The Winnipeg Jets (2-1-0) will finish their first road trip of the season after they take on the Philadelphia Flyers (1-1-1) on Thursday, but only get to return to the friendly confines of the Canada Life Centre for one contest before packing their luggage again. Both franchises will be playing their 4th game of the season when the puck drops at 6 pm Central, lets see how things have played out so far.
Philly is coming off a disappointing campaign in 2024-25, finishing with worst record in the Metropolitan Division to miss the post-season for the 5th straight year. The club therefore has some talented youth on their roster from all those high draft picks and management has tried to give them a boost by hiring new head coach Rick Tocchet. The schedule hasn’t been kind to them so far, playing a couple matches versus the defending champion Florida Panthers and another game against the Carolina Hurricanes….yet the Flyers have responded well, losing the opener by a goal, the second one in OT, and then finally got in the win column with a big victory over the Panthers when Philadelphia had their home opener at the Xfinity Mobile Arena. Early on, Russian phenom Matvei Michkov (0 pts) hasn’t found success under Tocchet, but oft-injured veteran Sean Couturier (4 pts) has been excellent.
Winnipeg has responded with a couple of wins after dropping their first game of the NHL campaign, giving the fanbase some hope that our club will be able to withstand the injuries to Dylan Samberg, Cole Perfetti, & Adam Lowry. Through the opening 3 contests, 10 of Winnipeg’s 12 forwards have picked up a point, leaving only Russian-born Nikita Chibrikov & Vladislav Namestnikov looking to break the goose egg. Yet there have been plenty of worrying signs in the Jets’ play too, especially when it comes to defensive gaps allowing the opposition to enter Winnipeg’s zone with ease. Every defenseman has struggled except Josh Morrissey, allowing the coaching staff to confound me once again by their apparent lack of trust in Colin “Rodney Dangerfield” Miller. The defender has continually put up better stats than the likes of Logan Stanley & Luke Schenn, but always is the guy pulled from the lineup first…he definitely “Gets no respect“. Guess it is just one of those unanswerable mysteries….or maybe someone has bound & gagged the analytics department?
I am writing this well before the True Northers hit the ice for their pre-game skate, but with the news that banged up players like Cole Koepke & Haydn Fleury returned to practice on Wednesday, all signs point to them being available for the Flyers’ game. Though Kyle Connor & Gustav Nyquist had maintenance days and didn’t participate, the “filler players” seemed to indicate that Scott Arniel is planning on swapping Alex Iaffalo & Nyquist on the 2nd & 3rd lines for the game against the Flyers.
Okay….time for the team comparison stats from ESPN and the projected line ups from PuckPedia:
MATCH UP STATS
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WINNIPEG JETS LINE UP
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PHILADELPHIA FLYERS LINE UP
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Besides altering their coaching staff, Philadelphia also have some new players on the team acquired via trade (Trevor Zegras – 2 pts) or free agency (Christian Dvorak – 1 pt & Dan Vladar – .933%). With all the changes, it will be nice to put eyeballs on the Flyers to see how dangerous they might be this season.
Winnipeg has been relying a bit too much on their goaltenders early this year, but I guess that might be understandable when you remember they are missing a 2nd line forward, a 3rd line center, & a 2nd pairing shut-down defender. With only two of those players skating, I am not sure any of the wounded are close to a return. Samberg isn’t using his injured arm and is mainly focusing on his skating, while there has been no sign of Perfetti at all so far since he sustained an ankle sprain. That leaves Lowry, who actually is entering the early projections for a potential return from his hip surgery, with the later prognostications expecting the Jets’ captain back in early November. But since he is still skating on his own, a return isn’t imminent.
Picking up points early in the season is important if you want to secure a playoff spot, so the Jets will need to continue to rely on their leading scorers Kyle Connor (6 pts), Mark Scheifele (5 pts), and Morgan Barron!! (4 pts).
What do you think of the new projected lines for Winnipeg? Lets hear it in the comments.
Go Winnipeg!!!!!
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POST-GAME INFO
**the information below will be added a few hours after the game ends, so check back later this evening to look over the numbers.**
Scoring Summary: (courtesy of ESPN)
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Game Stats: (courtesy of MoneyPuck)
Expected Goals (all): WPG 2.64 PHI 1.91
Expected Goals (5on5): PHI 1.21 WPG 1.19
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Thursday night’s contest between Winnipeg & Philadelphia was a fairly low event affair, which is exactly how the Jets’ coaching staff probably wanted it to play out. The True Northers got an early lead and played their best defensive game of the season to date while they took advantage of some of the limited scoring chances created to walk away with a 4-2 victory. The Flyers tested the Jets a bit in the 2nd period when a pair of powerplays heavily tilted the ice their way, but Connor Hellebuyck was superb to keep them from taking advantage of the puck possession.
The stats above show that it was Winnipeg’s depth that controlled the game, while the top forward & defensive pairings lost the expected goals battles. I have to admit that I didn’t think moving Tanner Pearson up to the 2nd would be a good idea, but the trio wasn’t bad last night.
Back home to face the Nashville Predators on Saturday, while my attention switches to the Manitoba Moose’s Saturday night clash versus the Grand Rapids Griffins. Enjoy the weekend everyone!
