Well, the Winnipeg Jets have picked up wins against a couple of teams on 4 game losing streaks (Buffalo Sabres & Chicago Blackhawks), now we get to see how they do against a squad on a 3 game skid. The Columbus Blue Jackets had been on a bit of a hot streak, picking up wins in 5 out of 6 contests before the losses have piled up in the past week.
Winnipeg’s victory over the lowly Hawks was far from total dominance, but when it comes to offense suppression you can’t get much better than limiting your opponents to 0.84 expected goals. Especially the second half of the game, it was the Jets who had the puck on their sticks more often and it felt inevitable that the Jets would finally find the go ahead goal. Nice that they could save Connor Hellebuyck from an atypical start where he allowed 2 long shots to elude him (-1.16 Goals Saved Above Expected). Another positive from Saturday’s match was that all four forward units owned the expected goals at even strength, ranging from 69.7% (Rasmus Kupari’s line) to 90.7% (Adam Lowry’s trio).
The Jets (20-8-0) are the only NHL franchise with 20 W’s at this point, yet they find themselves chasing the Minnesota Wild for first in the Central & league (tied w/ 40 pts, but MIN has 2 games in hand). Winnipeg has been hard to beat at the Canada Life Centre with a 9-2-0 record, but the team has dropped the second half of their only back-to-back of the season (an uninspired 4-1 loss to NSH).
Now on a 2 game winning streak, the Jets have been led offensively by Kyle Connor (32 pts), Mark Scheifele (30), Josh Morrissey (25), Neal Pionk (22), and Gabriel Vilardi (20). Of course they are still missing key pieces like Nikolaj Ehlers (25 pts) and Dylan Samberg (top defenseman with a +12 rating), but Winnipeg currently has 10 skaters on pace for a plus 40 point season (range of 43 to 93 pts).
The Blue Jackets (11-12-3) must be tired of Canadian franchises, as this road trip has seen them drop games to Calgary, Edmonton, & Vancouver. Being away from home hasn’t been very productive for Columbus this season, with a 3-9-2 record away from Ohio. The Jackets have already played four sets of back-to-back games this season and it has not gone well for them…they have lost 7 out of 8 games, only picking up a win over Pittsburgh to open up their 3rd such set (never scored 3 goals in the 2nd game this year). So it is lucky for their fans that they had a day of rest since their last loss.
Columbus’ offense has come from Zack Werenski (27 pts), Kirill Marchenko (25), former Jet Sean Monahan (22), & Cole Sillinger (18). The Jackets also are dealing with a couple of injuries to Boone Jenner & Erik Gudbranson, but they have had pretty good depth scoring (13 players with at least 9 pts).
Here is how PuckPedia is predicting the coaches of Winnipeg & Columbus will line up their players tomorrow. Obviously, Eric Comrie will be in between the pipes after Connor Hellebuyck picked up a win against the Hawks.
After we are done looking at what skaters may be playing on late Sunday afternoon (5 pm Central), the head-to-head comparison of the franchises’ performances suggest that goaltending and special teams are where the Winnipeg Jets should have a large advantage tomorrow.
While Columbus has been good at putting pucks in the net (89 goals for 9th in NHL), they have allowed even more (95 GA for 4th most). And it is the Jets who have a huge advantage on the powerplay (almost double the conversion rate) and a 9% lead when it comes to penalty killing.
Lets check out ESPN’s look at the masked men and what kind of stats Columbus & Winnipeg have been putting up this year:
As I mentioned above, the Jets have received much better play from their tenders this season, but the Blue Jackets will get the benefit of playing against Winnipeg’s backup. Whether that is a good thing for them or not remains to be seen….since Padre has had the feeling Comrie is due for a top-notch performance.
Mini Moose Update: Even goals in back-to-back games by Chaz Lucius (5 pts in 5 gms) couldn’t help the Manitoba Moose to a win this weekend, as they twice blew 3-0 leads against the Belleville Senators. The poor results in the win-loss columns continue for Winnipeg’s AHL affiliate.
Nice to see our boys back on a bit of a run….let me hear in the comments whether the Jets’ good fortunes will continue on Sunday evening.
Go Winnipeg!!!
