Tonight, on the 1st game of a back-to-back, the Jets will have a chance to pick up at least a point in their 6th straight win. The Jets four game win streak ended on Saturday after a 4-3 overtime loss to the Maple Leafs. It was an entertaining game on Hockey Day in Canada, but the Jets just didn’t have enough fire power on offence to get the win. Tonight, on the start of another busy week of NHL action, the Jets will face off against the Chicago Blackhawks, who are 5-4-1 in their last 10 games. The bottom two teams in the Central Division will battle for two points on this Monday night, as Jonathan Toews returns to Chicago for the first time since 2023.

The still 31st overall 19-22-6 Winnipeg Jets and 30th overall 19-22-7 Blackhawks will clash at United Center, with these two teams looking for a win to start their week. We’re now just past the middle of the busiest part of the 2025-26 NHL season schedule. After tonight, the Jets still have 6 more games in January. The schedule continues to be “packed” due to the upcoming 3 week Olympic break in February.

The Jets and Blackhawks have met once already this regular season. The only matchup was in Winnipeg on the eve of Halloween, where the Jets won 6-3. The season series continues tonight, January 19th, in Chicago. These teams will meet again in Winnipeg on March 3rd before the season series finale on March 31st in Chicago. With a win tonight the Jets would take a 2-0 season series lead against this Central Division team who is slowly looking to get out of their current rebuild.

The injury report for the Winnipeg Jets has three names: Haydn Fleury has an upper body injury and is still listed as “week-to-week”. Neal Pionk continues to be listed as “week-to-week” with a lower body injury, and that’s the exact same status for Colin Miller. The Blackhawks also have three (one is non-rostered) names on their injury report. Both Teuvo Teravainen and Frank Nazar were added to the injured list on the weekend with upper body injuries. The status for both injuries is expected to be short term, with Nazar expected to be ready soon while Teravainen may be out a few more games.

Connor – Scheifele – Iafallo

Perfetti – Toews – Vilardi

Niederreiter – Lowry – Namestnikov

Koepke – Barron – Pearson

Morrissey – DeMelo

Samberg – Salomonsson

Stanley – Schenn

Hellebuyck

Comrie

The unconfirmed starting goalie is once again Connor Hellebuyck. Eric Comrie will very likely start tomorrow night against the Blues. After Hellebuyck’s most recent start, he now holds a 12-12-5 record with a 2.76 GAA and a .901 SV%. The Jets lineup is unchanged from their last game, as it looks like they’ve finally settled on some combinations that have worked well as of their past few games. As usual, there could be some announced lineup changes by the Jets prior to the game, so make sure to stay tuned to the Jets official X/Twitter account for any late lineup additions or changes prior to puck drop.

Greene – Bedard – Burakovsky

Bertuzzi – Dickinson – Mikheyev

Donato – Moore – Lardis

Dach – Foligno – Slaggert

Vlasic – Crevier

Kaiser – Levshunov

Grzelcyk – Murphy

Knight

Soderblom

The Blackhawks lineup is missing two offensive players. The lineup still features several young talents and some veteran players who continue to mentor the Blackhawks youth. Looking at the Blackhawks’ player stats through 48 games, the talented Connor Bedard leads the way with 47 points in 35 games. Spencer Knight is the unconfirmed starting goalie. Knight is proving he’s a starting goalie in the NHL alongside Arvid Soderblom, and he’s been posting some solid numbers throughout this season. Knight holds a 13-13-6 record with a 2.61 GAA, 2 shutouts and a .910 SV%.

Tonight the player to watch from each team will be a Canadian forward who likes to score goals. Despite a very slow start to the season, Tanner Pearson has provided some depth scoring to the Jets offence. In 41 games, Pearson has 7 goals and 3 assists for 10 points, including 3 goals in his last 10 games. The Jets depth scoring has improved since their fall to last place, and Pearson’s overall play has improved on the 4th line with Cole Koepke and Morgan Barron. The Jets seem to be benefitting from some successful line combinations (after a solid month of line shuffling), and one of the players who has benefitted has definitely been Pearson.

Tyler Bertuzzi is excelling in his 2nd full season with the Blackhawks. When Connor Bedard was recently out of the lineup, Bertuzzi pretty much became the number 1 scoring option on the team. Bertuzzi’s career high in goals is 30 back in 2021-22, and with his last (most recent) goal he surpassed his last season’s total of 23 goals. In 45 games this season, Bertuzzi has 24 goals and 13 assists for 37 points. Although he’s not on the top line with Bedard, the Jets need to watch out for Bertuzzi, who continues to be a major scoring threat in the middle of a season where he’s on pace to set new career highs.

Puck drop in Chicago is set for just after 7:30 pm CST. Tonight’s game will be the Jets second of four times seeing the Blackhawks in the 2025-26 season, so they’d like to continue their five game point streak against this Central Division opponent. Stay tuned here at Jets Nation for a recap of the action, as the Jets look to pick up at least a point in their 6th straight game in Chicago.