Blues at Jets
The Winnipeg Jets are rolling along with points in eight straight games (6-0-2) and they get a key player back in the lineup Friday night when they host the Central Division-rival St. Louis Blues. Center Mark Scheifele, who is still fourth on the team in scoring despite missing the last 16 contests with an upper-body injury, will return to top-line duty as Winnipeg tries to extend its home point streak to 11 games.
Scheifele (15 goals, 38 points) has skated on a line with Patrik Laine and Blake Wheeler this week, giving the Jets another offensive weapon on a team that ranked fifth in the league entering Friday at 3.22 goals per game. “I like when we’re healthy how we can match with the other teams,” Winnipeg coach Paul Maurice told reporters. “We have enough depth. We’ve got a good balance here of guys that can grind and certainly enough offense that we can score goals.” The Blues come in off their highest output in almost two months as they rolled to a 6-1 victory over Colorado on Thursday, getting at least one point from 13 players. All-Star forward Brayden Schenn snapped out of a mini slump Thursday with a pair of goals for St. Louis, taking over the team lead with 23 and moving past 300 points in his career (301), and fought Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog immediately after the opening faceoff.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, FS Midwest (St. Louis), TSN3 (Winnipeg)
ABOUT THE BLUES (33-20-3): While Schenn notched his second and third points in the last five games, right wing Vladimir Tarasenko was held off the scoresheet Thursday and has managed one assist without a goal in his past six contests. Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo also ended a four-game point drought with his ninth goal of the season and veteran center Paul Stastny recorded two points in his 798th career game. Left wing Jaden Schwartz has picked it up with two goals and an assist in his last four games after going without a point in his first two contests following a near-seven week stint on injured reserve.
ABOUT THE JETS (32-13-9): Wheeler, who has been playing a lot of center with Scheifele out, moves back to the wing after totaling four assists in the last four games while Laine boasts six goals in his past 11 contests. Winnipeg has allowed only 15 goals during its point streak and All-Star goalie Connor Hellebuyck (28-6-8, 2.32 goals-against average, .924 save percentage) has played a part while yielding one or fewer goals three times in the stretch. Jack Roslovic, a 2015 first-round pick, posted three goals in the last five games and fellow forward Kyle Connor boasts four points (two goals) in the past four contests.
OVERTIME
1. St. Louis D Vince Dunn registered a career-high three points Thursday after going without one in four straight games.
2. Winnipeg announced backup G Michael Hutchinson is out indefinitely with a concussion and G Eric Comrie was recalled.
3. The Jets have won seven of the last eight meetings, but the teams split a home-and-home series in December.