Time: 6:00 pm CST
Channel: CityTV/Sportsnet West
Radio: CJOB680/Power 97
The Winnipeg Jets enter Saturday’s game versus the Pittsburgh Penguins on a season-long losing streak, but they are just one of the struggling teams in the Central Division at this point of the season. Only the Minnesota Wild have won the last game they played (beat the Penguins yesterday to go on a 2 game winning streak) and the rest of the franchises are stringing losses together (1 – DAL/STL, 3 – COL/NSH, 4 – ARZ, 5 – WPG, & 6 – CHI). In fact, the entire division only has 37 wins in their last 80 games.
I do have some good new for Jets’ fans though, as Rick Bowness & his staff finally decided to alter Winnipeg’s forward units up in an attempt to spark some offense. The much called for move to bring Nikolaj Ehlers back to the 1st line appears to be upcoming, with Gabriel Vilardi slipping onto the 2nd unit. Of course, Connor Hellebuyck (2.22 GAA/.923%) will be back in between the pipes against the Pens as the Jets try to get back to winning ways.
As mentioned earlier, Pittsburgh is in a back-to-back situation after playing in Minnesota on Friday, so they will be anxious to get an early lead to make the contest easier on tired legs. The Penguins are still in need of wins to move into a playoff position and they will be looking to take advantage of a Winnipeg team coming off their worst performance of the season. It looks like the Jets will have to figure out a way to solve Tristan Jarry (2.45 GAA/.916%) this evening, since Alex Nedeljkovic played against the Wild. Of course, there is also guys like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and potential trade deadline target Jake Guentzel for Winnipeg’s defense to worry about.
The two franchises played just four days ago and the Jets will want to return the favour of a road loss to the Penguins at the Canada Life Centre. Here is how the teams stack up:
The Winnipeg Jets have only scored 3 first period goals in the past 9 games, while allowing 9 against. That pattern needs to change if our squad wants to come away victorious more often that not. Since the Jets are have difficulties lighting lamps lately, let’s give them some encouragement by trying to predict who will score for Winnipeg this evening……I’m saying Mark Scheifele and Sean Monahan will score goals tonight!!!
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