JNGD.S8.G64 Flight Plan: Jets Begin Eight Game Grind Against Division Leading Predators

5 years ago

It’s fair to say that the last couple of months haven’t been so great for the Winnipeg Jets. A barely above-average January where they posted a somewhat respectable 8-4-0 record gave way to a dreadful February where they went 4-6-2 and suffered through key injuries to the likes of Dustin Byfuglien (again) and Josh Morrissey. The lone saving grace is that the Jets opponents tonight – the Nashville Predators – didn’t really have much of a February to remember either 7-6-1.

While the three extra wins have helped put them in the Central division lead by a single point, the Jets still have three games in hand on them.

Unfortunately for the Jets, they have an absolute brutal schedule ahead of them over the next 16 days where they will play eight straight games against teams in playoff positions, seven of those teams being in the top ten overall NHL standings. The Jets also happen to be one of those ten teams (for now) but the next eight games without possibly both of their best defenseman will give the Jets their toughest test leading into the playoffs.

Nashville Predators (37-24-5)
@
Winnipeg Jets (37-22-4)

March 1, 2019 – Puck drop: 7:00 PM CST
Bell MTS Place – Winnipeg, MB
TV: TSN 3 – Radio: TSN 1290


2-0 L @ STL	Last Game	3-2 L vs MIN
3-2-0 (1 L)	Last 5 Games	1-3-1 (2 L)
Viktor Arvidsson – 26	Goal Leader	MARK SCHEIFELE – 31
Ryan Johansen – 42	Assist Leader	BLAKE WHEELER – 61
Ryan Johansen – 53	Points Leader	BLAKE WHEELER – 73
12.22% (31st)	The Power Play	25.25% (4TH)
80.39% (14TH)	The Penalty Kill	79.80% (22nd)
Juuse Saros (14-8-2 / .916 SV%)	Starting Goalie	Laurent Brossoit (10-4-2/ .929 SV%)
L @ STL (42-43/ .977 SV%)	Last Goalie Start	L @ ARI (20-23 / .870 SV%)
16-12-4 ON ROAD	Road v Home Record	21-8-4 AT HOME

Predators Player To Watch

#64 Mikael Granlund – Forward

It’s been a crazy week for Granlund – or more to the point it was a crazy Monday for him as he was surprisingly traded at the deadline to the Predators while his wife was in labor on his 27th birthday. He practiced with Nashville for the first time on Thursday and is set to make his Preds debut tonight against the Jets. Granlund should see plenty of time on the second line wing as well as be a much needed boost for the Nashville power play. Before being traded, he was Minnesota’s leading point producer on their power play.

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Last Predators Game

Remember how we mentioned off the top that both the Jets and Predators struggled mightily in the month of February? One team that didn’t was the St. Louis Blues who picked up a rather convincing shutout over the Preds last Tuesday

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Predators Notes

The Preds 2-0 loss to the Blues on Tuesday was the sixth time the team has been shutout this season. The Jets in comparison have only been shut out three times, but one of those shutouts was a 3-0 loss at the hands of the Preds in their first meeting of the season back on October 11.
As noted, Mikael Granlund will make his Predators debut tonight. Wayne Simmons was the other major pick up for Nashville at the deadline, and he’ll be in his second game with the team and likely playing on the third line.
Poor PK Subban, he was recently voted “most overrated” by a group of his peers in a players poll ran by The Athletic. Love or hate the guy, you have to respect how much he loves the game and is one of the more outgoing personalities in a league that could really learn to embrace that part a little better.
Juuse Saros has been on some kind of roll as of late. He as a 6-3-1 record with a .939 save percentage in his last 11 games played.

Jets Player To Watch

#88 Nathan Beaulieu – Defense

It was a solid debut for the 26 year old defenseman – we have official confirmation that it’s pronounced “BOWL-you” by the way – who had a couple of shots and a couple of hits and generally didn’t look all too bad with the advanced metrics suggesting that he was on the ice for more a couple of more scoring chances for than he was against while being paired up with Jacob Trouba most of the night. That said, it was just one game and the Jets will be hoping for a bit more tonight as they are desperate to find a solution to their zone exit issues.

Last Jets Game

It was a performance that was slightly better than we’ve seen from the Jets the last few weeks, but a brutal collapse with less than two minutes to go against the Minnesota Wild where they game up two goals in the span of 26 seconds left a bitter taste in the mouths of many.

