Things have been a bit grim for the Winnipeg Jets recently. They’ve lost their last four road games and have struggled with poor starts in each of those games. Now they take the ice against the league-leading Tampa Bay Lightning who started this week sharing that top position with the Jets, but now are four points ahead as the Jets have slumped over this past week.

If the Jets can be on their game tonight, this should be a fantastic game featuring teams loaded with all kinds of offensive skill. The only issue is we’re not entirely sure if the Jets will show up for a full 60 minutes.

Things haven’t been so good for the Winnipeg hockey club. Sure they started the week with a dominating performance against the Ottawa Senators, but two straight losses on the road to Detroit and then Florida – two teams that had been notably struggling and on losing streaks of their own before meeting up with the Jets – have left some question marks hovering over the club going into a game with arguably the league’s best team. It doesn’t seem Paul Maurice is pushing any panic buttons though as the Saturday morning skate for the Jets saw the same forward lines and defensive pairings that we’ve seen for the last number of games. Were the Jets perhaps guilty of looking ahead to tonight’s game and past the Red Wings and Panthers? Can the Jets get back to playing their style of game and tighten up defensively? Will they actually start the game well or will they fall behind early yet again?

Everything is clicking for the Bolts this season. Steven Stamkos is healthy and is an early favourite for Hart Trophy winner. Nikita Kucherov is truly emerging as one of the league’s best wingers. Brayden Point, Vladislav Namestnikov and Ondrej Palat are all quality depth forwards on the Lightning that would be first line talent on many other NHL clubs. The Lightning have won their last three games, scoring five or more goals in each of those games, so they have the ability to light up a scoreboard and by the way, you may not have noticed that goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy has proven why Tampa barely batted an eye when they traded away Ben Bishop last season.

 

Depending on your perspective, the Jets have always struggled with Tampa having lost five of their last seven games against the Lightning. Another way to look at it though is to note that the Jets have managed to get points in four of their last five games against Tampa. (Thank you loser points!) Tonight is the first of two meetings against the clubs and they’ll meet again at the end of Janurary. Last season the Jets and Lightning split their games with the Jets winning in Tampa but the Lightning stealing a win in Winnipeg.

Ugh, a week ago we were all looking at this game with all kinds of anticipation and even some of us were (very quietly mind you) whispering “potential Stanley Cup Final?” Now two road losses later and the story has changed a bit. It feels like we can only hope the Jets don’t get completely blown out of the water tonight against one of the league’s best. The Jets should be much stronger in the game and the potential for offensive fireworks is high so this should be very entertaining, but in the end, it might be a bit of a disappointment… Lightning wins 6-4.