Winnipeg Jets vs San Jose Sharks - Odds and Predictions

Where: SAP Center at San Jose

When: Friday, November 1, 10:30PM EST

How (TV/Radio): TSN3, NBC Sports – Cali | WFAN

Be sure to also check out this article covering our 2020 Stanley Cup Favorites!

Winnipeg Jets (Away)

Head Coach: Pauls Maurice{All-Time 701-626-99-116WPG, CAR, TOR, HAR}

The Winnipeg Jets are riding a middle of the pack record. At 6-7-0, the Jets sit fourth in the Central division. Goalie Connor hellebuyck is putting up solid numbers but the players in front of him aren’t pulling their weight. The team has also struggled with not only injuries, but suspensions as well.

Offense

The Winnipeg Jets have not gotten off to the start they expected given the offensive talent the team possesses. The Jets currently sit with the ninth-lowest combined goal total with just 30 goals scored so far this season. The team’s leading score, Nikolaj Ehlers, doesn’t even break the top-20 in the league with his 13 points. They rank 23rd when it comes to average goals per game and they 23rd when it comes to the power play as well with just a 15.6 percent success rate. The team also has the fourth-worst shooting percentage in the NHL, sitting at just 7.5 percent. The team has also played their last couple of games without Patrik Laine, who has been struggling this season anyway, so who is to say how much of an affect his absence has truly played.

Defense

Throughout the course of the offseason, the Winnipeg Jets lost four defensemen. It’s showing. The Jets have allowed the 11th-most goals against this season and allow an average of 3.38 per game. They have also allowed the seventh-most shots against – 399. The most glaring problem is their penalty kill. The Winnipeg Jets take the least penalty minutes per game and yet they have the worst penalty kill in the entire league; an absolutely abysmal 64 percent rate when killing penalties.

Goaltending

Starting goaltender Connor Hellebuyck is expected to get the nod in net for the Winnipeg Jets. Hellebuyck has an even season record of 5-5-0. His goals against average sits at 2.63 and he has a .921 save percentage so far this season.

Head Coach: Peter DeBoer{All-Time 4040-321-110 SJ, NJD, FLA}

Talk about a team that’s struggling! This Western conference juggernaut that boasts the talents of Erik Karlsson, Brent Burns, Joe Thornton, Logan Couture, among many others, is sitting with a regular season record of just 4-8-1. They have lost three straight games heading into Friday night’s matchup.

Offense

What should be one of the most offensive teams in the league is definitely not playing like it. Somehow the Sharks rank just above their opponents heading into Friday night’s game when it comes to the teams combined goal total. The Sharks have scored just one more goal this season than the Jets, giving them a total of 31 on the season. The Sharks rank 27th in average goals scored per game, barely passing an average of two. They also average the lowest amount of shots per game, somehow, and they sit just outside the bottom-10 in the league for shooting percentage. The advantages for San Jose in this game come in the faceoff dot, where they win more than 50 percent of their draws, and on the power play, where the team ranks ninth in the league with a 24.4 percent success rate.

Defense

Unlike the Jets, the penalty killing unit is about all the San Jose Sharks have going for them defensively. The Sharks lead the league with the best penalty kill percentage: 93.18 percent. That’s about where the good news stops. The Sharks have allowed the fifth-most goals against in the league and allow an average of 3.69 per game. They have allowed the tenth-most shots against and allow an average of 32.5 shots against per game. They also take more penalties than any other team in the league. How they can average that many penalties and still have the best penalty kill in the league is almost baffling.

Goaltending

Of all of San Jose’s problems this season, goaltending has been the most notable. Martin Jones is expected to get the start in net for the Sharks. Jones has a season record of just 2-6-1. His goals against average is 3.57 and his save percentage sits at .890.

These two teams haven’t faced off against one another since last season. That last meeting came on March 12. The San Jose Sharks came out on top in a high scoring affair, winning by a final score of 5-4.

What’s at Stake?

With where these two teams sit right now, the only thing at stake this early in the season is momentum. Both of these teams are under .500 and have struggled to get any sort of momentum going. Offense has struggled for both teams and it’s going to be a long and arduous season for both of these teams if they can’t pull something together before it’s too late. A win for either of these teams Friday night is a step in the right direction.

Will Patrik Laine make it to the ice Friday night? Listed as day-to-day, it seems unlikely, but never say never. When a team is struggling, players do have a tendency to rush themselves back into competition

How big of a factor will shooting percentage play? Neither of these teams put up many shots so the ones they do manage to take are going to have to count.

Can San Jose Sharks’ goalie Martin Jones hold his own in the crase Friday night? Can we expect any sort of improvement in his play against Winnipeg?

Winnipeg Jets Injury Report

D Dustin Byfuglien – OUT (suspension)

F Mark Letestu – DL (undisclosed)

D Nathan Beaulieu – DL (upper-body)

F Adam Lowry – OUT (suspension)

F Patrik Laine – day-to-day (lower-body)

F Mason Appleton – DL (foot)

San Jose Sharks Injury Report

D Dalton Prout – DL (upper-body)

D Jacob Middleton – DL (upper-body)

D Radim Simek – IR/NR (knee)

F Dylan Gambrell – day-to-day (undisclosed)

Winnipeg Jets vs San Jose Sharks – Game Odds

The latest odds for the Jets vs Sharks game are provided by 888Sport NJ, DraftKings Sportsbook, and Unibet NJ.

Good luck!

Money Line