After going 4-1-0 in the first half of the home stand, the Winnipeg Jets kick off the second half with a visit from an old friend in former Jets starting goalie Ondrej Pavelec, possible future Winnipeg Jet Rick Nash, and the New York Rangers.

The Jets finally had a clunker of a game at home against the St. Louis Blues on Friday night. The loss ended an eight game points streak where they had gone 6-0-2 and a ten game home points streak where they were 9-0-1. If you were looking for a silver lining to that loss though, it could be that pretty much every player and coach was not pleased in the least with their effort and knew they had to be better. Need another silver lining to look forward to today? The Jets are 6-0-0 in games played on Sundays this season. One thing to note that is starting to be a bit of a concern is that this will be Connor Hellebuyck’s 11th start in the last 12 games the Jets have played. The string of injuries this team has had to deal with may be starting to catch up to them a bit.

The Rangers beat the Calgary Flames at home on Friday night to snap a four game losing streak. The Rangers have lost 10 of their last 14 games and this past week sent out a letter to fans suggesting that a rebuild was on its way very soon, but the truth is the Rangers are still only four points out of a playoff spot in the East. The Rangers have actually been a pretty strong home team, but have been awful on the road where they are 8-14-2 this season. They will be getting dynamic youngster Jimmy Vesey back into the lineup today as he was cleared to return, but they won’t have Ondrej Pavelec on the ice or even on the bench as he was injured in that win over Calgary. So much for the impending video tribute…

The last time these two teams played was December 8 of 2016 that the Rangers won by a 2-1 score. Today is the first of two meetings the clubs will have this season, the second meeting taking place in New York on March 6.

Expect a renewed focus from the Jets in this game. They knew they were their own worst enemy against the Blues but also have the confidence to know that a loss like that is an exception and not the normal way things go. Jets win today by a 4-2 score.