GAMEDAY: Oilers at Jets

WINNIPEG – The Winnipeg Jets are home for the final two games of the regular season beginning with the Edmonton Oilers tonight at 6 CT at Canada Life Centre.

The Jets clinched the Central Division title and locked up the top seed in the Western Conference thanks to a 5-4 shootout win in Chicago last night.

"Yeah, I mean it's taken us 80 games to get this division. It's been a grind, and I don't care how we got it,” said head coach Scott Arniel.

“We got it. It just, like I said before, teams in our division don't go away, as good as we've played. It's finally, to get that over and done with, it's a relief."

It wasn’t easy in Chicago last night as the Jets had to come back from 2-0 and 4-3 deficits to beat the Blackhawks.

“Everyone is disappointed with our start. Obviously, we battled back, and we were able to get it. But we were able to get it to 3-2 in the third and gave up a couple of quick ones. It wasn’t a masterpiece, but it was nice to close it out and solidify home ice, for hopefully a long run,” said Adam Lowry.

“We haven’t really accomplished anything yet. We are still focused on the goal ahead but to have a small reward for the work we have put in throughout the year is a nice little feather in our cap.”

The Jets took Friday off in Chicago and didn’t have a morning skate in Chicago because of the fact that they knew they were in the midst of three games in four nights. Winnipeg won’t hold a morning skate at Canada Life Centre this morning either.

Make sure to watch the Jets pregame show with Sara and Jamie.

The Jets are one win away from winning the Presidents’ Trophy and home ice all the way through the Stanley Cup Final. However, that doesn’t mean that we will see the lineup that we saw in Chicago last night as Nikolaj Ehlers was injured in a freak collision with a linesman. With the playoffs at least six days away, there might be some players who will want the rest and some that don’t.

“So, it has more to do with talking the group, individually, talking to guys, and seeing where they what they feel like,” said Arniel.

“So, there's guys that want to play all 82 games, you know. So, there's different scenarios that fall into play.”

Since Connor Hellebuyck played last night, it appears that Eric Comrie will start his 20^th game of the season and get a chance to equal a career high in wins (10) that he set back in 2021-22, his last season with the Jets before signing with Buffalo.

“We didn't give him the run support for a stretch there in the middle of the season. But he still gave us great goaltending, and that's what you asked from your backups,” said Arniel.

“Helle’s workload, and for him to come in and continue to keep us rolling and do what he does. That's a pretty strong message that you have two guys back there that are real good, and he's a good kid.”

The Oilers may be trying to lock down home ice in the first round of the playoffs, but they will do so tonight minus some big names on their roster. Edmonton will not have Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, Mattias Ekholm, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Trent Frederic but they will have the world’s best player in Connor McDavid.

If the Jets decide to rest some of their important players, it will be a great chance for the guys who are playing to go up against 97.

“For guys to play against elite players, that's experience that will be good for them, like you mentioned in the playoffs,” said Arniel.

“97, he’s special. And so, anytime you get out in the ice, you got to know what you're doing and what he's doing and try to be at your best. And yeah, they're going to have a chance and opportunity.”

Winnipeg has earned points in five of the past six games (4-1-1) against Edmonton and they are 6-2-3 in the past 11 matchups. The away team has won five straight games. Winnipeg’s power play has scored in seven of the past nine matchups.