Now
that the Jets have returned to Winnipeg after a 12 year stint in Atlanta, it’s
a pretty exciting time for the people of Winnipeg as well as NHL fans spread
across the region.
Although the logo has changed and the Winnipeg Jets
have taken over Atlanta’s place in the Southeastern Division this year –
something that will be rectified in the 2012/2013 season with the NHL’s plans
to reassign teams to divisions more appropriate for their time zone and
geographical location – the 13,000 season ticket holders are just excited to
have their team back home.
Let’s
take a look at how they’ve been doing since they’ve returned to Canada with
Claude Noel as the head coach and Andrew Ladd as the captain.
Their
home and season opener was against the Montreal Canadiens, led by captain Brian
Gionta and coach Jacques Martin. Although the Jets finally managed to get
on the scoreboard with Nik Antropov slipping one past Carey Price at the two
and a half minute mark of the third period, Price was an impenetrable wall
throughout the rest of the game with him saving 30 of the 31 he faced.
Unfortunately the same couldn’t be said of Ondrej Pavelec who finished the game
with 5 goals scored against. The crowd didn’t seem to mind though – they still
leapt to their feet and rocked the MTS Centre at the end of the game in support
of their newly returned team.
Since
that first game, the Jets have carried on for a further 5 wins and 10 losses,
including two in overtime and one in a shootout. Not ideal but not quite
the drubbing that many ‘new’ teams to a league experience either. As a
bettor, one thing to note is that 8 of their 16 games have gone over 5.5 goals
with Winnipeg only being shut out twice. They’re putting goals on the board but
it’s not always enough. When they have lost this year, other than the
game against Buffalo when they went down 6-5 in overtime, they have only scored
3 goals or less. And only one of their wins so far – against the Penguins
– saw them score less than 3 goals. Something to keep in mind when looking at
team totals.
At
the time of writing, the Jets are currently on a four game losing streak and
looking to end that against the Blue Jackets. On a positive note for Winnipeg,
Columbus can’t seem to keep the puck out of their net at the moment so this is
a perfect opportunity for the Jets to fire up that offense and get a win. I’ll
be taking the total over including overtime +5.5 -135 at Pinnacle Sportsbook
and hoping that the trends for both teams carry on as they have.
Regardless
of how they finish off the season, the Jets return to Winnipeg is a massive
boost to that area of Canada and that is often more important than the results
at the end of the season: So many children will finally get the chance to
see their first live NHL game and fans who followed this team before their
departure to Atlanta will now have the opportunity to reclaim a team as their
own.