NHL Hockey: Winnipeg Jets at Chicago Blackhawks

By Jim October 12, 2019

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The Winnipeg Jets are a tough team to figure out. The expectation coming into the 2019-2020 season was that they’d score goals in buckets but have a hard time preventing their opponents from scoring. Through the first three games of the season that was right on the money. They went 1-2 in these games scoring 10 goals and allowing 14. They’ve won a pair of games since then though it’s unclear if that is a function of playing teams that are struggling offensively or an improvement in their defense. They won 4-1 at Pittsburgh (#19 in team scoring and without Malkin) and 5-2 at home over Minnesota (tied for #28 in team scoring).

Speaking of tough teams to figure, the Chicago Blackhawks were expected to show improvement after a rough 2018-2019 but have yet to win a game. That sounds more dire than it is as they’ve only played two games and one of those was in Prague on October 4 to open the season. Their other loss was at home on Thursday to San Jose with both defeats coming by one goal. The offense has looked solid, the defense and goaltending not so much and that was a concern coming into the season. Robin Lehner will get his first start in a Hawks uniform while Connor Hellebuyck will be between the pipes for Winnipeg.

Chicago has a tough game against scorching hot Edmonton on deck for Monday night and will then be off the rest of the week until they play Columbus next Friday and Washington on Sunday. The Jets return home immediately after this game and will enjoy a five game home stand starting with a game against Pittsburgh on Sunday followed by visits from Arizona and the Islanders next week. They’ve got a chance to do some damage on this home stand as every opponent they face has a losing record with the exception of Edmonton who’ll be in town on Sunday, October 20. Before their next road game at Anaheim on 10/29 they’ll also play the Calgary Flames in the Heritage Classic outdoor game held in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Lehner has been an erratic goalie in the past but he’s coming off a season where he was a Vezina Trophy finalist. He’ll have his hands full here as the Jets offense is tough to stop. Patrik Laine is known as a goal scorer and he’s got 3 this year but he’s done a nice job getting his teammates involved and also has 10 assists. If the Winnipeg ‘D’ is starting to gel and Hellebuyck starting to play better they’re a decent value as a road dog. Jets have cleaned up playing opponents with losing records in recent years (+13.8 units) while the Hawks have lost a ton of money against opponents with winning records (-17.4 units). We’ll bet this one accordingly along with the total in a series that has trended strongly ‘Over’.