In the battle of early season surprises, Nashville and Winnipeg battle it out on Saturday night. While both teams were predicted as basement dwellers in the Central division they currently sit in second and third place in the Central. Winnipeg can move into a tie for second with a win against Nashville.
Puck drop is at 6pm central time. The action can be viewed on CITY or listened to on TSN 1290 am.
Keys to the Game
Winnipeg Jets
1) Secondary Scoring: The bottom two lines for the Jets have completely failed to contribute in the offensive zone. If the Jets want to maintain their record they need to improve in this respect when the goaltending starts to falter a little.
2) Special Teams: Despite the Jets having the fifth ranked penalty kill at 87.5%, the Jets do not have a combined special team percentage of 100%. This is due to a poor powerplay at 11.1% ranked 27th. They need to start having more success there. No better place than Nashville, who has the 29th ranked penalty kill at 72.1%.
3) Use Size Effectively: Nashville is not a very big team, so the Jets need to take advantage with their big forward corps to control the corners.
Nashville Predators
1) Secondary Scoring: Much like the Jets, the Predators have struggled with secondary scoring this year. Former Jet Olli Jokinen has failed to score even a single point so far this season. They have just six forwards with more than one goal on the year.
2) Use the Last Change: Jets do not have much depth so Predators need to take advantage using their last change advantage. Getting Filip Forsberg and Shea Weber out against Jets third pairing and fourth line will be an instant goal.
3) Pressure the Goaltending: Ondrej "the Giant" Pavelec has had a good season so far. It is important for Preds to try to rattle him by getting in his face with bodies to disrupt his rhythm.
Player to Boo Mercilessly
James Neal. One of the biggest dirtbags in the league. His skills do not excuse him.
Prediction
2-1 Predators.
