Thirteen games on the National Hockey League’s schedule tonight…..so the franchises will be moving up and down the standings after all the action concludes. Lets see what is on tap for the Winnipeg Jets this evening…..

COL Avalanche @ WPG Jets

Start Time: 7 pm Central – Canada Life Centre

Winnipeg (30-29-12) is tied for 25th place in the NHL with 72 points on the season, scoring 203 Goals For (24th) and allowing 220 Goals Against (18th). Mark Scheifele leads the Jets with 32 goals, 54 assists, and 86 points. Kyle Connor is tied for the goal scoring lead as well, while Gabriel Vilardi is 5 back with 27 goals.

Colorado (47-13-10) has the best record in the league with 104 points, scoring 263 Goals For (1st) and allowing 177 Goals Against (1st). Nathan MacKinnon leads the Avalanche with 46 goals, 69 assists, and 115 points.

Here is how the two clubs’ year-to-date stats compare when you look at the head-to-head data, via ESPN‘s team & goaltender comparison numbers:

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The stats for the Jets & Avs are pretty lopsided….but Winnipeg does have the better powerplay somehow. Colorado have scored 6 more goals than the nearest NHL franchise and an impressive 18 less goals against than the 2nd place Tampa Bay Lightning. The team is having a dominant season and will have every player in their line up except Nicholas Roy, so they should represent a real test for the True Northers tonight.

Here are the line up projections for both clubs via PuckPedia based on the most recent games:

WINNIPEG JETS LINE UP

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COLORADO AVALANCHE LINE UP

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No changes expected from the Winnipeg coaching staff, so we should see what we have been seeing for the past few games in terms of players on the ice. The Josh Morrissey–Neal Pionk experiment on the top pairing continues, while the forward lines will remain the same.

Last night I spent a bit of time seeing how the Jets’ players have been doing offensively at 5 on 5 this season and decided to create a list of some of the forwards to show how many points per minute of ice time they have this season:

Mark Scheifele: 0.04546

Kyle Connor: 0.04102

Gabriel Vilardi: 0.03491

Brad Lambert: 0.03333

Morgan Barron: 0.03017

Cole Koepke: 0.02845

Cole Perfetti: 0.02507

Isak Rosen: 0.02335

Alex Iafallo: 0.01996

Jonathan Toews: 0.01869

Gustav Nyquist: 0.01364

The top of the list has the usual suspects with Winnipeg’s three best forwards leading the way, but after that you have a quartet of bottom sixers in the same range as Jets’ 2nd liner Cole Perfetti before you get to the lowest scoring regular skaters.

Unsurprisingly, this seems to indicate that all those AIH members calling for players like Morgan Barron, Cole Koepke, Brad Lambert, & Isak Rosen to be given more playing time were correct in suggesting that Winnipeg’s offensive production would increase if the coach tapped them on the shoulders more frequently.

Having no idea how this compares to other NHL teams, the value of the above data is limited….but it could suggest to True North management who should be in the running for next year’s squad and where they might fit in.

That is all I got……spent most of the day in bed with a migraine and now the medication I took to deal with it has made me groggy.

Go Winnipeg Jets!!!!!

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POST-GAME INFO

Scoring Summary: (courtesy of ESPN)

FINAL SCORE: 

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Game Stats: (courtesy of MoneyPuck)

Expected Goals (all):  

Expected Goals (5on5): 

***The post-game information will be added sometime before 9 am on Friday***