A busy day in the National Hockey League, as 30 of 32 franchises will be in action on this Saturday in late March. With teams having between 9 and 12 games remaining in the regular season, the final push for playoff and Lottery draft standings is in full effect.
When it comes to the Winnipeg Jets (72 pts) and their place in the NHL standings, these 8 contests will be the ones to keep an eye on:
FLA (73) @ NYI – NJ (76) @ CAR – SJ (71) @ CLM – SEA (74) @ BUF – TOR (75) @ STL (71)
MTL @ NSH (77) – UTH @ LA (76) – VAN @ CGY (68)
A lot of the teams the True Northers need to pass them in the standings in order to get a better shot at the 1st overall draft pick in June are playing quality opposition like the Islanders, Hurricanes, Blue Jackets, & Sabres. So they might not end up with any points today….but at least one of the Maple Leafs and Blues are guaranteed to add to their yearly total.
On to the pending Saturday Night hockey match…..
WPG Jets @ COL Avalanche
Start Time: 6 pm Central – Ball Arena
Winnipeg (30-30-12) 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 34 goals, 54 assists, and 88 points. Kyle Connor is 2 short of the goal scoring lead, while Gabriel Vilardi is 7 back with 27 goals.
Congratulations to Scheifele for becoming the longest serving Winnipeg Jets 1.0 & 2.0 player by surpassing Thomas Steen’s games played record. One of the few highlights of this season has been the play of their best center, who at the ripe age of 33 has set a career best for points scored already. Not sure if he can match his previous best goals scored record, as he is short by 8 goals……but a couple more 2 goal outings like the last game could help him get there.
Colorado (48-13-10) 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 48 goals, 69 assists, and 117 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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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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Winnipeg will be without Morgan Barron for the rematch versus Colorado and there is possibly another injured player since the Jets had 2 emergency recalls from the Manitoba Moose before they headed out on the road trip. Forwards Danny Zhilkin & Parker Ford were added to the roster and it looks like the young Russian will get in another NHL game as he will take over the 4th line center role. This hasn’t been confirmed though and since Ford is also a capable pivot, he could be the one who gets the tap this evening.
That is all I have for this morning…..I had a late start to the day after allowing myself to sleep in longer than normal. Now I need to make breakfast, take my cat Lambo for a walk, and pick up some beverages for tonight’s Jets’ game. See you back here to cheer or complain about Winnipeg’s performance….
Go Winnipeg Jets!!!!!
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POST-GAME INFO
Scoring Summary: (courtesy of ESPN)
FINAL SCORE: Winnipeg Jets 4 Colorado Avalanche 2
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Game Stats: (courtesy of MoneyPuck)
Expected Goals (all): WPG 2.90 COL 1.51
Expected Goals (5on5): COL 1.32 WPG 1.30
Colorado had the better of the xG battle (5 on 5) in the 1st period, but Winnipeg took over early in the 2nd and held the lead until the final 14 minutes of the 3rd frame. Connor’s empty net goal to seal the victory almost knotted things up in the xG race as the Jets did a very good job limiting the Avalanche’s scoring opportunities in the final 10 minutes of the contest.
Three out of four of Winnipeg’s forward lines won the xG battle as the Jets outscored the Avs 3 to 1 at 5 on 5 on Saturday. Our team got secondary scoring from the Lowry & Toews lines, while the other goal for & against happened during line changes.
Despite the Jets winning the game, the defensive side of things didn’t go smoothly to start of the game and that made the coaches start looking for new pairings to shore things up. The top 2 pairings each saw over 14 minutes of ice time, while the Bryson–Salomonsson duo was around 6 minutes (gave up the only even strength goal against).
The final 4 pairings played between 2:00-2:30 minutes and had much more success in terms of the xG’s. The Morrissey–DeMelo duo were on for a Winnipeg goal, as were the Samberg–Salomonsson and Bryson–Pionk pairings.
Despite having a negative GSAE rating, Hellebuyck did have a solid .919 save percentage versus Colorado.