After a fairytale season in 2024-25 saw the Winnipeg Jets explode for an NHL leading 116 points to capture the President’s Trophy and bring much joy to the fans of the True North franchise….our favourite hockey club has found themselves in a totally different story in 2025-26. In something more akin to a horror film, the Jets organization has taken a bunch of hits since the franchise’s most successful regular season.
It began when management’s gamble in re-signing star forward Nikolaj Ehlers didn’t pan out, as the speedy Dane opted to relocate to sunnier climates. Then captain Adam Lowry had to undergo surgery in the off-season to deal with a long running hip issue, making the shutdown center unavailable for the early games. Then some horrible luck struck Winnipeg during training camp, as both defenseman Dylan Samberg & forward Cole Perfetti sustained injuries in the exhibition games. Initially, the Jets were able to withstand the stream of woes thanks to a very easy schedule to kick off the regular season….but their style of play was a drastic change from the dominant on ice performances us fans were used to witnessing last year.
Yet there was still hope that once everyone got back on the ice at the same time and the newly arrived players had a chance to adjust, the team would start to play head coach Scott Arniel’s system the way it was supposed to be done. And for the handful of games when Winnipeg was completely healthy, the advanced stats did show signs of last year’ squad…even though the wins weren’t coming as regularly. However, another plot twist occurred when superstar goalie Connor Hellebuyck began having issues with his knee and that ultimately required surgery to deal with. Without one of the best mistake “erasers” on the ice to clean up any messes created by the skaters, the Jets have gone a pitiful 1-4-0 while watching their club plummet in the NHL’s Central Division standings (courtesy of ESPN).
As we can see, the Jets are now much closer to the basement than the #1 spot they held for most of last season. With US Thanksgiving here, that statistically suggests Winnipeg currently has around a 20% chance of qualifying for the playoffs. The timeline for Bucky’s recovery suggested that he was going to need 4 to 6 weeks to get back to game shape, so that means the club has only gotten through 5 of the potential 14 to 19 games the goaltender will miss. That means Hellebuyck’s assistance won’t arrive until it is too late, unless the rest of the Jets’ players can manage to start playing with pace & awareness of where they are supposed to be on the ice in the team’s system.
Can they do it?? I really don’t know. The last game against the Hurricanes didn’t make it appear like it was possible, but that is one of the NHL’s fastest squads so it might be best to wait to see how they respond today before I come to any real conclusions.
The Winnipeg Jets (12-11-0) will be looking to end a 4 game losing streak while avoiding the distinction of becoming a .500 team with another loss when they visit the Nashville Predators (8-12-4). The Preds have picked up victories in their last 2 contests, but those wins are part of only 4 in their last 15 games, which explains why they sit at the bottom of the division standings. Though the Jets’ are only 4 pts ahead going into today’s action, so that suggests it could be a fairly evenly fought affair when the puck drops at 6 pm Central.
Both the Jets & Predators played on Friday night and had to travel to Nashville for today’s game, with Winnipeg coming from North Carolina and the hometown club flying in from Illinois. Let’s continue our look at Winnipeg & Nashville by checking out ESPN‘s team & goaltender comparison numbers for tonight’s late night game:
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Nashville has scored the least amount of goals so far this season (62), which is 9 less than the 26th ranked Winnipeggers (71). The Jets are tied for the 7th least goals against (68) while the Predators find themselves tied with the Toronto Maple Leafs for the 4th most (87).
Top 5 Scorers:
WINNIPEG: Mark Scheifele (30), Kyle Connor (28), Josh Morrissey (23), Gabriel Vilardi (19), & Nino Niederreiter (13).
NASHVILLE: Ryan O’Reilly (18), Filip Forsberg (17), Luke Evangelista (15), Erik Haula (13), & Michael Bunting (13).
Here is how PuckPedia is currently predicting the lines to look like when play gets underway, though with no pre-game skates these are largely based on yesterday’s rosters:
WINNIPEG JETS LINE UP
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NASHVILLE PREDATORS LINE UP
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Well, my stomach is growling audibly so I best wrap this up fairly quickly so I can make some lunch before the Manitoba Moose-Chicago Wolves game kicks off at 2 pm. Going to be a day of watching hockey & snacking for me, with the first light dusting of snow here in Winnipeg making outdoor activities less appealing. Enjoy your weekend.
Go Winnipeg!!!!!
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POST-GAME INFO
Scoring Summary: (courtesy of ESPN)
FINAL SCORE: Winnipeg Jets 5 Nashville Predators 2
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Game Stats: (courtesy of MoneyPuck)
Expected Goals (all): WPG 4.60 NSH 2.78
Expected Goals (5on5): WPG 2.50 NSH 2.23
The above forward chart is sorted by ice time and the xG% indicates that Winnipeg either won or nearly broke even when the top 9 were playing. Something that hasn’t happened very often this year. Still work to do on the 4th line….and really for the whole squad because the reality is that the Predators aren’t a very good hockey team. While the final scoreboard looks lop-sided enough, those of us that watched the entire contest know that the ice wasn’t slanted heavily in the Jets’ favour.
The Samberg-Schenn pairing had the worst xG numbers for the defenders…and they gave up the Jets’ only goal against during 5 on 5 play versus Nashville (also were on for a GF to break even on the night). The Morrissey-DeMelo pairing continues to roll along, leading the xG race from the backend plus being on the ice for 3 of Winnipeg’s goals scored.
5 medium & 5 high danger shot attempts by Nashville against Comrie, all of which the Jets’ goalie stopped. The Preds did slip a pair of low danger shots by Eric, but Winnipeg received above average tending (.909 save %) from their keeper tonight to help end their long losing streak.
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BOJA’S Post-Game Thoughts:
The Winnipeg Jets got a much needed victory Saturday night in Nashville…..maybe not the dominant performance we all would have liked. But it ended the multi-game losing streak the club was on and the emergence of scoring from players other than Scheifele, Connor, & Vilardi could be a positive sign. The True Northers ended up with four 5 on 5 goals against the Predators, with the top nine getting all of them (2 from the 1st & 1 each from the other two). Perfetti probably should have had a hattrick…but at least he got one to go in the net and hopefully shed the large monkey that was riding his back. Nice to see Niederreiter looking dangerous again like he was at the start of the season…his 15 pts is good for the 5th highest total on Winnipeg, while his 2 goal game upped his total to 6, which is tied for 4th on the club with Namestnikov.
Here’s hoping Salomonsson is back in the lineup when the Jets take on the Buffalo Sabres on Monday.
