The hometown Winnipeg Jets (2-0-0) are preparing to face-off against the Minnesota Wild (1-0-1) this Sunday evening at the Canada Life Centre. While the rest of us Canadians get prepared for a great Thanksgiving meal with our families, the NHLers will hit the ice to provide us a little weekend entertainment.
The True North franchise has started off their 2024-25 campaign on the right foot, picking up a pair of wins over the Oilers & Blackhawks. While neither contest was without fault, Winnipeg has managed to keep the goals against down…partly due to the excellent play of Connor Hellebuyck in net. While the Jets’ coaching staff must be aware of the difficulties the line of Nikolaj Ehlers, Cole Perfetti, & Vladislav Namestnikov are having, the lineup in yesterday’s practice suggest they will get a few more games to try and work things out. Through 2 games, Mark Scheifele leads the team in scoring (4 pts) but Winnipeg is getting contributions throughout the lineup….6 different goal scorers and 12 players with at least one point. Here is the Jets’ projected lineup for Wednesday’s contest, courtesy of PuckPedia….
The visiting Wild also have two games under their belts, edging the Blue Jackets for a 3-2 victory then dropping an overtime decision to the Kraken last night. Minnesota will be missing a key player in Joel Eriksson-Ek as he sustained an injury in their most recent contest. Fortunately for their fans, they still have some dangerous offensive weapons at their disposal: Kirill Kaprizov (4 pts), Matt Boldy (5 pts), & Mats Zuccarello (3 pts). Since Marc-Andre Fleury suited up yesterday versus Seattle, I am fairly certain Winnipeg will get to see Filip Gustavsson (.939%) in net today. Here is what the Minnesota Wild’s lineup should look like tonight, courtesy of PuckPedia…
Since it is really early in the season and there isn’t much data involved in the numbers yet, I’m not sure how much the match up really tells us….but here it is regardless:
Well, that is all the time I have this morning since my cat Lambo is begging to go for his morning walk and then I need to do some shopping before the Manitoba Moose game gets underway at 3 pm. Hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend….Happy Thanksgiving all!!!
FYI: Puck drops at 5 pm CST for the Jets game…..
