Hello out there, we are on the air its hockey night, tonight! The Winnipeg Jets will face off against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Canada’s sacred Saturday night tradition. Both teams are struggling but each look to head in different directions. The Leafs are starting a full blown rebuild. They are looking to deal players for picks and prospects and hit the restart button. Meanwhile, the Jets are plagued with injuries and are their playoff chances seem to be hanging by a thread.
Puck drop is slated for 6pm CST. You can catch all the action on CBC, or you can listen to it all on TSN 1290 Radio!
Keys to the Game
Winnipeg Jets
Stay out of the Box! It just seems like this issue won't go away for the Winnipeg Jets. Penalties continue to be an issue for the Winnipeg Jets. The Jets lead the NHL in penalty minutes with 841. The Jets are going to take penalties, it is part of their identity, but the unnecessary stick penalties that doom the Jets must stop. It starts with leadership. Captain Andrew Ladd takes way too many careless, offensive zone penalties. The Jets must reduce their penalties, if they don't they will continue to see games slip away.
Every Game Counts. At one time, many deemed the Winnipeg Jets as a lock to make the playoffs. Over the last little while, opinions have changed. According to sportclubstats.com the Jets now have a 53.7% chance of making the playoffs. A rather large decline from the one 90%+ chance the Jets had a few weeks ago. With a game against a bottom barrel team like the Leafs, the Jets need to capture the two points that lie in front of them.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Shutdown the top line. Lets face it, the Jets are low on offensive fire power right now. With the injury to Mathieu Perreault and the many holes throughout the teams forward core, the team is low on ammo. If the Leafs can manage to shutdown the Jets’ top line, they could control the game. The Jets third and fourth lines are weak and in my opinion barely NHL caliber. Even the Leafs boast better depth.
By The Numbers
– 23-31-5 record
– 18th in goals per game ( 2.71)
– 25th in goals allowed per game ( 3.00)
– 11th ranked power play ( 19%)
– 11th ranked penalty kill ( 82.7%)
– 21st in shots per game ( 29.4)
– 26th in shots allowed per game ( 32.6)
– 25th ranked Faceoff percentage ( 48%)
Players to Boo Mercilessly
Olli Jokinen – He robbed the Jets of 4.5 million dollars for two years.
Prediction
Jets 3
Leafs 2
