The Ducks' blue line is doing a lot of the lifting. Tristan Luneau signed a 6-year, $43.2 million extension on October 1 and has been slotted on the top pair. Drew Helleson is on injured reserve with a lower-body injury and hopes to be back by the end of this road trip, which means he's unlikely to play in Winnipeg. Ian Moore is also on IR, so Anaheim's defense is thinner than it looks on the season-opening roster.
The form card shows how tight both teams have played. Winnipeg's 4 games have finished 3-4, 3-2, 3-2 and 3-2, with the Jets scoring exactly 3 goals every night. Josh Morrissey said in camp that he liked the changes toward a faster, more defense-first team, and so far it's producing exactly what was intended: close games, few goals allowed, nobody running away. Anaheim's 2 wins also came by 1 goal each, 1 of them in overtime. Neither team has put away an opponent yet.
The name on Winnipeg's injury list that matters for Friday is Morrissey, who's day-to-day after the Colorado game. He drives the Jets' blue line, and without him the defense corps also loses Elias Salomonsson, who's already on IR. Garrett Brown and Walker Duehr are out up front. Anaheim is still without Troy Terry, who moved to long-term injured reserve with a hip injury, so the Ducks' scoring has to come from Carlsson, Granlund and company.
Puck drop is 7:00 PM CT. Morrissey's status is the update to watch between now and then, along with how Anaheim comes out of its home game against Edmonton. If Morrissey plays, these are 2 teams that have done nothing but win close, low-scoring games, and that's how this one should go too.