We’re on the final weekend before Christmas and you could spend your day out shopping, fighting crowds at the malls and big box stores, dealing with traffic and generally dealing with all the stress that comes with preparing for the holidays, or you could spend it watching some early afternoon puck on your TV.

I think the choice is pretty easy. (It’s watching the Jets, just in case you really had to think about it which given how the last two games have gone, you might have.)

Here’s what to watch for as you settle in for the game today…

After going 1-2-0 this past week, the Jets record at home has dipped to 10-7-1. The club has just as many wins on the road and one less loss and overall this season it feels like the Jets have been better overall away from Winnipeg than playing within the friendly confines of BMTSP. They actually have three more goals scored on the road than they do at home with one less game played. Winnipeg has won seven of their past 11 road games going 7-3-1, but the problem in saying that they haven’t won a game in their last three on the road as they are 0-2-1. It’s also not like Minnesota has been overly kind to them either as the Jets are 1-6-0 in their past seven trips to Minnesota and have been outscored 24-12 in the seven games.

The Jets at least have beaten the Wild already once this season, a 5-2 win back on October 10. Before that the Wild had won the last six regular season games in a row.

@Blake Wheeler is a single point away from tying the Thrashers / Jets franchise points record and two away from being alone at the top. For a brief moment against Philly it looked like he was going to get the six points that were needed for it and with two points against Carolina it sure seemed like he was about to break it at home, but then things went cold against Chicago.

It’s a bit of a shame there isn’t seemingly more appreciation for this record falling simply because Jets fans don’t seem to care all that much about anything involving the Atlanta hockey history of this club and while I won’t go into one of my long rants about how disappointing that is, I will point out that it’s not every day you see an NHL franchise record like this broken.

The Jets are a perfect 12-0-0 when leading after two periods of play. Conversely they are 8-13-2 when tied or trailing after 40. Comebacks haven’t been out of the question for Winnipeg this season which has really helped bail them out of repeated slow starts to games, but man it would sure be nice to see the Jets start quick and stay head from start to finish if possible. They’ve outscored teams in the third period by a 35-29 mark.

The Jets have gone four straight games giving up a power play goal. In those last four games they’ve been short handed nine times and have given up an astonishing six goals. The Jets PK in December is 65.2% (15 of 23) which goes without saying is simply awful. They gave up a goal in the one time they were shorthanded to the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday, they gave up a goal in each of the two times they were shorthanded against the Carolina Hurricanes and then after finally displaying a proper PK in the second period against Chicago, they gave up a fourth power-play goal this week which was an absolute backbreaker.

Both Philly and Chicago don’t exactly have stellar power play units and they bodied the Jets. Minnesota’s power play is ranked 21st in the league… For the love of baby hockey Jesus and all of our sanity, it would sure be nice to see the Jets have a clean penalty kill today.

Minnesota snapped a two game slide on Thursday night with a crazy 8-5 win in Arizona, but one has to imagine that such a wicked departure from their typical “Minne-snore-ta” defensive minded hockey scared them a bunch. Of course we know all about not wanting to go too fast or push too much offense in Winnipeg as well as Paul Maurice prefers “meat and potatoes” with no spice at all it would seem.

This game might end up being a good set up to your afternoon nap and given how the Jets have struggled in Minny, it might be just as well. Wild win 2-1.