Welcome to December, and with that is a cold winter night in Manitoba at the Canada Life Center against the reset Winnipeg Jets.

This is their first meeting of the season, last meeting in an overtime loss on Canadian soil, 4-3. Their last victory was a 3-0 shutout on November 24, 2021.

The Jets had plenty of changes, similarly to Vegas.

Winnipeg lost a lot of depth in free agency, including forwards Evgnei Svechinkov; Luke Johnson; CJ Suess; Austin Poganski; Adam Brooks; and Kevin Stenlund; defenseman Markus Phillips; and goaltenders Eric Comrie and Phillipe Desrosiers. Goalie David Rittich; forwards Kevin Stenlund and Saku Maenalanen; and defenseman Kyle Capobianco joined along with new bench boss Rick Bowness.

The Jets are white hot to start the season, with Connor Hellybuck being the team MVP; and point scoring coming from from all 4 lines and their defensemen.

For Columbus, as reported yesterday, Patrik Laine and Elvis Merzlikins are back for the club, leading to the reassignment of defender Billy Sweezey and goaltender Daniil Tarasov.

Projected Lineups

Winnipeg Jets

Cole Perfetti—Mark Schiefele—Blake Wheeler
Kyle Connor—Pierre-Luc Dubois—Morgan Barron
Axel Jonnson-Fjallby—Adam Lowry—Saku Maenalanen
Jansen Harkins—David Gustavsson—Michael Eyssimont

Joshua Morrissey—Dylan DeMelo
Brenden Dillon—Neal Pionk
Dylan Samberg—Nate Schmidt

Connor Hellebuyck
David Rittich

Scratched — Sam Gagner
Injured — Nikolaj Ehlers, Logan Stanley, Mason Appleton



Columbus Blue Jackets

Johnny Gaudreau—Boone Jenner—Patrik Laine
Kent Johnson—Jack Roslovic—Gustav Nyquist
Yegor Chinakov—Cole Sillinger—Liam Foudy
Eric Robinson—Sean Kuraly—Carson Meyer

Vladislav Gavrikov—Marcus Bjork
Jake Christiansen—Eric Gubdranson
Gavin Bayreuther—Andrew Peeke

Joonas Korpisalo
Elvis Merzlikins

Scratched — Mathieu Oliver, Tim Breni, Trey Fix-Wolansky
Injured — Zach Werenski, Adam Boqvist, Jake Bean, Nick Blanenburg, Justin Danforth, Jakub Voracek

Players to Watch

Winnipeg — Joshua Morrissey — dark horse potential for Top 10 defender this season and Norris winner.

Columbus — Patrik Laine — first game back from second injury of the season; and against the team that drafted and trade him. Laine has 2 goals and 2 assists in 8 healthy games this season.

Prediction

Winnipeg - 3

Columbus - 2

Overtime

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