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Jets Notes

Laurent Brossoit gets the start tonight with Eric Comrie as his backup after being an emergency recall this morning. Connor Hellebuyck is out with with the flu.
Winnipeg hasn’t lost three consecutive games in regulation since Mar. 6-11, 2017. That mark will be put to the test tonight.
The Jets first game against Nashville may have been a 3-0 dud, but their last game in Nashville back on January 17 was a commanding 5-1 victory where Brendan Lemieux scored twice and Connor Hellebuyck had 37 saves.
This could be a “first to five goals wins” type game… The winner between these two clubs has hit the five goal mark in seven of the last 11 regular season games they’ve played against each other.
That players poll from The Athletic we mentioned earlier? Patrik Laine was second to PK Subban in the “most overrated” category. Again, to each their own but it feels like a lot of sour grapes from players who can’t seem to stand personalities.

Player ratings courtesy Corsica.Hockey

Be sure to check out our Twitter feed for any late mid-day updates to the game lineups!
You can also get up to the minute lineup combos for the Jets
including power play and penalty kill lines by checking out our line combo page.

Nashville Predators Lines

LW	C	RW	Forwards
FILIP FORSBERG Rating: 80.1#10 LW	RYAN JOHANSEN Rating: 76.4#42 C	VIKTOR ARVIDSSON Rating: 80.3#8 RW	FL1 Rating Rating: 78.93#12 FL1
MIKAEL GRANLUND Rating: 77.1#24 LW	KYLE TURRIS Rating: 73.4#77 C	CALLE JARNKROK Rating: 73.0#84 RW	FL2 Rating Rating: 74.52#19 FL2
WAYNE SIMMONDS Rating: 71.6#85 LW	BRIAN BOYLE Rating: 71.9#110 C	ROCCO GRIMALDI Rating: 72.1#71 RW	FL3 Rating Rating: 71.85#18 FL3
COLTON SISSONS Rating: 73.0#85 LW	NICK BONINO Rating: 73.0#83 C	MIIKKA SALOMAKI Rating: 70.0#107 RW	FL4 Rating Rating: 72.01#4 FL4

DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS		Defense
ROMAN JOSI Rating: 82.5#1 LD	RYAN ELLIS Rating: 80.2#9 RD	DL1 Rating Rating: 81.33#1 DL1
MATTIAS EKHOLM Rating: 78.5#7 LD	P.K. SUBBAN Rating: 80.4#5 RD	DL2 Rating Rating: 79.42#1 DL2
MATT IRWIN Rating: 71.6#89 LD	YANNICK WEBER Rating: 70.5#87 RD	DL3 Rating Rating: 71.04#24 DL3

GOALIES
JUUSE SAROS Rating: 75.7#15 G1	PEKKA RINNE Rating: 78.0#7 G2

Winnipeg Jets Lines

LW	C	RW	Forwards
PATRIK LAINE Rating: 79.0#13 LW	MARK SCHEIFELE Rating: 82.7#10 C	BLAKE WHEELER Rating: 79.9#10 RW	FL1 Rating Rating: 80.56#5 FL1
KYLE CONNOR Rating: 76.8#27 LW	KEVIN HAYES Rating: 75.8#47 C	NIKOLAJ EHLERS Rating: 77.4#19 RW	FL2 Rating Rating: 76.71#9 FL2
BRANDON TANEV Rating: 72.2#86 LW	ADAM LOWRY Rating: 73.3#78 C	BRYAN LITTLE Rating: 74.8#40 RW	FL3 Rating Rating: 73.42#7 FL3
MATHIEU PERREAULT Rating: 71.8#92 LW	ANDREW COPP Rating: 72.0#107 C	JACK ROSLOVIC Rating: 70.4#104 RW	FL4 Rating Rating: 71.39#11 FL4

DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS		Defense
NATHAN BEAULIEU Rating: 71.2#98 LD	JACOB TROUBA Rating: 76.4#21 RD	DL1 Rating Rating: 73.82#22 DL1
DMITRY KULIKOV Rating: 69.6#124 LD	TYLER MYERS Rating: 74.0#37 RD	DL2 Rating Rating: 71.82#24 DL2
BEN CHIAROT Rating: 71.2#99 LD	SAMI NIKU Rating: 72.7#57 RD	DL3 Rating Rating: 71.94#19 DL3