The Matchup: Winnipeg Jets (5-6-1) vs. New Jersey Devils (5-5-1)
7:00 PM at The Rock
TV/Radio: MSG+2/660 AM WFAN
Know Your Enemy: Thrashing the Blues (Claims to be an Atlanta Thrashers/St. Louis Blues blog. Since the Winnipeg Jets were formerly the Atlanta Thrashers, this blog is hopefully the right one.)
What we Think of the Jets: The Jets aren’t really doing that badly considering the entire team had to acclimate themselves to not only a new city and climate but also to an entirely different country…all within the past 6 months. Additionally, the Jets have remained a member of the Southeast Division and, as such, the majority of their games are against other Eastern Conference teams. This translates into a good amount of travel into another time zone. One could only assume that the traveling would take its toll on the players at some point but, so far, they’re not playing as if the excessive travelling is affecting them.
Tonight’s Game: The Devils enter tonight’s game fresh off their Thursday night shootout win in Philadelphia. You can read Darren’s recap of that game here. That same night, the Jets earned their first shutout of the season against the Islanders. The Devils are, unfortunately, riddled with injuries. Joining the usual suspects (Travis Zajac and Jacob Josefson) on the injured list are: Ilya Kovalchuk (pulled leg muscle), Andy Greene (lower body injury) and Johan Hedberg (pulled back muscle). All three of them are listed as day-to-day but will be sitting out tonight’s game. Eric Boulton could be ready to play tonight after sitting out five games due to a a sore hand. Marty Brodeur will get the start in net tonight. As we all know, his last appearance between the pipes (Wednesday’s 5-3 loss to Toronto) was less than stellar. Hopefully, he’s been able to practice a little more and shake off some of that rust he seems to have acquired while sitting out with his shoulder injury.
FUN FACT:
The Atlanta Thrashers moved to Winnipeg and became the Jets during this past off-season. For you youngsters and those with a very bad memory, there was once a Winnipeg Jets team that existed from 1972-1996. That team moved to Phoenix in 1996 and became the Coyotes. There are only two current Devils who have played against the original Winnipeg Jets team…Martin Brodeur and Petr Sykora.
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