GAMEDAY: Jets at Kings | Winnipeg Jets

LOS ANGELES – In the fourth stop of the season’s six-game road trip, the Winnipeg Jets play in their third different time zone tonight when they take on the Los Angeles Kings.

The trip, which began in the Eastern time zone with a 4-1 win over Pittsburgh on Friday, was followed by two stops in the Central time zone in Nashville and Minnesota.

Now it’s time to perform in the Pacific.

“It’s difficult with the time change,” said Vladislav Namestnikov. “You feel like you slept well, but you wake up here at seven in the morning and your body is completely confused.”

The Jets (18-4-0) had a much-needed day off on Tuesday, just one day after a 4-1 win over the Minnesota Wild and a four-hour flight to Los Angeles after Monday’s game.

“I think the biggest thing is that they have the day off and maybe they have the clocks in their heads set to the West. They were able to relax and get some things off the ice to take care of themselves,” Jets head coach Scott Arniel said. “When you come to the game tonight, that part may not even be in your head. Tonight is all about Los Angeles and coming out and doing our best.”

The Jets won two of the three meetings with Los Angeles last season, one of those wins coming at the Crypto.com Arena.

It was a memorable evening for Gabriel Vilardi, who scored one goal and provided three assists on his return to Los Angeles – where the 25-year-old played 89 of his 221 career games between 2019 and 2022.

If Winnipeg wants to continue this success against Los Angeles, they know they have to get right back to the play that helped them limit Minnesota to just four shots on goal in the third period on Monday.

“We closed the middle of the ice really well on our own end,” Haydn Fleury said. “That led to the transition. We started hanging on to pucks down low. When our forward group holds the pucks down low, we are a strong group. I think we showed that.”

Connor Hellebuyck — who made 43 saves on 44 shots Monday — will start in goal for the Jets. The lineup in front of him should look like this:

Connor Scheifele Vilardi

Perfetti-Namestnikov-Ehlers

Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton

Barron-Kupari-Iafallo

Morrissey DeMelo

Fleury Pionk

Heinola Miller

It will be the second game in a row that Fleury skates alongside Neal Pionk. Fleury went 18:14 against the Wild, a season-high for him, and got his first taste of the extra workload that comes with filling injured defenseman Dylan Samberg’s spot.

“I thought the first one was a little hectic, but I thought we got better as the game went on,” said Fleury, who stopped five shots. “The second and third rounds were really good and we want to continue that tonight.”

The Kings (11-8-3) are fourth in the Pacific Division and are 5-5-0 in their last 10 games. This includes their last game where they conceded six unanswered goals (including five in the third period) in a 7-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks. Namestnikov sees this game as a roadblock for the Kings and expects them to be back to their best tonight.

“They’re always well-structured,” Namestnikov said of the Kings. “You have to break it down zone by zone. They are known for turning over pucks in the neutral zone. So we’ve got to get through that and from there we’re good enough in the O-zone to start cycling and getting pucks in the net.”

In the loss to the Sharks, Los Angeles only took 21 shots. In fact, it’s been difficult for teams to put many pucks in the net against the Kings this season. On average, the Kings have allowed 24.5 goals against per game this season – the fewest in the National Hockey League.

“They have a hard-working forward group. They work hard to take time and space from you,” Arniel said. “They do a good job of boxing out and protecting the guts of the ice. They are a big, heavy team. At the same time, we played Minnesota the other night and it’s a lot of the same things.

“We have to build our offense by using our speed, getting inside and looking for second and third chances.”

Puck drop is scheduled for 9:00 p.m. CT.

ICE CHIPS

Logan Stanley took part in the morning skate in his regular jersey after starting the ride without contact.

“He did some fighting drills in Minnesota after the morning skate, he’s going to do a little more today,” Arniel said. “We have training tomorrow and will see how it goes. That’s the hard work now that we want to leave to him and see where he stands.”