The Jets are coming off a convincing 5-1 win over the Canucks on Monday night to host the Chicago Blackhawks tonight at Bell MTS Place. That's about as simple is it's going to be for the Jets in this next step of games. Before looking ahead to tonight, perhaps looking back at the game from Mondays worthwhile.
While a convincing win by score the Jets were anything but sharp. The Canucks, with two key injuries to Horvat and Granlund, were anything but complete and the Jets could have been in a hole early due to a hard push to start the game by Vancouver.
It's probably not necessary to get too granular about the game but the level of sloppiness that persisted throughout was not something that could be blamed on bad ice. However, word that a flu bug may have been going through the dressing room, in particular with captain Blake Wheeler is a likely explanation for some on-ice malaise but certainly not an excuse.
The problem with a 5-1 win against the Canucks is that the victory seems a little hollow when looking forward simply because the aftermath of the Ottawa game, a 5-0 win, was so disappointing. The Jets face an even more difficult stretch after the Canucks game than they did after the Ottawa game and that's where some concern lies.
With a day off for the players on Tuesday it was back to work yesterday before facing Chicago tonight. The Jets and the Blackhawks don't have a true rivalry but it appears they two teams certainly 'get up' when playing each other. Winnipeg has had much success over the years against the Blackhawks with one particular player, Michael Hutchinson, standing out in some incredible games between the pipes.
The two teams will be forever linked simply because of the Adam Pardy helmet incident in Chicago. During the game Pardy was hit into the glass and the pane came loose, after a fan grabbed Pardy's helmet and wore it while his companion poured a beer on Pardy's head.
But now things are different, the Jets are in the top three of the Central Division while the recent three-time champs sit just below the last wild card spot and six points below the home team. It's far from an insurmountable lead for the Jets as the Central Division is a dog fight most years and it will be again this year with five of the eight teams in playoff position in the west being from the Central Division.
What does tonight have in store for Winnipeg? Probably a dog fight but more importantly a chance to test themselves for the first time against an old foe. That narrative is rather mundane but it's also simply a fact about division play when one team has moved up and the other is still clinging on.
For Jets fans this is the first time to see the changed Blackhawks up close. Gone are scoring sensation Panarin and back comes Brandon Saad. Would Chicago look back and take Panarin's 26 points over the 17 Saad has produced? Hard to tell but with the Bowman model the commitment to the core group dictated this surprising move from the off season.
The Jets have their own challenges coming into this game with Dustin Bufyglien out, a former Blackhawk and leader on the team who knows this opposition well. But some things have changed, the Jets sit with a power play working at 25.89% and 35.29% at home. The Blackhawks come in with a road PP of 15.89% in comparison. The Blackhawks special teams strong point is their road penalty kill which is fourth best in the league at 86.88% while the Jets home PK is pedestrian 79.84%.
The advantage lies with the Jets on special teams but not by much.
At a more predictive level, 5 vs 5 stats, the two teams match up like this:
CF% Chicago- 52.40$ Winnipeg- 48.94%
HDCF% Chicago- 48.88% Winnipeg- 50.90% And for the luck variable of PDO
Chicago-100.3 Winnipeg-101.06
The Jets should never count the Blackhawks out but they should also believe in themselves too, as this year they may be making the transition to being the better of the two teams.
On another note I was playing around with Hockey Reference yesterday looking at Patrik Laine. threw this up on Twitter last night Laine had recent eclipsed 50 goals in his first 100 games and it was worth looking at where this fit in historically but also because some believe Laine might not be playing as well as he did last year. From a pure point perspective this is what it looks like.
Not bad company to be in is it?