Red-Hot Jets Return Home Seeking Fourth Straight Win Against Slumping Predators

The Winnipeg Jets return home after a quick two-game road stint in which they won both games against the Flyers and Islanders with their matchup against the Nashville Predators on Saturday setting them up for their first four-game winning streak of the season.

Since dropping their season opener against the Stars, the Jets have outscored their next three opponents 13 to six with consecutive five-goal performances heading into their matchup with Nashville. They will do their best to hold off a Predators team that is desperately looking for a win after dropping two straight with ten goals allowed.

The Jets will look to respond with their deadly top line duo of Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor, who have a combined eight goals through four games. The Predators will look to respond with their own top line duo of snipers in Steven Stamkos and Filip Forsberg, who are both searching for their second goal of the season.

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Lineup Storylines

The ace up the sleeve of the Jets as of late has been fourth line center Morgan Barron, who’s experiencing his best season start of his career with goals in all but one of Winnipeg‘s four games. Barron also added a pair of assists to bring his season point total to five through four games, ranking him ahead of all Nashville players and places him in line with a handful of notable names like superstars in Adrian Kempe, Sidney Crosby and Patrick Kane. Morgan will play against his brother in the contest as Justin Barron is on Nashville’s third defense pairing.

Winnipeg would like the same level of production out of their big ticket free agent signing in Jonathan Toews, who has just one assist, that came on the power play, a -1 rating and six penalty minutes with over 17 minutes of average ice-time per game. The team would like to see more out of the three-time Stanley Cup champion but he’ll face a tough matchup against one of the league’s best goaltenders in Nashville’s Juuse Saros.

For the Predators, their youth movement has been flying under everyone’s radar. While hockey fans like to talk about the Montreal Canadiens or the Detroit Red Wings, Nashville has one of the youngest teams in the NHL. Their forward group features several players aged 24 or younger, including second-line forwards Fedor Svechkov and Luke Evangelista, as well as fourth-line winger Ozzy Wiesblatt. On defense, Adam Wilsby joins star blueliner Roman Josi on the top pairing.

This young core doesn’t even account for injured prospect Matthew Wood or 18-year-old Brady Martin, the fifth overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, who has already logged NHL minutes just months after being selected. The kids will have something to prove and Winnipeg will need to stay on their toes for a very different looking Nashville team.

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Player & Betting Trends (Presented By BetMGM)

WPG ML (-182) | NSH ML (+150)

WPG -1.5 (+135) | NSH +1.5 (-161)

O/U 5.5 Goals

These two clubs have split their last eight matchups with four wins a piece but the outlier trend in the series of games was the amount that were low-scoring and this goes back further into the history of their rivalry. In 12 of their last 19 matchups, they’ve totaled five or fewer goals and this is largely because of the outstanding netminders and defense cores both teams have. Winnipeg has the back-to-back Vezina trophy winner and reigning league MVP in net with Connor Hellebuyck but Nashville also has one of the most elite goaltenders in the league with Juuse Saros.

Not to mention both sides possess top defenses with the Jets rolling out notable names like Josh Morrissey and Neal Pionk while the Predators can respond with Roman Josi and Brady Skjei. Because of this, it’s very difficult to for almost any one on either team to excel in this matchup outside of Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele.

Winnipeg‘s dynamic duo have been boom or bust in this matchup with Connor and Scheifele recording 27 and 26 points respectively over their last 25 games versus Nashville but this has come in large chunks. Connor for example, has gone without a point in 11 of those 25 games with his numbers being pushed up thanks to eight multi-point performances. If the duo find the scoresheet, it’ll likely be more than once if at all.

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