Trade deadline done, the Jets have loaded up with some more offense because you can never have too much of that, and we’re ready for the final run of games leading to the playoffs. The start doesn’t get much bigger than this as the division leading Nashville Predators – the other team in the Central that boosted their roster – come into town.

Back-to-backs on the road are fairly difficult for any team and it’s not unreasonable to at best expect a split most times, but this Jets team is not like most teams. After straight up punking out the Blues in St. Louis by a 4-0 score (a game that in hindsight may have helped convince the Blues to trade one Paul Stastny) they marched into Dallas the next day and took out the Stars by a 5-3 score. It was an impressive weekend for the Jets as they kept clicking on offense, put in some solid defense and got fantastic goaltening from both Connor Hellebuyck who had the shutout in St. Louis and Michael Hutchinson who got his second win in as many starts this season against Dallas.

The Preds have also spent the last couple of games beating up some pretty good teams. They took out the San Jose Sharks by a 7-1 score at home on Thursday, then had their turn beating the Blues by a 4-0 score on Sunday. The Preds have won four in a row and are 6-2-2 in their last ten. Yesterday they picked up Ryan Hartman from the Blackhawks in a deal and also made the Mike Fisher signing official, so their offense has gained a ton more depth in the last 24 hours. Hartman should be in the lineup on the third line for them tonight, Fisher may still be a game or two out.

This is the third of five meetings between the two clubs tonight. The Jets won the last contest by a 6-4 score in Nashville back on December 19 and have earned points against the Preds in four of their last five games played dating back to last season. The first game back on November 20 was a 5-3 Preds win which was also in Nashville. rarely are games “close” between these two teams as ten of the last 13 games these teams have played have been decided by two goals or more. Connor Hellebuyck has a career 5-3-1 record with a .912 save percentage against Nashville. Of course the most important thing to keep in mind between these two teams is that the Predators lead the Jets by two points in the Central division, but also have a game in hand over Winnipeg.

It’s hard not to feel fired up about the Jets offense after yesterday. That said, Nasvhille are one of the roadblocks standing in the way of Jets success. I feel like they make a statement tonight, come out strong and Jets end up winning 5-3.