Jets Game Day 19 Winnipeg Jets at Dallas Stars

Photo credit:James Carey Lauder-USA TODAY Sports

1 year ago

Welcome to the game day coverage: Be sure to check out the latest Jets game day odds from NHL betting site Betway.

It is a beautiful day in Winnipeg for some Friday night hockey. The Winnipeg Jets are in Dallas for Black Friday and are going to take on the best in the Central the Dallas Stars.

Do we need to talk about Wednesday night against the Minnesota Wild? No, it was bad. The Jets were outplayed and had a shot to get back into the game towards the end of the second and going into the third and they just rolled over and handed the win to the Wild early in the third on the power play when the Jets penalty killers would allow Kirill Kaprizov to take three consecutive shots that lead to the fourth Minnesota goal. As disappointing as that loss was it was good to see Kyle Connor scoring, and head coach Rick Bowness calling the goaltender interference for Connor Hellebuyck is a great coaching move.

Tonight’s contest is the final meeting between the Stars and Jets in the regular season. It’s another four-point night for the two clubs. A win for Winnipeg will put the Jets just two points back of the Stars with two games in hand. A loss would give the Stars another two points of separation for first in the division.

Connor Hellebuyck is back in the net for the Jets after the shelling he took against the Wild. Even with the six-goal against Hellebuyck’s numbers are still looking good. Hellebuyck has an 8-5-1 record, a 2.35 goals-against average and an impressive .928 save percentage.

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Jake Oettinger will appear in his first game since Nov.17 when he would leave the ice via stretcher when he would experience back spasms. Oettinger was brilliant in his first 12 games of the season with an 8-2-2 record and 2.32 goals against average and a .924 save percentage.

The Stars are a well-rounded hockey club. They can beat you at any point if it’s 5-on-5, on the power play or the penalty kill the Stars have the upper hand. Compared to most other teams they have the superior goalie tandem. In 5-on-5 play the Stars have an expected goals for of 43.2, they actually have 52 goals this season in 5-on-5 play. The power play is second best in the NHL at 30.4 percent and their penalty kill is slightly better than the Jets at 83.1 percent. The Jets Penalty Kill is 80.0 percent.
Dylan DeMelo is back in the line-up which sends Ville Heinola back to the press box. The bottom six are getting a much-deserved shake-up. Jansen Harkins and Michael Eyssimont will move up to the Adam Lowry line. Axel Jonsson-Fjallby and Saku Maenalanen will move down to the David Gustafsson line where they were thriving with the limited minutes. An injured Jet will most likely be back in the lineup next Tuesday and that would be Morgan Barron.
Kyle Connor has four goals and six points in his last five games. Gustafsson has looked good for the last few games expect the fourth-liner to score something big sooner rather than later.
The Stars are 6-2-2 in their last ten games. Jason Robertson continues to be one the most underrated players in the NHL as he is tied with Connor McDavid in goals scored with 16 and has the second most points in the NHL with 31.
Rick Bowness will be making his first return to the American Airlines Center since parting ways with the Dallas Stars organization. Expect the Jets to be all in on playing hard for their coach tonight. The Stars are going to be playing hard for their goaltender who is coming back after being stretched off the ice and they also want to play hard and beat the Jets after they fell to the Jets 5-1 earlier this month on Nov.8. Add that with the teams being division rivals who don’t like each other. We might see a very heated contest.

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Jets Game Day 19 Winnipeg Jets at Dallas Stars

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