IN THE SAME BOAT
Edmonton is coming off a 4-1 loss to Philadelphia and are 0-1-0 on home ice. Still, Connor McDavid has opened the season with a four-game point streak (the fifth time he's opened a season with a point streak of at least four games) and Leon Draisaitl remains as dangerous as ever - he set the Oilers record for career power play goals (128) in Edmonton's lone win over Nashville.
"This is a team that you have to make sure your forwards have their gap, the D can’t lolly gag out of the zone. An extra foot for those guys is all they need," said Schmidt. "For us as defence, we really have to make sure we work out of the zone and we also have to pressure them up ice. We can’t just relinquish the zone because we know they have speed. You take that away before they can get up to their top speed, you get up in their face a lot earlier it’s a lot more advantageous for us."
MORNING COFFEE
Josh Morrissey - who has four assists through four games - is on the same page as Bowness when it comes to how the Jets have played this season. He feels the games have come down to a few puck management decisions, and believes the team is embracing the challenge in front of them tonight.
In a results-based business like professional sports, he knows a victory at the end of the night makes everything better.
"Winning takes care of everything,” Morrissey said. “It's easier to come to the rink every day. It's easier to go get a coffee. It's easier to talk to the media. Everything, right?
“It's a little easier when you're winning hockey games. So ideally, we start doing that here.”
Puck drop is set for 9 pm CT.
