Jets at Lightning
The quest to reach the playoffs is getting more complicated for the Winnipeg Jets after losing three of their last four with an injury-hampered lineup. The Jets look to snap out of their funk and finish a four-game road trip with a split when they take on the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday. Winnipeg expects to be without two of its top four scorers in Bryan Little and Dustin Byfuglien for the fourth straight game and Tampa Bay is working on a five-game point streak (4-0-1).
Defenseman Tyler Myers also suffered an upper-body injury in the 4-2 loss at Florida on Thursday and is questionable for the Jets against the league’s top-scoring team. Captain Steven Stamkos notched his team-best 37th goal before the Lightning dropped a 3-2 shootout loss at Boston on Thursday. Tampa Bay, which plays the next six at home where it is a league-best 26-6-1, won at Winnipeg 4-2 on Oct. 24.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, SNET (Winnipeg), Sun Sports (Tampa Bay)
ABOUT THE JETS (33-23-12): Little is tied for second on the team in scoring with 51 points behind captain Andrew Ladd (55) and Byfuglien has 42 for Winnipeg, which has dropped one point behind Los Angeles for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Myers has nine points in 12 games with a plus-3 rating since being acquired from Buffalo in a blockbuster trade. Forward Mark Scheifele has tried to pick up some of the slack with eight points in eight games, including his 11th goal Thursday.
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (42-20-7): Tampa Bay has injury concerns of its own with recently-acquired defenseman Braydon Coburn out 4-6 weeks and fourth-leading scorer Ondrej Palat expected with miss 2-3 weeks with lower-body injuries. Vladislav Namestnikov moved up to the line with leading scorer Tyler Johnson (65 points) and Nikita Kucherov (56) and scored his second goal in four games Thursday. Defenseman Matt Carle (abdominal) could be ready for a return Saturday after missing 23 games.
OVERTIME
1. Winnipeg has struggled on the power play over the last six games, converting only one of 16 opportunities.
2. Tampa Bay F Cedric Paquette (upper body) is also out up to two weeks and C Mike Angelidis made his season debut Thursday.
3. The Jets recalled D Keaton Ellerby from St. John’s of the American Hockey League to add support after Myers’ injury.