The (19-14-5) Winnipeg Jets are in Montreal for their first visit of the season against the (14-18-7) Canadiens.
TSN 1290's coverage begins with Hustler & Lawless at 4:00. Rick Ralph hosts the official Jets pregame show at 5:30. Dennis Beyak, Shane Hnidy and I will have the play-by-play live from the Bell Centre at 6:30.
The Jets are looking to tie their longest winning streak of the season (December 1st to 9th) at four games after finishing the 2011 calendar year with three consecutive victories.
Ondrej Pavelec starts in goal. In December, Pavelec won seven games, had a 1.95 goals against average, 939 save percentage and two shutouts.
Blake Wheeler is on a five-game point streak (three goals and four assists).
Jim Slater returns to the lineup after missing the last two games due to an upper body injury. Defenceman Randy Jones also returns to the blueline after missing the last nine games due to injury. He has played just two of the last 26 games.
Jets Expected Roster:
Kane-Stapleton-Wheeler
Ladd-Antropov-Wellwood
Glass-Slater-Miettinen
Thorburn-Burmistrov-Fehr
Enstrom-Hainsey
Oduya-Bogosian
Stuart-Jones
The first two games of the four-game regular season series have both been in Winnipeg so far. Montreal won 5-1 October 9th while the Jets were 4-0 winners December 22nd. Wheeler leads the Jets with two goals and an assist against the Habs, while Tomas Plekanec has one goal and two assists vs Winnipeg.
The final game of the season between these two teams is in Montreal February 5th.