Preview: Canucks at Jets

CANUCKS (30-35-9) at JETS (33-35-7)
8 p.m. ET; SN, NHL.TV

Canucks team scope

Forward Jack Skille won't play for the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday after sustaining an ankle injury in the second period of a 4-2 win against the Minnesota Wild on Saturday. "I wouldn't expect to see Skille in the line-up for a while," coach Willie Desjardins said after the game. The Canucks held an optional morning skate Sunday and Alex Biega is expected to take Skille's spot in the lineup. The Canucks are 2-5-2 in their past nine games. After scoring his first NHL goal at 11:51 of the second period in his first NHL game on Saturday, forward Brock Boeser, who signed an entry-level contract with the Canucks on Saturday a day after the University of North Dakota were eliminated from the NCAA tournament, said the past few days have been a whirlwind. "It's been crazy," Boeser said. "That was a great day and an awesome experience for all my family and friends, but it's out of the way now. It was a blast to be a part of that but I have to move on now and try and help the team any way I can to get some wins here. I think I'm slowly starting to come back down, finally, and kind of realize what yesterday was."

Jets team scope

Winnipeg Jets forward Patrik Laine will be out because of an illness and defenseman Dustin Byfuglien will miss his second straight game with a lower-body injury. Byfuglien leads Jets defenseman with 12 goals and 36 assists and is listed as day to day. Laine, the second pick in the 2016 NHL Draft, is tied with Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews with 61 points (34 goals, 27 assists) in the rookie scoring race. Michael Hutchinson will make his second straight start in goal for the Jets, who are 3-5-1 in their past nine games. "He's played well," coach Paul Maurice said. "He's had some other stretches during the year where he's put a couple of big games together. Connor [Hellebuyck] ran 16 games straight. A couple of days off the grind and [to] work on some things to get his game back is important, too." A loss for Winnipeg would eliminate them from Stanley Cup Playoff contention. "For someone that's gone through it before, it's extremely frustrating," Bryan Little said. "You want to be a part of something bigger and you want to be playing for something at this time of year. It's another year in your career you can't get back."

Canucks projected lineup

Daniel Sedin -- Henrik Sedin -- Michael Chaput
Sven Baertschi -- Bo Horvat -- Brock Boeser
Reid Boucher -- Brandon Sutter -- Nikolay Goldobin
Joe Labate -- Drew Shore -- Alex Biega
Alexander Edler -- Troy Stecher
Luca Sbisa -- Chris Tanev
Ben Hutton -- Nikita Tryamkin
Ryan Miller
Richard Bachman
Scratched:Philip Larsen, Joseph Cramarossa
Injured:Markus Granlund (wrist), Jacob Markstrom (illness), Derek Dorsett (back), Erik Gudbranson (wrist), Anton Rodin (knee), Loui Eriksson (knee), Jayson Megna (upper body), Brendan Gaunce (hand), Jack Skille (ankle)

Jets projected lineup

Mathieu Perreault -- Mark Scheifele -- Blake Wheeler
Nikolaj Ehlers -- Bryan Little -- Marko Dano
Andrew Copp -- Adam Lowry -- Joel Armia
Brandon Tanev -- Nic Petan -- Chris Thorburn
Julian Melchiori - Jacob Trouba
Josh Morrissey -- Brian Strait
Mark Stuart - Nelson Nogier
Michael Hutchinson
Connor Hellebuyck
Scratched:Patrik Laine (illness) , Brenden Kitchton
Injured:Toby Enstrom (concussion), Tyler Myers (lower body), Ondrej Pavelec (lower body), Jacob Trouba (upper body), Shawn Matthias (upper body), Paul Postma (lower body), Ben Chiarot (upper body), Dustin Byfuglien (lower body)

Status report

Defenseman Brenden Kichton was recalled from Manitoba of the American Hockey League on an emergency basis on Friday but was sent down on Saturday.

Who's hot

Henrik Sedin has five points (two goals, three assists) in his past six games. … Wheeler has 16 points (five goals, 11 assists) in his past 13 games. … Scheifele has 22 points (four goals, 18 assists) in his past 17 games. … Ehlers has nine points (two goals, seven assists) in his past 10 games. … Perreault has eight points (three goals, five assists) in his past five games.