After picking up their first victory of 2025 and then getting a couple days of rest, the Winnipeg Jets will be back in action on Friday night when the Los Angeles Kings drop by for a visit.
Canada Life Centre will be the host for a clash between two Western Conference powerhouses, as the Jets sit in 2nd place and the Kings hold onto the 7th spot. Los Angeles (23-10-5) comes in to Manitoba on a hot spree, picking up 4 straight wins while Winnipeg (28-12-2) just ended a 3 game losing skid against the Nashville Predators.
The Jets finally got a couple breaks on the injury front, as Josh Morrissey escaped missing time after tweaking his lower body against the Preds and is expected to be in the lineup tonight. The other good news is that Dylan Samberg will be making his return from a long-term injury, suiting up for the first time since he blocked a Steven Stamkos’ shot on Nov 23rd. Both of those are huge bonuses for a Winnipeg defense that is still without Haydn Fleury and Colin Miller. The coaching staff has opted to keep Logan Stanley in the lineup over Ville Heinola, touting the lame “size” excuse as the reason for keeping the the Jets’ worst defenseman on the ice.
The Kings are fairly healthy, other than the long-term injury to star defenseman Drew Doughty. The LA coaching staff is opting to go with 11 forwards and 7 defensemen this evening, which will help them focus on what they do very well…play defense. Los Angeles currently has allowed the lowest number of goals against this year (96) in the NHL and is still excellent at clogging up the neutral zone. That is something that is needed for the West Coasters, as their offensive output only puts them with the 11th lowest goals scored.
Here is how PuckPedia is predicting the coaches to line up their respective players this evening:
Now that we have seen the skaters, let us move on to looking at the goalies and how the Jets & Kings’ numbers from this year compare in the graphics below:
In the Match Up graphic, the stats tell us that both Winnipeg & Los Angeles are fairly evenly matched when it comes to goals/shots for or against. The special teams do offer some differences, with the Jets clearly being the better team on the powerplay and the Kings a stronger penalty killing club.
Another likeness between the two franchises is that goaltenders Connor Hellebuyck & Darcy Kuemper are among the NHL’s elite masked men this season. So all that means is this should be a tightly contested defensive contest at the CLC when the puck drops at 7 pm.
Hope everyone has a good Friday and would enjoy hearing any predictions, thoughts, or complaints you may have about our Winnipeg Jets.
Go Winnipeg!!!!
