Panthers at Jets
THE STORY: The Winnipeg Jets return home after a lengthy East Coast road trip to host the Southeast Division rival Florida Panthers on Thursday. Winnipeg went 3-2-2 on its seven-game trek but concluded it with three straight losses (0-1-2), including a 6-5 overtime setback in Buffalo on Tuesday in which it squandered four leads. One of the stops on the trip was Florida, where the Jets posted a 4-3 shootout victory on Oct. 31 to improve to 7-1-1 in the last nine meetings between the franchises. The surprising Panthers have earned at least one point in each of their last five contests (2-0-3) and seven of eight (4-1-3) to climb within one of division-leading Washington. However, Florida has dropped 12 of its last 17 road games.
TV: 8:30 p.m. ET, FSN (Florida), TSN (Winnipeg)
ABOUT THE PANTHERS (7-4-3): Tomas Fleischmann had his seven-game points streak snapped in Tuesday's 5-1 victory at Toronto. Fleischmann is two assists away from 100 for his career. Backup goaltender Scott Clemmensen put on the Panthers uniform for the first time this season on Tuesday. Clemmensen sat out Florida's first 13 games with a knee injury. Marco Sturm, who was acquired from Vancouver on Oct. 22, scored his first goal in seven contests as a member of the Panthers. It was the veteran's first point in 13 combined contests this campaign with the Canucks and Florida.
ABOUT THE JETS (5-7-3): Winnipeg placed center Ben Maxwell on waivers Wednesday. The 23-year-old appeared in four games with the Jets, registering a minus-2 rating without a point. The Jets are speaking out against former NHL enforcer Georges Laraque's claim in his book that the use of performance-enhancing drugs is running rampant in the league. "Where does that come from?" Tanner Glass asked. "It's ridiculous. It’s completely unfounded. What is he basing it on? The NHL has a drug-testing policy that they follow very strictly. I haven’t heard of one rumor ever in the past, other than this." Jim Slater also found the claim surprising. "I don’t know anybody that’s ever done it," he said.
OVERTIME:
1. Jets goaltender Ondrej Pavelec has had the Panthers' number over his career, going 5-1-0 with a .935 save percentage in seven career starts.
2. Florida's Jack Skille tallied Tuesday for the first time in 14 games this season. After being acquired from Chicago on Feb. 9, Skille netted one goal in 13 contests with the Panthers.