The Winnipeg Jets face the Minnesota Wild today in the third game of a four-game road trip …Winnipeg is 1-1-0 on the road trip after losing 6-3 to the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night…The Jets wrap up the Western Conference road swing tomorrow night against the St. Louis Blues.
Success Against the Central
The Jets are 3-2-0 against Central Division teams this season…Beginning today, the Jets play three of their last four games in November against Central Division teams after playing just one Central Division team in their previous 11 games…Since the start of the 2016-17 season, the Jets are 37-19-4 against teams within their own division, which is second behind the Nashville Predators (39-17-4)…In that same time frame, Blake Wheeler leads all NHLers in scoring against the Central Division with 75 points (25G, 51A) in 60 games, while Mark Scheifele is second with 70 points (29G, 41A) in 52 games.
Middle of the Road
The Jets are 4-4-0 on the road this season after Wednesday’s result…The Jets have won back-to-back road games just once this season – Nov. 1 vs. FLA and Nov. 19 at VAN…Despite the .500 record, the Jets are in the top 10 in the NHL in special teams on the road with a power play at 24.1% (8th) and penalty kill at 81.3% (7th)…The Jets continue to have played the least amount of games on the road in the NHL this season with just eight contests, but they are in a stretch of seven of nine games away from Bell MTS Place.
Less is More
The Jets outshot Calgary 40-26 on Wednesday, but saw their record fall to 5-3-0 this season when outshooting their opposition…Conversely, the Jets are 7-2-1 when being outshot, which is tied for the seventh-most wins.
Back-2-Back
Today and tomorrow mark the third of 10 back-to-back sets the Jets have this season…Winnipeg is 2-0-0 in the first game and 0-2-0 in the second game of back-to-backs this season…Last season, the Jets went 4-3-2 in the first game of back-to-backs and 4-4-1 in the second game…Nineteen of Winnipeg’s 20 games in back-to-back sets this season are on the road.
On a Heater
Patrik Laine scored two of Winnipeg’s three goals against Calgary on Wednesday and has five goals in his last two games…After scoring three goals in 12 games during October, Laine leads the NHL with 10 goals in eight games in November, which includes a pair of hat tricks (Nov. 1 at FLA, Nov. 19 at VAN)…He notched his eighth power play goal of the season on Wednesday, which is tied for the NHL lead…Laine is also on a three-game point streak (5G, 1A) after registering an assist on Nov. 16 vs. BUF.
Road Warriors
Patrik Laine’s five goals to start the road trip have propelled him to a tie for fifth in the NHL in road goals with nine…He has also overtaken the team scoring lead on the road with 10 points (9G, 1A) in eight games…Laine is joined by Kyle Connor (5G, 4A), Blake Wheeler (1G, 7A), Dustin Byfuglien (1G, 7A) and Mark Scheifele (2G, 6A) as Jets players that are averaging a point per game or better on the road…No other Jets player has more than three points in road games this season.
Third Contribution
The Jets line of Brandon Tanev, Adam Lowry and Andrew Copp scored the opening goal against the Flames on Wednesday to end lengthy scoring droughts for that line…It was Tanev’s first goal since opening night against St. Louis – a span of 18 games…Lowry notched his first point since Oct. 20 vs. ARI – a span of 11 games…It was Copp’s first point since Oct. 18 vs. VAN – a span of 12 games…Despite the point droughts, the trio is a positive possession line with a 52.9% shooting attempts for percentage and 52.5% scoring chance for percentage when they are on the ice together…According to Natural Stattrick, they have combined to generate 30 high dangerous scoring chances when they play together this season versus allowing 23.