Oleksiak climbs back from Wilson fight taken at PPG Paints Arena (Courtesy of Point Park University)

The Jets' Patrik Laine, Friday morning at PPG Paints Arena. - DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS

Jamie Oleksiak's dished out big hits, he's absorbed a few, and he's bounced back each time.

He's expected to rejoin the Penguins' lineup tonight against the Jets -- 7:08 p.m. faceoff at PPG Paints Arena -- after missing six games, initially to a concussion, then to Mike Sullivan's decisions over the past three. This return will be from being punched by the Capitals' Tom Wilson Dec. 19 in Washington, where the ongoing seven-game winning streak started.

It's no coincidence, Sullivan acknowledged, that Oleksiak will suit up against Winnipeg, the Western Conference's best team that's built on size as much as it is skill and speed.

"I think it certainly has something to do with it. Jamie's a guy who brings a lot of size, strength and grit. When you're facing bigger, stronger teams like this, he can be really effective for us," Sullivan said.

"It's just part of being professional, staying ready," Oleksiak said of watching the winning streak from afar. "The team's been playing well, and I've just been making sure I've been getting my skating legs under me, putting in all the work so I can step in pretty seamlessly."

Of facing the Jets, he said, "They play a hard-nosed game. They're a good forecheck team, they put pucks to the net, and they get to the net. We've just got to make sure we're staying out of trouble and playing to our own strengths."

That's how it went in the teams' other meeting, Nov. 27 in Winnipeg, a 4-3 victory in which the Penguins -- in a great rarity at the time -- put forth a complete, 18-skater effort.

And, for that matter, they withstood whatever physicality the Jets wrought, not least of which was the jarring sight of the 265-pound Dustin Byfuglien ricocheting backward off Oleksiak after attempting one of his patented seismic open-ice hits:

Those were the NHL's two biggest bodies, actually.

"Yeah, it was the PK, and the puck was kind of in an awkward spot, so I'm, like, 'You've got to get it down the ice, right?'" Oleksiak recalled Friday. "I saw someone come down from the corner of my eye, and I didn't know it was Buff, to be honest with you. But I knew I was going to take a hit. It kind of surprised me how much momentum went into me. I found out later it was Buff."

Oleskiak smiled slightly.

"That's a lot of meat running into each other, you know what I mean? It wasn't the most fun thing ever."

As he did when I brought up the topic that night in Winnipeg, Oleksiak shrugged off that it was visibly Byfuglien taking by far the worst of it. He staggered to the Winnipeg bench and needed help from defenseman Jacob Trouba to keep from collapsing. And later, when the Jets unconscionably brought him back into the same game, it stirred up a mini-controversy in the hockey world about the NHL's clear failure at concussion protocol at Bell MTS Place.

Byfuglien won't play tonight because of an ankle injury sustained Saturday.

Otherwise, though, that event proved to be just a hockey game, unlike a lot of the meetings between these teams, which have been oddly acrimonious considering they play in separate conferences.

Sullivan, obviously, would love to see a sequel.

"We've got to try to play our game and get to that as early as we can," he said. "We're not going to try to change what we do just because we're playing that team. Give Winnipeg credit. They're a really good hockey team, and size is one of their strengths. But we've got to use our strengths to win puck battles ... stick detail, solid positioning ... we've got to do the things we do best."

It's funny, as I mentioned to Mark Scheifele, the Jets' outstanding All-Star center, how often the conversation about a 25-12-2 team can focus solely on size:

THE ESSENTIALS

• Media notes

• Team statistics

• NHL scoreboard

• NHL standings

THE INJURIES

• Penguins: Justin Schultz, defenseman, is out until February with a fractured leg. Sullivan said Friday that Schultz could be back on the ice before long.

"We do anticipate it happening soon," Sullivan said. "And that would be a real boost for both him and us. We've got him sitting in on all our meetings, trying to keep him in the loop. We're all anxious to get him back. We all know we're a better hockey team when he's in our lineup."

Jets: Dustin Byfuglien, defenseman, will be out until after the All-Star break with an ankle injury sustained Saturday.

THE SKATE

Matt Murray will start. Since Murray returned from injury in mid-December, he's made six starts to Casey DeSmith's three. DeSmith started Nov. 27 in Winnipeg and, despite the win, didn't play well. (And acknowledged as much afterward.)

Connor Hellebuyck will start for Winnipeg.

• Judging by the lines and pairings shown at a full, mandatory morning skate, Oleksiak will bump Juuso Riikola from the lineup. Derek Grant would be the other healthy scratch. Other than the switch of defensemen, it'll be the same lineup Sullivan used in New York.

• Players seldom get a chance to watch Western teams on TV, which can make facing them a little weird. Tanner Pearson told me a good story about this:

Tim Pearson, Tanner's dad, has been in hockey all his life, working for the Bauer skate company.

• This just in: Patrik Laine can shoot a hockey puck ...

Kid makes it look painfully routine, huh?

THE OTHER SIDE

The Jets have one of the NHL's finest first lines with Scheifele and Blake Wheeler flanked by super-fast Nikolaj Ehlers, but one would think their second line would be pretty good, too, with Patrik Laine on it ... and it hasn't been. That's primarily because once-promising left winger Kyle Connor's gone nine games without a goal, and center Bryan Little's own slump is at 10 games.

Paul Maurice made clear he'd welcome seeing more, stressing that, "Pittsburgh's not a one-line team, and neither are we. You've got to have everyone going in a game like this."

He had more on the Penguins' depth of stars, and it was good:

THE COMBINATIONS

• The Penguins' lines and pairings at Friday's skate:

Guentzel--Crosby--Rust

Simon--Malkin--Hornqvist

Pearson--Brassard--Kessel

Cullen--Sheahan--Aston-Reese

Dumoulin--Letang

Maatta--Oleksiak

Pettersson--Johnson

And for the Jets:

Ehlers--Scheifele--Wheeler

Connor--Little--Laine

Perreault--Lowry--Tanev

Lemieux--Copp--Roslovic

Morrissey--Trouba

Chiarot--Myers

Kulikov--Morrow

THE SCHEDULE

Faceoff is at 7:08 p.m. at PPG Paints Arena. The Penguins will practice Saturday at noon in Cranberry before coming right back here Sunday night to play the Blackhawks.

THE COVERAGE

Visit our Penguins team page for everything.

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