With 66% of their longest road trip of the year in the books, the Winnipeg Jets have gone 2-2-0 in the first 4 contests and are now visiting the gambling State to take on the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday evening.
Both Winnipeg & Vegas are dealing with injuries, as the Jets are without Dylan Samberg & Logan Stanley while the Knights will be without Mark Stone. The two franchises are also both coming in off a loss, with Winnipeg getting smacked down by the Kings (4-1) and Vegas losing a 2-1 OT battle to the Avalanche.
Here is how PuckPedia is predicting Winnipeg & Vegas to line up their players this evening:
The Winnipeg Jets (18-5-0) are still the top team in the Central Division, but with the losses coming more frequently the Minnesota Wild are nipping at their heels. The Vegas Golden Knights (14-6-3) hold on to the #1 spot in the Pacific with a slight lead on their divisional rivals.
The Knights have plenty of elite offensive players like Jack Eichel (34 pts), Ivan Barbashev (25), Mark Stone (21), Tomas Hertl (18), & Shea Theodore (17). Yet they get scoring from the entire lineup as shown by Vegas’ 12 skaters with at least 10 points.
The Jets also have good scoring depth with 11 skaters having the double digit point totals, led by Kyle Connor (28 pts), Mark Scheifele (26), Nikolaj Ehlers (24), & Josh Morrissey (20). However the goals have been a bit harder to come by lately, not helped by Scheifele playing through an injury (and possibly Ehlers too?) Neither forward has been as noticeable as they were earlier in the campaign and if Winnipeg hopes to defeat top teams like the Knights, they will need contributions from those two. Especially since the loss of Samberg has had a huge impact on the Jets ability to defend entry into their defensive zone.
Lets check out how the two franchises compare head-to-head based on this season’s stats and take a peek at ESPN’s review of the masked men:
Well, that is what the stats say about this upcoming Jets-Knights’ game and it seems to suggest a pretty even affair. However, us Winnipeg fans know that the Vegas squad has a habit of walking away victorious when the two franchises meet…so guess we will have to tune in at 7:30 pm CST to see what actually occurs.
Or……we could just read any of the great game predictions below in the comment sections. They seem to have a tendency to come true around here. Have a good weekend everybody and Go Jets!!!
