I know that I am getting tired of all these consecutive late start times for the Winnipeg Jets….yet they still have two more to go. The first of these will take place tonight at the Climate Pledge Arena in Washington state when our Jets will take on the Kraken, shortly followed by the final game of the road trip on Saturday in Calgary to clash with the Flames.

It will be the second meeting of the season for the Winnipeg Jets (10-6-0) and the Seattle Kraken (7-4-5) and unfortunately our club still hasn’t scored a goal against the Sea Monsters (shut out 3-0 in late Oct). The Kraken find themselves only 4 pts off the Pacific Division leading Anaheim Ducks and if they only had a bit better success in OT/SO that gap would be smaller. While tonight’s opponent’s offense isn’t very impressive since their 40 goals scored puts them in 31st place in the NHL, a vast 28 goals behind the league leading Colorado Avalanche. However, when you step on the ice against this year’s version of Seattle, you better be ready to fight tooth & nail. The Kraken have been involved in 10 one-goal games this season already (62.5% of gms) and have allowed the 7th least amount of goals against. So Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel better be prepping the Jets for the maximum energy output when the puck drops. The fact that the American franchise has dropped their last 2 contests (2-1 losses to DAL/CLM) should make them even hungrier.

Winnipeg snapped a season-long 3 game losing streak the other night versus the Vancouver Canucks and will be looking to build on the momentum gained. The recent returns from injury by Adam Lowry & Cole Perfetti seemed to pay dividends with possibly the Jets’ best offensive performance of the year….and the club will be hoping for more reinforcements with potential returns by Dylan Samberg & Gustav Nyquist. The True Northers should get a huge defensive boost if the big American defenseman can make his season debut, as Samberg has shown the ability to keep the oppositions’ snipers at bay. As I alluded to in the previous article, Nyquist also has had a positive impact on Winnipeg’s performance when he is in the line up, so it will be great to get him back after missing 5 contests. Our franchise is exactly in the middle of the NHL when it comes to scoring goals (tied for 16th), but because of stellar play from Jets’ goalies they have allowed the 3rd least goals against.

To continue our comparison of Winnipeg & Seattle, here is how ESPN has the team & goaltender comparison numbers for tonight’s late night game (yet another 9:00 pm Central start):

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Most of the above numbers are fairly similar, though our Jets do have significant advantages in Goals For & Penalty Killing. Going by the shot data, I seriously doubt that the tenders will have to deal with tons of rubber coming their ways. Another omen pointing to a close game when the teams meet later tonight.

The “morning” skate won’t occur until 1:30 pm Central, so we will have to rely on how PuckPedia is predicting the lines for both teams at this point. Though I am seriously hoping that Samberg & Nyquist will be back for the Jets….

WINNIPEG JETS LINE UP

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VANCOUVER CANUCKS LINE UP

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While Winnipeg is hoping that some players return from injury, Seattle is also hoping their best performing goalie this season, Joey Daccord, can return in time for tonight’s clash.

The Kraken’s top scorers have 11 pts on the year, with Jaden Schwartz & Jordan Eberle leading the charge. To illustrate how low scoring Seattle has been, the Jets have 5 skaters with at least that much offense: Nino Niederreiter (11), Gabriel Vilardi (14), Josh Morrissey (16), Kyle Connor (19), & Mark Scheifele (21).

Go Winnipeg!!!!!

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POST-GAME INFO

The information from ESPN & MoneyPuck will be added shortly after the game…though there are typically alterations made to the advanced stats overnight, so I will post over the old data Friday morning if the numbers changed.

Scoring Summary: (courtesy of ESPN)

FINAL SCORE:  

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Game Stats: (courtesy of MoneyPuck)

Expected Goals (all): 

Expected Goals (5on5):  

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Will let you know what I thought of the Jets-Kraken game on Friday morning….hopefully posted before 9 am.

BOJA’S Post-Game Thoughts: