The Winnipeg Jets are a young team full of talent and almost unlimited potential, but you could argue the same for the Carolina Hurricanes who have a roster full of great youthful talent led by a “veteran” 25 year old. The start of this road trip for the Winnipeg Hockey club could be a tough one as they open it up in Raleigh.

As mentioned, this is the first game of a critical six game road trip for the Jets. They spent the past week splitting a pair of games at home with a thrilling – but ultimately disappointing – loss to Nashville on Tuesday and a strong win against the Red Wings on Friday. In that game against Detroit, Blake Wheeler’s six game point streak was snapped, but Patrik Laine’s point streak continued to thrive. Laine has had points in his last seven games and he’s picked up a pair of points in six of those seven games. No new news for the jets on the injury front so expect the same lineups, although Tobias Enstrom looks like he could return as early as Tuesday against the Rangers and Steve Mason looked strong in a conditioning stint for the Manitoba Moose on Saturday and his return could be close as well.

Carolina recently had a stretch of six straight losses and it looked like they were about to bow out of any potential playoff talk, but two wins in a row – including a 3-1 win over the New jersey Devils back on Friday has them right back into the second wild card spot in the east and in the middle of a five team dog fight with four other teams within three points of them for that last playoff spot. While much is made of the Winnipeg Jets youth, the Hurricanes also have their fair share of young talent such as players like Teuvo Teravainen (who has a three game point streak going into tonight), Sebastian Aho, Noah Hanifin and Jeff Skinner who is in his eighth NHL season but is only 25 years old. A couple of weeks ago he became a 20 goal scorer yet again, a mark he’s hit in six of his eight seasons played.

This is the second of two meetings between the clubs this season, the previous having taken place on October 14 in Winnipeg which ended in a 2-1 win for the Jets. In that game, Connor Hellebuyck stopped 28 of 29 shots faced while Bryan Little and Nik Ehlers provided the offense.

 

DO not underestimate these ‘Canes! They are a young, fast team and right now motivated to catch a playoff spot earlier than I am sure their rebuild may have anticipated. The biggest question may be which Cam Ward will we see in goal as he’s had a bit of an up and down season. We’re going to hope it’s the one that struggles to stop pucks. Jets win 3-1.