The Winnipeg Jets immediately flew to Chicago after their 4-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday, giving them a couple of days in the Windy City. This allowed Jonathan Toews the opportunity to throw out the first pitch in front of his teammates and all the Chicago Cub fans at Wrigley Field. Maybe they hit some of the other highlights like Millennium Park or the Green Mill as well?
But with the weekend over, the True Northers will have to get back to work in the final stretch as they continue to hover between the Western Conference’s final wildcard spot (3 pts back) and a top 5 pick in the upcoming draft (1 to 4 pts up). How will the remaining NHL games impact the standings?? Quite a bit likely, since there is currently only an 8 point gap between the 21st and 30th place franchises. Oddly, one of those 10 teams will move majorly up in the Draft Lottery standings, as whichever club gets the West’s final playoff spot won’t be participating in that as they will end up in the top 16 (NSH, LA, SEA, SJ, WPG, STL). The rest will end up with varying odds of grabbing a top 5 overall selection in the draft…..so lots to monitor as the regular season reaches a conclusion.
Starting with tonight’s action that includes our Winnipeg Jets visiting the Chicago Blackhawks….
WPG Jets @ CHI Blackhawks
Start Time: 7:30 pm Central – United Center
Winnipeg (31-30-12) is tied for 26th place in the NHL with 74 points on the season, scoring 209 Goals For (25th) and allowing 225 Goals Against (16th). Mark Scheifele leads the Jets with 34 goals, 55 assists, and 89 points. Kyle Connor is 1 short of the goal scoring lead, while Gabriel Vilardi is 6 back with 28 goals.
Chicago (27-34-13) has the 2nd worst record in the league with 67 points, scoring 192 Goals For (30th) and allowing 244 Goals Against (tied 25th). Connor Bedard leads the Blackhawks with 30 goals, 38 assists, and 68 points. Tyler Bertuzzi is having another good goal scoring season, with his 6th 20 goal plus campaign & his 3rd straight. His 29th goal this season is one shy of his career high, which he set with the Detroit Red Wings back in 2021-22.
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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A rare game where the Jets have a statistical advantage on their opponents….but Winnipeg has the edge in every category except special teams. Chicago has a slightly better powerplay and the Hawks sport the NHL’s best penalty killers.
Depending on who is net tonight, the Blackhawks might also have an advantage sinceSpencer Knight has put up better numbers than the Jets’ Connor Hellebuyck this year. Bucky is looking to have his worst campaign in terms of save percentage in 2025-26 as the .907% he put up in his 2nd NHL season might be too far out of reach. I’m sure he will want to get it above the .900% mark as much as he can and you have to wonder how many more starts he will get over Winnipeg’s 9 remaining games. With only 1 back-to-back situation left, Hellebuyck could get as many as 8 more starts despite Eric Comrie’s 6 game winning streak.
Here are the line up projections for both clubs via PuckPedia based on the most recent games (no news yet from 11:30 am pre-game skate):
WINNIPEG JETS LINE UP
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CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS LINE UP
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Still no Nino Niederreiter, Vladislav Namestnikov, Colin Miller, and Morgan Barron for the Jets. Coming off a Winnipeg win….I am betting the coaching staff leaves the starters alone and no alterations are made.
Go Winnipeg Jets!!!!!
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POST-GAME INFO
Scoring Summary: (courtesy of ESPN)
FINAL SCORE: Winnipeg Jets 4 Chicago Blackhawks 3 (OT)
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Game Stats: (courtesy of MoneyPuck)
Expected Goals (all): WPG 2.86 CHI 2.21
Expected Goals (5on5): WPG 2.06 CHI 1.66
The Blackhawks & Jets went back & forth in last night’s game…..with Chicago controlling the 1st & 3rd periods and Winnipeg dominating the middle frame. In terms of the xG battle at 5 on 5, the True Northers took the lead 5 minutes into the 2nd period and never gave it up.
The Jets gave up 3 goals at 5 on 5, while scoring a pair of their own. The Scheifele line allowed all 3 of the Hawks’ goals to go in while they were on the ice, but they also were able to score one of their own for Winnipeg. The other goal for our club came from Zhilkin’s 4th line, who only saw 5 minutes of ice time when compared to Toews’ 11 minutes and the top 2 lines getting over 13, yet controlled the scoring chances when they were deployed. It was only the Jets’ top line that lost that battle, which might be why Lowry’s unit ended up getting more ice time.
The Jets ended up playing their top 2 pairings around 18 minutes at 5 on 5, while the Bryson–Salomonsson duo saw about 9 minutes. While all three defensive units won the expected goals battles, the 3rd pairing did give up 2 goals to Chicago. The other two main pairings each were on the ice for a Winnipeg goal and the final Hawks’ goal came during an odd shift with two righties in DeMelo & Pionk. I thought Samberg had one of his best defensive games on Tuesday, stopping a couple for sure goals by tying up his man in front of Hellebuyck.
Another negative GSAE rating for Hellebuyck and this time his save percentage was sub-par as well (.857%).
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With the overtime win, the Winnipeg Jets have found themselves tottering between two worlds. Only a single point back of the current holders of the Western Conference’s final wildcard holders….yet still only 3 points away from finishing in the bottom 5 of the National Hockey League.
The True Northers have 8 more games (5 on the road, 3 at home) left in the regular season to figure out where they will end up when the full 82 schedule has wrapped up. While I really did want to see the Jets lose these past 10 games (6-2-2), it is nice to see young kids like Brad Lambert & Isak Rosen performing well. The two rookies had the 4th & 5th most expected goals last night versus Chicago.
Winnipeg is off until Thursday, when they visit the Dallas Stars…..see you all then.