Jets shuffle the deck; Copp, Dano back in, Petan out tonight

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This article was published 03/03/2017 (3365 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Centre Nic Petan will be a healthy scratch tonight when the Winnipeg Jets host the St. Louis Blues in a crucial Central Division matchup at the MTS Centre (7 p.m., TSN3, TSN 1290).

Petan, who had dressed for 30 consecutive games, will be replaced by sophomore centre Andrew Copp, who returns to the lineup after missing five games with an upper-body injury. Forward Marko Dano, who missed 36 games with a lower-body issue, will be back on the ice, filling a slot left by veteran Drew Stafford’s deadline-day trade to Boston.

“Nic’s out tonight,” Winnipeg head coach Paul Maurice said following today’s pregame skate. “I want to get Andrew Copp back in and at centre…. The chain of it is Matty Perreault has gone in to where Copp was and really excelled. I like where Andrew Copp’s game was. I think when you look at bottom six of their team, there’s going to be a little more weight to their lineup. And I want Marco Dano back in. And I want Chris (Thorburn) in for this game tonight, so Nic comes out.”

Petan, who has seen mostly fourth-line duty and some power-play time this season, has one goal and 11 assists in 43 games.

“I wouldn’t say there’s been a fall off in (Petan’s) last few games,” said Maurice. “He’s been reasonably good. He’s done some good things. We are still waiting for a little bit of production… There hasn’t been a big enough payoff on the power play. Also I think we’d like to get Patty Laine unleashing that shot a bit more and to do that a better net front presence will help us, and Marko Dano is very, very good in front of the net. That’s how all those pieces fit together.”

The Jets are six points behind the Los Angeles Kings in the race for the final wild-card playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Blues, meanwhile, are one point behind the Kings but have two games in hand on both Winnipeg and Los Angeles.

Maurice will give Connor Hellebuyck his ninth straight start in goal. Hellebuyck was pulled midway through a 6-5 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday after allowing five goals in 21 shots.

“He’s gotta get right back on the horse,” said Maurice. “He was such a critical, critical piece to us playing so very, very well on the road trip. I put his game against Minnesota in the exact same bucket that I put the rest of the team in. We were quite a bit off what we expect from him.”

Ondrej Pavelec, who was slated to return from a lower-body injury to back up Hellebuyck tonight, will be replaced by Michael Hutchinson. Pavelec has been sidelined for eight games.

“Pav got through his on-ice (work) but he didn’t get through his off-ice to my liking,” Maurice said. “So I don’t have him backing up.”

The Blues are 7-5-0 since Mike Yeo replaced Ken Hitchcock as head coach on Feb. 1. Yeo will counter with Carter Hutton in net tonight.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14