LOS ANGELES – The fourth stop on the season-long six-game road trip will see the Winnipeg Jets play in their third different time zone when they take on the Los Angeles Kings tonight.
The trip that commenced in the Eastern time zone with a 4-1 victory over Pittsburgh on Friday was followed with two stops in the Central in Nashville and Minnesota.
Now it’s time to perform in the Pacific.
“It’s tough with the time changes,” said Vladislav Namestnikov. “You feel like you got a good sleep, but you wake up at seven in the morning here and your body is all confused.”
The Jets (18-4-0) had a much-needed day off on Tuesday, just one day after a 4-1 win over the Minnesota Wild and a four-hour flight into Los Angeles postgame on Monday.
“I think the biggest thing is they got the day off and maybe get the clocks in their heads set to being in the west. They got to relax and get some off-ice stuff to look after themselves,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel. “When you get to the game tonight, that part can’t even be in your head. It’s all about Los Angeles tonight and coming out and being at our best.”
The Jets won two of the three meetings with Los Angeles last season with one of those victories coming at Crypto.com Arena.
That was a memorable night for Gabriel Vilardi, who scored once and added three assists in his return to Los Angeles – where the 25-year-old played 89 of his 221 career games between 2019 and 2022.
If Winnipeg wants to continue that success against Los Angeles, they know they’ll have to get right back to the game that helped them limit Minnesota to just four shots on goal in the third period on Monday.
“We shut down the middle of the ice in our own end really well,” said Haydn Fleury. “That led to the transition. We started holding onto pucks down low. When our group of forwards is holding onto pucks down low, we’re a tough group. I think we showed that.”
Connor Hellebuyck – who made 43 saves on 44 shots on Monday – will get the start in goal for the Jets. In front of him, the line-up is expected to look like this:
Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Perfetti-Namestnikov-Ehlers
Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton
Barron-Kupari-Iafallo
Morrissey-DeMelo
Fleury-Pionk
Heinola-Miller
It’ll be the second consecutive game that Fleury skates alongside Neal Pionk. Fleury played 18:14 against the Wild, a season-high for him, in his first taste of the extra workload that comes with filling the spot of injured defenceman Dylan Samberg.
“I thought the first was a bit scrambly, but I thought we got better as the game went on,” said Fleury, who blocked five shots. “The second and third were really good, and we look to continue that tonight.”
The Kings (11-8-3) are fourth in the Pacific Division and are 5-5-0 in their last 10 games. Included in that is their last outing, where they gave up six unanswered goals (including five in the third period) in a 7-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks. Namestnikov sees that game as a bump in the road for the Kings, and expects them to be back at their best tonight.
“They’re always well structured,” Namestnikov said of the Kings. “You have to break them down zone by zone. They’re known for turning pucks over in the neutral zone. So we have to get through there and from there, we’re good enough in the o-zone to start cycling and get pucks on net.”
In the loss to the Sharks, Los Angeles gave up just 21 shots. In fact, it’s been difficult for teams to get many pucks to the net against the Kings this season. On average, the Kings have allowed 24.5 shots against per-game this season – the fewest in the National Hockey League.
“They have a hard-working forward group. They work hard to take away your time and your space,” said Arniel. “They do a good job of boxing out and protecting the guts of the ice They’re a big heavy team. At the same time, we faced Minnesota the other night and it’s a lot of the same kind of things.
“We have to create our offence by using our quickness, getting inside, and looking for those second and third opportunities.”
Puck drop is set for 9 pm CT.
ICE CHIPS
Logan Stanley participated in the morning skate in a regular jersey after starting the trip in non-contact.
“He did some battle drills in Minnesota after the morning skate, he’ll do a bit more today,” said Arniel. “We have a practice tomorrow and we’ll see where it’s at from there. This is the heavy lifting stuff now that we want to see him do, and see where he’s at.”
