WINNIPEG — Ahead of Thursday’s pivotal Game 4 of the Winnipeg Jets and Nashville Predators series, which is rapidly shaping up as a goalapalooza insta-classic, both sides have decided to make some lineup changes.
“This is kind of the turning point in the series,” says sniper Patrik Laine. “It’s either 3-1 or 2-2. It makes a huge difference.”
Here are a few quick notes ahead of Game 4, set to be waged in Whiteout conditions.
Armia draws into Jets lineup
As injured players get healthy in Winnipeg, Maurice’s challenge becomes whether to alter a winning lineup. It seems that Joel Armia will replace Jack Roslovic as the right winger on Line 4 tonight, and we would guess that Mathieu Perreault will soon return to centre that line, at Matt Hendricks’s expense.
Some coaches wouldn’t mess with a winning hand, so we asked Maurice about his protocol for shuffling the lineup.
“Fewest changes possible,” he began. “When you have an injury during the year, you don’t want to have to change four lines to fix one hole. After that, you want to make sure you have enough healthy bodies that you’re sure of in the lineup on any given night. [I’m] not afraid to change the lineup after wins, or feel it necessary to change the lineup after a loss to change the room. I don’t feel, with this group, that has an impact.”
Armia is happy to be back after getting hurt in Round 1.
“It’s been tough to watch the games,” the Finnish winger said. “You get so nervous watching the games because you can’t do anything. I like what the team has been doing, playing great hockey, so it’s good.”
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Hartnell up
It looks like the hardworking Scott Hartnell will draw into Nashville’s lineup, after being a healthy scratch for all but one game this spring. He could replace Kevin Fiala on a line with the ineffective Kyle Turris and Craig Smith.
That unit needs to provide some secondary scoring for Nashville, with Turris still searching for his first goal of these playoffs. Fiala, who may be injured, though that isn’t clear, scored in the first two games of this series, including the double-overtime winner in Game 2.
“I’m not looking to start anything, but I’m most effective when I’m playing a physical brand of hockey, especially in front of the net,” Hartnell says.
“This is my second game in a month. This series has been so fast that I need to do everything I can to make sure I don’t get caught out there with the difference in speed.”
On defence, Alexei Emelin looks to be coming out, with Yannick Weber entering the fray. Weber hasn’t played since March 24, so stepping into a series this speedy won’t be easy.
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Subban honoured, loathed
Predators defenceman P.K. Subban proudly discussed his King Clancy Memorial Trophy nomination, an honour he shares with the Sedin twins and Jason Zucker for his generosity off the ice.
Yet despite his humanitarianism, Subban is being lustily booed and jeered every time he touches the puck at Bell MTS Place.
We asked how he feels about that.
“What boos?” he said, feigning ignorance. “You know what? I’ll take it as a compliment and continue to play. My focus is just on our team. It becomes a distraction if we pay too much attention to that.
“When you’re asked to play a lot of minutes in different situations, you really have no time or energy to focus on anything else but the game. It’s a good team, there’s some good players. You lose your focus for a second, it can cost you.”
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Subban already has four points in this series but took an ill-advised penalty in the critical third period of Game 3 and is a minus-4 in the three games.
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Scary which Jets are not scoring
Youngsters Kyle Connor and Nikolaj Ehlers combined for 60 goals in the regular season, but neither has found the back of the net through eight playoff games.
It speaks to Winnipeg’s great depth that the Jets top all Western Conference playoff teams with 3.88 goals per game.
“I’m getting chances,” Connor, 21, said. “I’d be a little worried if I’m not. Just keep shooting. Goal scorers will tell you to never stop shooting.
“As long as you’re working hard, you’ll get rewarded.”
Maurice flipped the top-six left wingers midway through Game 3’s victory but insists that individual goal slumps had nothing to do with his tactic.
“It’s line work now,” Maurice explained. “About 16 years ago we’re heading in to play Detroit in the final, and [Carolina’s] Sami Kapanen wasn’t scoring. So you’ve got to get Sami Kapanen scoring, and the answer was, ‘Why?’
“If you’re fortunate enough to move on to the next round, somebody’s got to carry the ball. And it’s never the same guy. Mark [Sheifele] is scoring right now, which means whoever is playing with him is right. [Paul] Stastny is scoring, so whoever is playing with him is right.
“I don’t need them scoring. I need them playing well. I need the line playing well.”
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Laine gets sneaky in attempt to get on the board
It’s been 20 days since Patrik Laine has scored a goal.
Despite firing 15 combined shots over Games 2 and 3, the shooter has yet to solve countryman Pekka Rinne.
In a creative attempt to do so, Laine faked a dump-in and blasted one from centre ice Tuesday. Anticipating a hard rim around the boards, Laine nearly caught the Vezina finalist out of position with his trickery.
“I was just trying to fake that I’m shooting it to the rim and kind of at the last second turned and shot it at the net. And I know he’s an active goalie and he’s always trying to stop the rim, so that’s a good way to try to score once in a while,” Laine said.
“That was my first try, a very good first try. I don’t know why I did that. I just figured I had to try it. It would have been a nice goal. Maybe next time.”
Maurice has full confidence in his 44-goal man. If Laine catches fire, Nashville is in trouble.
“I’ve told that story that in training camp he [was] hitting posts and missing the net and he’s talking to himself in Finnish. And I thought I’d correct him on it,” Maurice recalled. “Then he scored about nine straight the next practice, so I never said a word to him about it. He’s getting his shots. They’ll go for him at some point.”
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Hellebuyck knew Arvidsson would go glove
Connor Hellebuyck had a bad game Tuesday but came up huge when it mattered.
With the score knotted at four, speedy Viktor Arvidsson was gifted a long, pure breakaway.
“I thought, ‘If I’m going to make an impact on this game, it’s definitely this moment.’ He’s coming down, and I just wanted to look calm, as usual. And I got a good bead on it, and he put it right where I thought he was going to,” Hellebuyck said.
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Rinne can be better
Pekka Rinne has allowed an average of four goals per night, and his .890 save percentage isn’t painting a pretty picture.
“They’ve had some good looks, but obviously there’s room for improvement,” Rinne said. “When you’re giving up four or five goals a game, there’s always a few you want to have back.”
Hellebuyck empathizes with his foil, as both goalies have been thrust into a track meet.
“I really hope the media’s not all over him,” Hellebuyck said. “That’s just the way we play each other. It’s happened all season long, and it’s continuing on in the playoffs. There’s a lot of offence. And it’s not like the defence isn’t playing well. The defence is playing phenomenal, especially the guys in front of me. They’re playing just unbelievable. There’s just that much offence going around.”
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Can Scott Oake elevate his pre-game to new heights?
Unofficial mayor of Winnipeg Scott Oake made the social-media rounds Tuesday when he stood atop a makeshift pedestal and floated godlike above the mob of Whiteout partiers filling the downtown streets.
Oake says he is now left with the unenviable task of trying to top his Game 3 performance.
