Tonight kicks off a stretch of four games against Central division rivals for the Winnipeg Jets. The Blackhawks are in town tonight, then it’s a home and home series against the St. Louis Blues before hitting the road against the Nashville Predators. It may seem like we’re always saying “this is a big test…” but this next week or so of games goes a long way in figuring out just where this Jets team stands in its own division.

They didn’t look their sharpest at times and you can even say they had the benefit of a couple of bad goals let in by Canucks goalie Jacob Markstrom, but the bottom line is that the Jets snapped their three game losing streak on Monday night against Vancouver. Home skating has very much agreed with the Jets as they have a 11-2-1 record at Bell MTS Place this season. Injuries however are starting to catch up with the club however especially on defense. The team is already missing Tobias Enstrom and Dustin Byfuglien and yesterday Tyler Myers didn’t skate at practice which the team made up for by putting Marko Dano in a red defenseman jersey. As it is, Paul Maurice stated Myers will play tonight. The next four games against division rivals is going to be a benchmark of sorts for the Jets to see where this team is really at. So far playing the likes of the Wild and Stars, the Jets divisional record is 5-1-0 which will go a long way in helping the Jets make the playoffs.

It has been a bit of an up and down season in the Windy City, but Chicago has recently put together a modest three game win streak as they head into play tonight, although it hasn’t come without quite a bit of a struggle which can be seen as both a positive and negative since the Hawks aren’t outplaying their opposition by any stretch, but they are finding ways to win. Special teams wise, the Hawks are very good on the penalty kill with an 83.8% mark good for fifth overall in the league, but a shockingly 29th in the league on the power play with a 15.2% success rate. On a team with offensive stars such as Saad, Kane, Toews and rookie standout Alex DeBrincat, that almost feels like it should be a massive typo and not actual fact.

Tonight is the first of five games between the Hawks and Jets. Last season the Jets seems to have Chicago’s number going a rather surprising 4-1-0. The season before that (2015-16) the Hawks dominated the Jets in that season series with a similar 4-1-0 record. Connor Hellebuyck started in all five games against Chicago and in his career has a 4-2-0 record with a .948 save percentage and a shutout which he picked up against the Hawks back in November 2016.

As mentioned the Hawks are starting to find their stride as a club so tonight is likely a bigger game for them than it is the Jets. One also can’t help but shake the feeling the Jets are a bit overdue for a letdown at home… Blackhawks win 3-1.