NEW YORK – For the first time in 11 games, the Winnipeg Jets (14-1-0) will make a change to their group on defence.
Haydn Fleury will see his first action since October 18 as he draws into Tuesday’s tilt between the Jets and the New York Rangers.
“I’m excited. (Head coach Scott Arniel) told me yesterday, so I called my wife. It’s an early game so my older son can watch. He’s getting into it now,” Fleury said with a grin. “I’m just excited to get back out there with the guys.”
The game marks the beginning of a three-game road trek for the Jets, who won’t have the services of defenceman Logan Stanley for the duration of the trip. The 26-year-old Stanley is back in Winnipeg nursing what Arniel calls a “mid-body” injury.
“He’s been dealing with something here for the last week and a half or two weeks,” said Arniel. “We just felt it was time to shut it down. He’s playing in a lot of pain. We’ll see how he is when we get home.”
Fleury, who is averaging 15:03 of ice time in his four games this season, will slot in next to a familiar face in Colin Miller on the blue line. The duo has spent 47:33 together at five-on-five this season (per Natural Stat Trick) and have helped limit the opposition to just five high-danger chances against in that time.
“I thought me and Millsy had a good thing going. I think he’s played really well for the first 15 games here,” said Fleury. “I’ll jump in and we’ll try and pick up where we left off.”
While he hasn’t been playing, Fleury has done his best to stay mentally (and physically) sharp. Whether it’s pushing himself through conditioning skates at the end of practices or watching games closely, he feels he’s done the work to be ready to go against the Rangers.
“They have a lethal power play. They’re good in their building, so that will be a big challenge for us tonight,” said Fleury. “Just stick to what we do best. We’ve shown that our best hockey is good enough to win in this league. Just stick to that and set the road trip off right.”
Connor Hellebuyck will get the start in goal for the Jets. Hellebuyck was named the National Hockey League’s First Star of the Week on Monday, following a three-game run that saw him post two shutouts and stop 88 of 89 shots for a 0.33 goals-against average.
In front of him, the Jets line-up is expected to look like this:
Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Perfetti-Namestnikov-Ehlers
Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton
Barrno-Kupari-Iafallo
Morrissey-DeMelo
Samberg-Pionk
Fleury-Miller
The Rangers (9-3-1) are coming off a 4-0 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday. Madison Square Garden is a bit of a homecoming for a number of people in the Jets organization, including Neal Pionk, Morgan Barron, Vladislav Namestnikov, and head. Tries to extend Coach Scott Arniel – who spent five years with the Rangers as an Associate Coach.
It’s all business today though, as Winnipeg tries to build on the best start in NHL history.
“The last few years they’ve been one of the better teams in the league,” said Pionk. “It’s always a good match-up to play one of the best teams in the East and see how you stack up.”
Winnipeg’s power play, which currently sits atop the league at 41.9 percent, converted on two of five opportunities in the 4-1 win over the Dallas Stars on Saturday. It’ll be tested against the league’s best penalty kill, which the Rangers hold at 91.1 percent.
That’s a fact that the Jets are well aware of.
“It could be the deciding factor of the game, our power play versus their penalty kill,” said Pionk, who has two power play goals of his own this season. “We had a meeting about it this morning. We have to be sharp because they’re firing on all cylinders too. It’ll be a good match-up.”
Still, the majority of the game will be played at five-on-five, an area the Jets have excelled in – especially since the lone setback of the season against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Arniel says the Rangers have a number of different ways to create offence
“They’re one of the elite teams in the East,” said Arniel. “That rush game, we have to eliminate how much we allow them to do that. The second wave that comes with (Adam) Fox and their defence, we have to make sure we have numbers coming back and shutting that down whenever possible.”
Puck drop is set for 6 pm CT.
ICE CHIPS
Ville Heinola participated in the morning skate in a regular jersey after wearing non-contact for the last few skates.
“He’s full go and full contact. It’s conditioning and getting into these practices and getting run into,” said Arniel. “I’m not going to rush it here. We want him to be around the rest of the year. We don’t want this to come back and have something happen. We have to make sure his conditioning and battle is up where it needs to be.”
This is the first time Heinola has been a full participant in practice since he skated on the first day of training camp. An infection in his surgically repaired ankle was found during the defenceman’s bloodwork (as part of his training camp physical).
