Time: 9:00 PM CST
Channel: TSN3
Radio: CJOB680/Power 97
The Winnipeg Jets are the hottest team in the North! Kind of! Alright, they’re probably third-best, but this is a very entertaining third-best team. The Jets have been far from perfect, but they’ve shown some offensive resilience and some scoring chops in a number of recent outings. I do wonder how they’ll handle a legitimately great team like the Canadiens, but for now, they’ll get to feast on Vancouver first.
The Canucks are in a strange spot. They occupy that uncomfortable middle space of occasionally being decent some days, and atrocious on others. The roster is hardly optimal and Elias Pettersson is struggling for the first time in his NHL tenure. Newcomer Nils Höglander has provided a crisp offensive spark, but the team as a whole still lacks depth. The defense might not be better than what Winnipeg is icing.
With how Winnipeg is playing, I think the Jets should get through this one relatively easily. So long as Hellebuyck stops letting in some softies, the Jets have a pretty good shot. The Canucks may have beaten Ottawa 4-1 in their latest outing, but I’m not stressed. Winnipeg’s second line of Copp-Stastny-Ehlers is apparently the antidote to all ills. Let’s hope they cure the plague of crappy hockey once more.
