Tonight’s game is the second meeting of the season between the Jets and the Hawks. Their first game came on November 29th and it was a memorable one for Patrik Laine. He notched his 100th career goal in front of a packed Bell MTS Place crowd. This career milestone for Laine overshadowed his good friend Ehlers who scored his third career hat-trick. Despite all these goals, Chicago made it interesting late in the game but ran out of gas as the Jets came away with the 6-5 victory. If things get heated between these two rivals tonight, they won’t have to wait long to play each other again as it’s Chicago’s turn to host on Friday night.

It’s no surprise that Patrick Kane is the player to watch for Chicago. He leads the team in nearly every offensive category including goals, assists, and points. Not only does Kane score tons of points, but he absolutely dominates the league in puck possession. Kane loves to have the puck on his stick and he leads the league in offensive zone puck possession per game.

Historically, Kane has performed well against the Jets. In his career, Kane has 34 points in 29 games against Winnipeg which gives him 1.17 points per game against the Jets, well above his career average of 1.01 points per game.

The Blackhawks got off to a rocky start as they fell down 2-0 early in the first period. Patrick Kane single-handedly brought the team back as he scored both Blackhawks goals to knot the game at 2-2. Unfortunately for Chicago, they fell apart in the final two minutes of the game and allowed Tatar to score the game winning goal in the final moments.

Anisimov in concussion protocol – The Jets are no strangers to concussions lately, and neither are the Hawks as Anisimov is going through concussion protocol after getting hit by Shea Weber last game.

Chicago Sun Times: “How is that Nick Schmaltz trade holding up?” – A few weeks ago the Blackhawks traded away Schmaltz in a bid to get younger as they brought in Brendan Perlini and Dylan Strome. Strome has been good so far, but Perlini was a healthy scratch in their last game against the Canadiens.

Second City Hockey: “Powerplay Struggles” – The Blackhawks are dead last in the league in regards to the powerplay. Operating at a horrendous 11.6%, the Jets will have a major advantage in the special teams department.

As mentioned above, Ehlers scored a hat-trick in the last meeting with Chicago. Despite his lackluster numbers last year against the Blackhawks (1G, 1A), he has actually scored at a fairly high rate against the Hawks throughout his career. He has 11 points in 15 (.73 ppg) career games against Chicago which is slightly higher than his career average (.68).

Although the score looks to be a blowout, things could have ended up very differently if not for the play of Hellebuyck in the first period. The Flyers had plenty of prime scoring chances in the first few minutes and Hellebuyck was sensational to not allow anything past him. Once the Jets scored the first goal, they kept on scoring as they finished the game with a touchdown.

Sportsnet: “Hellebuyck’s steady play provides Jets’ offence chance to wake up” – It was a bad start against the Flyers on Sunday afternoon. Lucky for Winnipeg, Hellebuyck gave the team enough time to figure things out and get some offense going.