After a fairytale season in 2024-25 noticed the Winnipeg Jets explode for an NHL main 116 factors to seize the President’s Trophy and convey a lot pleasure to the followers of the True North franchise….our favorite hockey membership has discovered themselves in a very totally different story in 2025-26. In one thing extra akin to a horror movie, the Jets group has taken a bunch of hits for the reason that franchise’s most profitable common season.
It started when administration’s gamble in re-signing star ahead Nikolaj Ehlers didn’t pan out, because the speedy Dane opted to relocate to sunnier climates. Then captain Adam Lowry needed to endure surgical procedure within the low season to cope with an extended working hip subject, making the shutdown middle unavailable for the early video games. Then some horrible luck struck Winnipeg throughout coaching camp, as each defenseman Dylan Samberg & ahead Cole Perfetti sustained accidents within the exhibition video games. Initially, the Jets had been capable of stand up to the stream of woes due to a very simple schedule to kick off the common season….however their fashion of play was a drastic change from the dominant on ice performances us followers had been used to witnessing final yr.
But there was nonetheless hope that after everybody obtained again on the ice on the similar time and the newly arrived gamers had an opportunity to regulate, the staff would begin to play head coach Scott Arniel’s system the way in which it was alleged to be achieved. And for the handful of video games when Winnipeg was utterly wholesome, the superior stats did present indicators of final yr’ squad…although the wins weren’t coming as repeatedly. Nevertheless, one other plot twist occurred when celebrity goalie Connor Hellebuyck started having points together with his knee and that finally required surgical procedure to cope with. With out probably the greatest mistake “erasers” on the ice to wash up any messes created by the skaters, the Jets have gone a pitiful 1-4-0 whereas watching their membership plummet within the NHL’s Central Division standings (courtesy of ESPN).
As we will see, the Jets are actually a lot nearer to the basement than the #1 spot they held for many of final season. With US Thanksgiving right here, that statistically suggests Winnipeg presently has round a 20% probability of qualifying for the playoffs. The timeline for Bucky’s restoration instructed that he was going to want 4 to six weeks to get again to sport form, so which means the membership has solely gotten by way of 5 of the potential 14 to 19 video games the goaltender will miss. Which means Hellebuyck’s help received’t arrive till it’s too late, until the remainder of the Jets’ gamers can handle to begin taking part in with tempo & consciousness of the place they’re alleged to be on the ice within the staff’s system.
Can they do it?? I actually don’t know. The final sport towards the Hurricanes didn’t make it seem prefer it was potential, however that is without doubt one of the NHL’s quickest squads so it is likely to be finest to attend to see how they reply at present earlier than I come to any actual conclusions.
The Winnipeg Jets (12-11-0) might be trying to finish a 4 sport shedding streak whereas avoiding the excellence of turning into a .500 staff with one other loss after they go to the Nashville Predators (8-12-4). The Preds have picked up victories of their final 2 contests, however these wins are a part of solely 4 of their final 15 video games, which explains why they sit on the backside of the division standings. Although the Jets’ are solely 4 pts forward going into at present’s motion, so that means it might be a reasonably evenly fought affair when the puck drops at 6 pm Central.
Each the Jets & Predators performed on Friday night time and needed to journey to Nashville for at present’s sport, with Winnipeg coming from North Carolina and the hometown membership flying in from Illinois. Let’s proceed our have a look at Winnipeg & Nashville by testing ESPN‘s staff & goaltender comparability numbers for tonight’s late night time sport:
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Nashville has scored the least quantity of objectives to date this season (62), which is 9 lower than the twenty sixth ranked Winnipeggers (71). The Jets are tied for the seventh least objectives towards (68) whereas the Predators discover themselves tied with the Toronto Maple Leafs for the 4th most (87).
Prime 5 Scorers:
WINNIPEG: Mark Scheifele (30), Kyle Connor (28), Josh Morrissey (23), Gabriel Vilardi (19), & Nino Niederreiter (13).
NASHVILLE: Ryan O’Reilly (18), Filip Forsberg (17), Luke Evangelista (15), Erik Haula (13), & Michael Bunting (13).
Right here is how PuckPedia is presently predicting the strains to appear like when play will get underway, although with no pre-game skates these are largely primarily based on yesterday’s rosters:
WINNIPEG JETS LINE UP
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NASHVILLE PREDATORS LINE UP
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Effectively, my abdomen is growling audibly so I finest wrap this up pretty shortly so I could make some lunch earlier than the Manitoba Moose-Chicago Wolves sport kicks off at 2 pm. Going to be a day of watching hockey & snacking for me, with the primary mild dusting of snow right here in Winnipeg making outside actions much less interesting. Get pleasure from your weekend.
Go Winnipeg!!!!!
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POST-GAME INFO
Scoring Abstract: (courtesy of ESPN)
FINAL SCORE:
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Recreation Stats: (courtesy of MoneyPuck)
Anticipated Objectives (all):
Anticipated Objectives (5on5):
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BOJA’S Submit-Recreation Ideas:
I might be including the post-game knowledge to the article above later Saturday night time, as soon as MoneyPuck has time to re-check the numbers….so most likely someday round 10 pm.
