The Winnipeg Jets play their last of seven pre-season games tonight when they entertain the New Jersey Devils at Bell MTS Place, as Winnipeg finishes a stretch of six games in eight days…The Jets fell 4-3 to the Minnesota Wild last night at Xcel Energy Center to fall to 4-2-0 in the pre-season…Following tonight’s game, the Jets will prepare for their season opener on Oct. 4 in St. Louis against the Blues.
Sept. 27 Game Notes vs. New Jersey Devils
Top Line Clicking
Set to play in tonight’s game, the Jets top line of Blake Wheeler, Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor has had a stellar pre-season thus far, as Wheeler has five points (2G, 3A) and Scheifele has four points (2G, 2A) in two games…Connor had an assist in his lone pre-season game…Last season, the trio combined for 77 goals and 208 points…Wheeler averaged more than a point per game with 91 points (23G, 68A) in 81 games, while Scheifele had exactly a point per game with 60 points (23G, 37A) in 60 games…Connor led all NHL rookies with 31 goals.
Midseason Form
Goaltender Connor Hellebuyck has picked up where he left off last season by posting a 2-0 record and .921 save percentage in his two pre-season starts…Last season he had a career best .924 save percentage in 67 games…He’s turned away 70 of 76 shots in the pre-season and the Jets have been outshot 76-43 in his two starts.
Best Pre-Season Ever?
The Jets can match the most pre-season wins in a season in franchise history with a victory tonight…The franchise won five pre-season games in 2003 and 2005 when it was located in Atlanta…The Jets need to earn one more point to have their best pre-season record since relocation in 2011…The current best record is 4-3-0 from 2016.
No Sympathy for the Devils
The Jets are 10-1-2 in their last 13 regular season games against New Jersey and have won the last four meetings…Since relocating to Winnipeg in 2011, the Jets are 6-2-0 against the Devils in Winnipeg…Blake Wheeler is Winnipeg’s active scoring leader against New Jersey, having tallied 13 points (6G, 7A) in 18 games as a member of the Jets franchise against the Devils.
Against the East
Tonight is the Jets only pre-season game against an Eastern Conference team…Winnipeg went 19-7-6 against the Eastern Conference last season, which was the second-best record by a Western Conference team against the East…Blake Wheeler led Winnipeg in scoring against the Eastern Conference last season with 37 points (10G, 27A) in 31 games.
Road Start
For the first time since 2015, the Jets start the regular season on the road, as they begin the 2018-19 campaign at Enterprise Center in St. Louis against the Blues on Oct. 4 and follow up with their second game in Dallas against the Stars on Oct. 6…However, Winnipeg plays the bulk of their October schedule at Bell MTS Place, as the team has seven of their first 10 games at home…The Jets have a season-high six-game homestand from Oct. 14-24.
Finland on the Horizon
While the Jets don’t play a neutral site game during the pre-season, Winnipeg does have a pair of neutral site games on its regular season schedule, as the Jets are scheduled to play the Florida Panthers in Helsinki, Finland on Nov. 1 and 2.