Playoff FGD: Meet the Jets, Game 2 (12:30pm MT, SN)

Photo credit:Candice Ward-USA TODAY Sports

3 years ago

After an eventful Game 1 of their Qualifying Round series, the Calgary Flames and Winnipeg Jets will meet this afternoon at Rogers Place in a crucial Game 2 of their series. Can the Flames get two-thirds of the way to advancing to the “regular” playoffs? Or will the Jets roar back and make a series of it? Sleep in, grab some bunch, and tune in to find out!

The puck drops for Game 2 at 12:30 p.m. MT on Sportsnet’s national feed (with Chris Cuthbert and Louie DeBrusk) and Sportsnet 960 The Fan (with Derek Wills and Peter Loubardias).

The Flames

Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:

Gaudreau – Monahan – Lindholm
Mangiapane – Backlund – Tkachuk
Lucic – Bennett – Dube
Rinaldo – Ryan – Rieder

Giordano – Brodie
Hanifin – Andersson
Forbort – Gustafsson

Cam Talbot will start for the second time in the post-season. He’s backed up by David Rittich. The projected extras are Austin Czarnik, Byron Froese, Mark Jankowski, Alan Quine, Buddy Robinson, Oliver Kylington, Michael Stone, Juuso Valimaki, Alexander Yelesin, Jon Gillies and Artyom Zagidulin. No lineup changes are anticipated from Game 1.

The Flames allowed a five-on-five goal and then scored goals in every other game situation in Game 1 – shorthanded, on the power play and on an empty net – but alternate captain Sean Monahan thought it was one of their tidier defensive games of the season when chatting with the media on Sunday afternoon:

I think it was one of the better ones. If you look at [Game 1] and our scoring chances, I think they were pretty limited. We gave them a lot of power play and we did a good job on the kill, but I think we a had a lot of time in their end, obviously, fore-checking and holding pucks. Compared to whatever, five months ago it was, I think we’ve worked a lot in this last few weeks in camp on our D-zone and changed a little bit, and the guys responded well and did a good job with it.

The Jets

Warm-up lines, via Daily Faceoff (and Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press):

Connor-Copp-Wheeler
Ehlers-Eakin-Perreault
Roslovic-Lowry-Harkins
Bourque-Shore-Shaw

Morrissey – DeMelo
Kulikov – Pionk
Beaulieu – Poolman

Connor Hellebuyck starts for the Jets, backed up by Laurent Brossoit. The Game 1 extras were Gabriel Bourque, David Gustafsson, Jansen Harkins, Mark Letestu, Logan Shaw, Anthony Bitetto, Carl Dahlstrom, Sami Niku, Luca Sbisa, Mikhail Berdin and Eric Comrie.

Mark Scheifele, Patrik Laine and Mason Appleton missed practice on Sunday according to the club.

If we assume there’s no Scheifele or Laine for Game 2, that means probably two of Bourque, Harkins or Letestu come in. Your guess for Jets line are as good as ours, but likely Blake Wheeler moves to center on the top line, Jack Roslovic moves up the rotation and plays on the wing, and then the Jets cram in their fresh bodies wherever they can.

UPDATE: Based on warm-ups: Scheifele, Laine and Appleton are OUT, Bourque, Harkins and Shaw are in.

Expect a desperate Jets team this afternoon as they cannot afford to go down 2-0, especially with it unclear if Scheifele or Laine will be available for Game 3 – which is tomorrow.

The Numbers

	Flames	Jets
Wins	1	0
Adjusted Corsi	45.3%	54.7%
Power Play	50.0%	0.0%
Penalty Kill	100%	50.0%

Unfit to Play Report

The Flames are without D Travis Hamonic (opted out).

The Jets are without F Bryan Little (head). F Mark Scheifele (lower body) and F Patrik Laine (upper body) are doubtful.

When Last We Met

The Flames won Game 1 by a 4-1 score. They got goals from Johnny Gaudreau, Tobias Rieder, Mikael Backlund and Andrew Mangiapane. They were also a perfect seven-for-seven on the penalty kill.

Know Thy Enemy

Here are some key Twitter peeps to follow for tonight:

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