The Winnipeg Jets left Las Vegas and headed south-east to visit the Arizona Coyotes for a Saturday afternoon clash. I’m not sure how important a game can really be this early in the season, but to me it seems that this contest versus the Coyotes is fairly significant for the Jets.
First off, the two franchises are currently in a tight battle for the important 3rd & 4th spots in the Central Division. With equal games played, Arizona has a slight 1 point edge on Winnipeg so the contest will matter in the standings for everyone involved. Secondly, the Jets really need to avoid a four game losing streak if they hope to gain the confidence necessary to keep striving to improve overall team play. And finally, if captain Adam Lowry & company think they are going to be a playoff team, then they need to win as many games against Central Division rivals as possible.
The Arizona Coyotes have started off better than expected thanks to their goaltending & defense out-performing projections in the early days of the season. The Yotes have had great performances by young forwards Logan Cooley & Matias Maccelli (8 pts each), as well as Nick Schmaltz (10 pts) and Clayton Keller (9 pts) to spur their offense. The new acquisition from the LA Kings has also helped scoring from the back-end as Sean Durzi has 7 points, including 2 powerplay goals. The goaltending duo of Karel Vejmelka and Connor Ingram have combined for a 2.70 GAA and a .917 save percentage.
The Winnipeg Jets have been scoring alright, averaging over 3 goals per game despite having a powerplay that rarely helps out. The usual suspects are leading the team in scoring, with Mark Scheifele & Kyle Connor sitting with 9 points each. However, the biggest stars on forward are struggling on the defensive side of things, with Scheifele sitting at -3 and Connor & Nik Ehlers at -5. Winnipeg has been getting some scoring assistance from the bottom six, but only Cole Perfetti is putting up points on the 2nd line. Perfetti has 7 pts through 10 games, while Ehlers (4 pts) and Vladislav Namestnikov (3 pts) haven’t been finding success on the scoresheet. Somewhat surprisingly, the Jets goaltending has been sub-par early in the year, amassing a terrible .888 save percentage between Connor Hellebuyck & Laurent Brossoit.
Here are how the teams match up head-to-head:
Arizona Coyotes: 5-4-1 for 11 pts / 3-1-0 record at home / 34 GF / 27 GA / 23.8% PP / 72.2% PK
Winnipeg Jets: 4-4-2 for 10 pts / 2-2-1 record on the road / 31 GF / 34 GA / 12.8% PP / 69.4% PK
It would behoove Winnipeg to avoid penalties this afternoon, as the Coyotes are sporting the 10th best conversion rate with the man-advantage and that doesn’t bode well against the Jets’ 30th penalty kill. On the plus side, maybe we can see some PP success of our own, since Arizona is struggling in that area and are currently sitting in 27th place.
Not entirely sure about the lineups yet, but from all signs the Winnipeg Jets will be going with the same lines that started against Vegas. Trying to suppress a visual image of acting head coach Scott Arniel vigorously hammering a square peg into a round hole. Check back for the GDT around 2 pm to see how the lines will look.
