Preview: Bruins look to right the ship in a visit to Winnipeg

Just the facts

When: Tonight, 8 PM

Where: Canada Life Centre - Winnipeg, MB

How to follow: NESN, 98.5 The Sports Hub

Rival SBN site: Arctic Ice Hockey

Know your enemy

• 38-27-3, 79 points, 4th in the Central Division, WC2 in Western Conference
• Kyle Connor: 27G-46A-73PTS; Josh Morrissey: 15G-52A-67PTS; Mark Scheifele: 38G-22A-60PTS
• Connor Hellebuyck: 29-20-2, 2.64 GAA, .919 save percentage

Game notes

• The Bruins’ “Road Trip of Woe” continues north of the border with a visit to scenic Winnipeg, home of the former Atlanta Thrashers. I miss the Thrashers.
• The Jets are in the thick of quite a playoff race out west, just five points out of second place in their division but just four points from dropping out of the dance entirely. A 3-5-2 stretch in their last ten hasn’t exactly solidified their position, especially with Nashville streaking at 7-2-1. The Jets have a big game with those same Predators on Saturday afternoon.
• I felt like the Bruins always had a tough time at Winnipeg, but the numbers only kind of hold true: the B’s are 5-5-2 on the road against this iteration of the Jets.
• The Jets have been involved in some high-flying affairs of late: a 7-5 win over Edmonton, a 5-4 OT win over the Panthers, a 5-3 loss to Carolina. 1-0 shootout game tonight, book it.
• Winnipeg boasts the league’s fourth-best penalty kill at 82.9%, meaning the B’s will have a tall task if they hope to break out of their PP slump tonight.
• Jakub Lauko was recalled from Providence again yesterday. I can only assume these are paper/salary cap/something-I-don’t-understand transactions at this point, but it probably wouldn’t hurt to get the kid in a game at some point soon.
• Unsurprisingly for a team with Connor Hellebuyck in net, the Jets are pretty stingy in the goals-against department, averaging 2.84 this season. Hellebuyck continues to be the definition of a workhorse, having started 117 regular season games for Winnipeg between last season and this year so far.
• It remains to be seen whether or not Jim Montgomery continues with his rotate-a-defenseman approach tonight, but it’s a safe bet that he will. Brandon Carlo was a healthy scratch last game, along with Jakub Zboril and the aforementioned Lauko.
• Logic dictates that it’ll be Jeremy Swayman in net for the Bruins tonight, but part of me wonders if Montgomery isn’t tempted to trot Ullmark back out there after an uncharacteristically off (on the scoreboard, at least) night in Chicago.

See ya tonight!