You may think it’s just another day, but today marks the 100th anniversary / birthday of the national Hockey League as we know it with the first ever NHL game played back on this day in 1917. In fact it was a pair of games as the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Ottawa Senators while the Montreal Wanders defeated the Toronto Arenas.

100 years later we find ourselves getting ready to watch hockey come to us live from one of the best hockey markets in all of North America with it’s rabid fan base rooting on one of the best teams in the game today… Nashville, Tennessee.(?)

You sure have come a long way hockey.

Despite splitting the home and home set with the St. Louis Blues over the weekend, the Jets have to be feeling pretty good about how they played against one of the top teams in the West. One should hesitate to call it all out domination, but when you out-shoot your opponent in five of the six periods played and limit them to single digit shot amounts in each of the three periods of play during Sunday’s game, well then you’ve done something right. Perhaps the biggest sign of growth on this club is that in years past we would have seen then come out flying as well as they did in both games and then get easily frustrated when goals don’t come early. This Winnipeg team – when they are playing up to their abilities that is – seems to be more of a “put your head down and keep pounding the rock” type club that is fully confident in their ability to put up goals and play solid defense.

While we’ve been busy worrying about the St. Louis Blues and Winnipeg Jets place in the Central Division, the Nashville Predators have started to get to work on reminding everyone that they are in fact the defending Western Conference champs and after a bit of a post-Cup hangover have resumed control of the division. Kyle Turris was acquired in a November 5th trade with the Ottawa Senators and since then has been on a point per game pace with the Preds picking up four goals and 13 assists in 17 games played. His addition has made a strong forward lineup even deeper. Nashville already boasted a strong defensive group – and that’s before they add Ryan Ellis off the IR come January – the only real question was 35 year old Pekka Rinne who has been inconsistent in the past, but has put up amazing numbers this season going 18-4-3 with a .930 save percentage.

Back on November 20, the Jets played a strong first period against the Preds and were tied 1-1 after 20, but a typical second period collapse by the Jets saw the Preds score three in the middle frame – two of the goals scored while the Predators had a man advantage – and the Jets were not able to recover despite a bit of a late third period rally and ended up losing the game 5-3.

The Jets are going to need the same level of play they had against St. Louis and then maybe a little bit extra on top of that to deal with the Predators tonight. Nashville are great on home ice having gone 11-2-2 so far this season. The Jets will come out strong again, but it’s hard seeing how Nashville loses at home. Preds win 5-4.