The Jets are going to be coming off their Saturday high of defeating the Nashville Predators 5-0 at home to facing a team they have had mixed success with this season. This is the 4th game between the two with the Stars leading 2-1 in games. Each team has beaten the other 5-1 and the rubber match was a 4-2 win by Dallas at home.
The Jets are sitting four points up on the Predators with a game in hand and tonight the Central Division rival plays Minnesota who are fighting for a wild card spot.
Everyone's favorite Jets writer Murat Ates had a cool note relating to the Stars and Jamine Benn. In the 34 games since President Jim Lites rant Benn has 21 points in 34 games. Bryan Little has the same amount of points in those same games and with far fewer minutes. Cool find.
So what happens tonight- more of the dominant effort that came on Saturday or one of these trap games where the Jets look past the Stars to the Islanders who come in on Thursday. That's the fear with Winnipeg when they play 'lesser' opponents and the games again LA and Anaheim last week are examples of that. Yes there were wins but not the easiest of wins due to the effort put forth.
The Jets are running 48.75% CF compared to Dallas at 48.16%. There's the base numbers of what's going on with these two from a possession stand point. What the Stars have done well these season is keep pucks out of the net. Only the Islanders have allowed less goals this season.
The Stars' 5v5 save percentage is a league leading .935 while the Jets 8th at .923 and on special teams as a PK they are at .879 with the Jets right behind them at .878. Now consider that the Stars cannot score at all with only 188 goals scored all season at any strength. That is 66 less than Winnipeg. On the PP the Jets are 16% shooting team while Dallas is a 12% unit. However at 5v5 the Jets are a decent 8.49% for 9th in the league while the Stars plummet to 29th in the league at 7%.
Their success has been driven by goaltending as Jets and Stars have the exact same PDO of 1009. The offensive force of Winnipeg, who have scored the third most goals in the western conference vs the team that has allowed the least with both needing these points. Expect a rodeo but it's a guess which way this one goes.
Winnipeg Jets Blogger •Winnipeg Jets Writer • 
Join the Discussion:
»