Game #08 Preview and GDT: Winnipeg Jets at Colorado Avalanche

Fresh off a 4-1 victory last night, the 3-4-0 Winnipeg Jets will look to earn their first two game winning streak of the season tonight vs. the Colorado Avalanche.

By night's end, Winnipeg's fancy stats against the Dallas Stars weren't great, but that's what having a three goal lead will sometimes do. Luckily, Connor Hellebuyck was up to the task, and his 38 save performance served as a nice reminder of how sample sizes are still somewhat flimsy. Michael Hutchinson faces a similar opportunity for statistical improvement tonight, with Winnipeg head coach Paul Maurice prioritizing keeping both goalies fresh over riding the suddenly hot hand in a back-to-back.

#NHLJets Connor Hellebuyck's season SV% went from 0.880 to 0.910 after last night's game.

— Tim Hiebert (@JetsStatsGuy) October 28, 2016

With all due respect for Tyler Myers, the story among Jets skaters yesterday was one of Winnipeg's star rookie forwards, Kyle Connor and Patrik Laine. The former had his first career NHL goal off a cross-ice feed from Nikolaj Ehlers, while the latter scored twice on the power play for his fifth and sixth markers of the season.

If Connor can seize the top-six opportunity being provided, it'll give PoMo an interesting call to make once Drew Stafford is ready to go. Meanwhile, Laine continues to bring productivity to a PP which was absolutely anemic last season. Hopefully his presence will free up ice and attention for Byfuglien, Wheeler, Ehlers, etc. to take advantage of and join him in finding twine.

.@PatrikLaine29 on his two power play goals, and the 4-1 win over the Dallas Stars. pic.twitter.com/xLziXol0U4

— Winnipeg Jets (@NHLJets) October 28, 2016

While Winnipeg has recalled Marko Dano (after placing Little on injured reserve), don't expect him to be in tonight's lineup. It would be more likely to see him Sunday against Buffalo or Tuesday vs. Washington; with both Stafford and Little injured, there was need for an extra forward on this two game road trip.

As for Colorado, they may simply be thrilled to finally face an opponent, having last played on Oct. 22. Nathan MacKinnon and Matt Duchene lead the forward corps with five points each, joined atop the stats sheet by a defenceman, savvy offseason signing Patrick Wiercioch.

MacKinnon is set to centre 19-year-old Mikko Rantanen, who is making his season debut and projects as a key piece of Colorado's top-six long-term. Try not to boo the highly touted Finn too much; he's been singing Laine's praises for years.

Still remember Mikko Rantanen telling me 2 yrs ago that Laine already had an NHL caliber shot.

— Mike Morreale (@mikemorrealeNHL) October 20, 2016

The Avs may appear to be heading in a smarter direction, but there's clearly still work to do. In the meantime, they can fallback on their goaltending duo of Semyon Varlamov and Calvin Pickard. Tonight's starter in Varlamov has a 2-2-0 record, with save percentages of .821%, .925%, 1.000% and .868%. Over 20 games played, he has a career Sv% of .909 vs. the Winnipeg Jets, which is middle of the road so far as his performance against central division opponents goes.