The Winnipeg Jets’ season has not gone as planned, as the NHL club finds themselves with the 7th worst record in the league. A far cry from last year when they were in the top 5 for most of the season. Things don’t get any easier for the True Northers, as division rivals Dallas Stars are up next on the slate and they have been playing excellent hockey in 2025-26.
While our Jets (14-13-1) will be looking to avoid another losing streak when the game gets underway at 7 pm Central at the Canada Life Centre, the Stars (20-5-5) are hoping to extend their hot streak to 4 games. Dallas hasn’t lost a game in regulation in their last 10 contests while sporting a 8-0-2 record and Winnipeg have limped to a 3-6-2 stat line over the same span.
The Texan hockey club is one of the NHL’s highest scoring squads (105 goals) so far this year, helping them to have 5 players with at least 25 points already: Mikko Rantanen (39 pts), Jason Robertson (38), Wyatt Johnston (34), Miro Heiskanen (26), & Roope Hintz (25).
The Manitobans are tied for 25th in goal scoring to date (85 goals), though they have still managed to have 4 players in the same point range: Mark Scheifele (36 pts), Kyle Connor (35), Gabriel Vilardi (25), & Josh Morrissey (24).
Lets jump to a look at Winnipeg & Dallas’ seasons by checking out ESPN‘s team & goaltender comparison numbers:
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The Stars are better in almost every category, scoring more goals while allowing less than the Jets. Both clubs have solid special team units, but even so, Dallas’ have still out-performed Winnipeg, especially with a deadly powerplay converting at 31.6%.
So, not a lot of reason for optimism for us Jets’ fans based on the numbers. However unlikely, possibly the changes coach Scott Arniel made to the line up will result in a surprise outcome. Laying another egg tonight could be the final hit to an already fragile team…yet I am having a difficult time imagining that Winnipeg will have a dominant performance that just might revitalize my belief in this group of players.
Enough of my pessimism, lets move on & go check out PuckPedia‘s predicted line ups for tonight’s clash, which are based on the club’s last games:
WINNIPEG JETS LINE UP
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DALLAS STARS LINE UP
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Unfortunately I am having computer network issues with my real job this morning, so will have to spend my time trying to sort that out instead of going on about tonight’s contest versus the Stars.
Go Winnipeg!!!!!
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POST-GAME INFO
Scoring Summary: (courtesy of ESPN)
FINAL SCORE: Dallas Stars 4 Winnipeg Jets 3
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Game Stats: (courtesy of MoneyPuck)
Expected Goals (all): DAL 4.74 WPG 3.42
Expected Goals (5on5): DAL 3.25 WPG 2.73
The top 3 lines above received the most icetime vs the Stars, the the Scheifele trio stayed together for most of the game (12 mins) and the other two were broken up after 5 minutes of playing time. The bottom 4 lines were together for short periods (in the 2.5 to 3.5 min range), but did find greater success in creating offensive looks.
Even the defense shuffled around, with the top 4 pairings above getting around 6 minutes of icetime while the top duo of Morrissey-DeMelo led the way with 9.5. The bottom 2 units were between 2.5 & 5 minutes of playing time, spending most of that time in their own end. Even strength goals against were allowed by the Stanley-Schenn duo (but Big Stan evened that out with his 4th goal of the season) and the Samberg-DeMelo pairing.
Comrie finished with a +0.74 GSAE on a night that he allowed 4 goals against…..never a good sign. Just look at the final shot chart and see all those low slot high danger scoring chances Winnipeg gives up every game. So even when there are positive offensive signs from the Jets in the game, the defensive worries are more concerning since that was the backbone of the club’s success last season.
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BOJA’S Post-Game Thoughts:
In the end, this game was much more entertaining that I expected. So I guess I could consider that something to be happy about. The Winnipeg Jets didn’t quit when they got scored on very early and that is always a positive sign. Still way too many concerning turnovers and defensive miscues to really get my hopes up….but it is possibly something to build on.
Still waiting on the video recap to be posted and will add it to the article once I see it on YouTube.
