After a 3 week hiatus due to the 2026 Winter Olympics, the National Hockey League will resume its regular season today with a slate of 8 contests that includes the Winnipeg Jets taking on the Vancouver Canucks. That means that I am back writing about our hockey team again….did you miss me?? I had planned on doing some other articles during the break….but found that I enjoyed taking a step back too much and couldn’t get the motivation to do anything other than a bit of research of prospect Kieron Walton’s CHL career. Hopefully I will get around to sharing how he stacks up against other players who finished in the top 5 for scoring in the Ontario Hockey League at some point.
The fans at the Rogers Arena in British Columbia shouldn’t be expecting to see great hockey when the action gets underway, as the 9 PM Central start will feature the 28th ranked Jets and the 32nd placed Canucks. In case watching a couple bottom 5 franchises square off late into the night still sounds too interesting, then the fact that the clubs will be also missing a bunch of players might make you reconsider going to sleep earlier.
For a variety of reasons (mainly injury though), Winnipeg will have 4 starters out of the lineup (Connor Hellebuyck, Josh Morrissey, Neal Pionk, & Nino Niederreiter), as well as a couple of depth defensemen (Haydn Fleury & Colin Miller). Vancouver also has a bunch of banged up players, with goalie Kevin Lankinen and forwards Jonathan Lekkerimaki & Filip Chytil expected to miss the match, but are getting a boost with the returns of Marco Rossi & Nils Hoglander.
Having played 57 games so far, the Canucks seem a lock to finish in last place with a 7 point deficit on the nearest competition (STL). That leaves the Jets with 10 more points and a game in hand on the NHL’s worst team, making it unlikely that the True Northers will have to face the ignominy of going from President’s Trophy winner to bottom feeder in just one season.
Despite playing one less contest, Winnipeg has scored 11 more goals than Vancouver this season, but that gap widens when you look at goals against (Jets have allowed 35 less). Both Canadian franchises were on losing streaks heading into the break (VAN 3/WPG 2), so tonight will at least get one of them back in the Win column. The True Northers have also been better in the special teams’ department, with a slight edge on the PP (19.1% to 18.2%) and a bigger one on the PK (79% to 70.6%).
Here is how the two clubs’ year-to-date stats compare, via ESPN‘s team & goaltender comparison numbers:
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The Winnipeg Jets are 11 points back of the Western Conference’s final wildcard spot, so if all the talk of the players, coaches, and management still believing a playoff spot is possible….the winning has to start on Wednesday night. I know that coach Scott Arniel trotted out the St. Louis Blues’ unlikely charge in the second half of the season last year as an example of how it is possible….yet the odds are still stacked against the True Northers.
To try to illustrate this, if the Seattle Kraken & Anaheim Ducks (tied for 8th place) only go .500 over their remaining 26 contests (have gone .563 to date)…then they would end up with 89 points on the season. That would mean that Winnipeg would need to make up 37 points just to tie the Kraken & Ducks…or go 18-7-1 over their final 26 matches (a .711 win percentage). If the Jets could pull that off, then they would have the advantage in the first tie breaking category (regulation wins). So they have that going for them….
Doing this early in the morning, so we will have to rely on the line up projections via PuckPedia, which are based on yesterday’s practice for the Jets:
WINNIPEG JETS LINE UP
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VANCOUVER CANUCKS LINE UP
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A couple former Jets playing against their old club, with forward Evander Kane & defenseman Tyler Myers expected to suit up for the Canucks. Winnipeg continues to stack up the games played in the big leagues for AHLers, as Elias Salomonsson & Ville Heinola are expected to make it 47 games for the year (48 if Dominic DiVincentiis gets into the game).
Running out of time before I have to start work…..so that will be all for now. Will update the Jets’ line up if I notice any changes throughout the day.
Go Winnipeg Jets!!!!!
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POST-GAME INFO
Scoring Summary: (courtesy of ESPN)
FINAL SCORE: Winnipeg Jets 3 Vancouver Canucks 2 (OT)
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Game Stats: (courtesy of MoneyPuck)
Expected Goals (all): WPG 2.74 VAN 1.99
Expected Goals (5on5): WPG 2.28 VAN 1.75
In expected goal terms, Winnipeg’s top 6 performed admirably at even strength. Though, it was the Scheifele line that carried the offense on their shoulders (2 goals for, none against), while the Lowry & Toews units each allowed on to get by Comrie.
For a team missing a bunch of players, the defensive pairings performed fairly well against the lowly Canucks. I thought Samberg–Salomonsson played well together and the stats looked well in over 18 minutes of ice time. They did allow a goal against though, while the Stanley–DeMelo pairing broke even with one for & one against and the Heinola–Schenn duo led the way in advanced stats and goal differential (+1).
Sometimes all you need from you back up is an average performance….and that is what Comrie put up in BC last night with an almost breaking even GSAE rating. Other than getting caught off guard on the first shot of the game, I can’t say that the tender did anything wrong. He did end up with a .913 save percentage….so it was far from a poor start.
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BOJA’S Post-Game Thoughts:
With the OT win, the Winnipeg Jets have pulled within 9 points of the Western Conference’s final wildcard spot. Probably need about 17 more wins or so to close the gap and the True Northers will complete their road trip with games versus Anaheim (Friday) and San Jose (Sunday).
Looked like Kyle Connor was happy to be back on a team that appreciates what he brings on the ice and it didn’t take long for him, Mark Scheifele and Gabriel Vilardi to re-discover their chemistry. I thought Cole Perfetti picked up where he left off before the break and played an excellent game…….if only he could take advantage of way more of his opportunities.
Who stood out for you in the narrow win over the Vancouver Canucks? Let me hear it in the Comments section.
