Jets vs. Coyotes Odds
| Jets Odds | -190 |
| Coyotes Odds | +165 |
| Over/Under | 5.5 |
| Time | 10 p.m. ET |
| TV | ESPN+ |
| Odds via DraftKings. Get up-to-the-minute NHL Odds here. | |
Winnipeg will look to build on a massive 5-4 overtime win in Vegas coming out of the Christmas/COVID break against the league's bottom ranked group in the lottery-bound Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday.
Winnipeg will surely be looking at this contest as a must-have, but in the NHL, a win is always far from a sure thing against any competition. Will they be able to continue stabilizing in their third contest since Paul Maurice's resignation?
Winnipeg Jets
On the day of Paul Maurice's resignation, the Jets were trounced at home by a skeleton Washington Capitals roster 5-2 in what is undoubtedly the club's low point on the season.
The group has responded with two straight wins over the St. Louis Blues and Vegas Golden Knights, who have both dominated next to all competition of late.
With the team heading to Colorado for a tough road game after this one, followed by another break in the season after that, I imagine they will come in to this game desperate to win and claim two points that have been circled as must-have.
Similar to Vancouver in both situation and roster makeup, the Jets will look to go on a run over the final two-thirds of the season to battle their way into a Western wildcard playoff berth. However, they will do so with a notably less dominant defensive corps and must insulate that flaw with a stellar forward group and great starting netminder in Hellebuyck.
With a deep forward corps led by some really excellent pieces in Kyle Connor, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Nikolaj Ehlers, and Mark Scheifele, this team is flying a little under the radar right now, and they are a candidate likely to rise in the standings.
They hold some flaws on that back end, but when in form, they should be right at that Wild Card bubble. This matchup sets up as a great spot for them to bring a desperate effort and expose the Coyotes' soft defensive play.
Connor Hellebuyck should likely draw the start, but it wouldn't be stunning to see backup Eric Comrie given a chance to get his feet wet again after a long layoff.
Hellebuyck holds a +13.6 Goals Saved Above Expected rating this season, with a .915 Save %, while Comrie holds a +1.6 GSAx and a .914 Save %.
Arizona Coyotes
The Coyotes have been competitive lately with a wild 6-5 overtime win in Anaheim as the high point of their season, and they followed this up with a tough 8-7 shootout loss in San Jose in one of the sloppier games I have ever seen. However, both showings were encouraging.
However the roster is arguably skating with as little talent as we have seen in the salary cap era, and even with some top pieces like Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz catching fire and playing probably in their best possible form, the team's results haven't been strong.
Arizona has posted some less awful results lately, with a notably improved 48.72 xGF% over their last five, but they still hold a far below average roster with regards to scoring talent and a below average goaltending duo.
Looking at it big-picture, they will struggle over the back-half with the talent on hand but picking spots to bet against them will become more important than the opening third of the season, where blindly betting against Arizona's to lose by more than 1.5 goals would've been a great strategy.
To me this sets up as a tough spot, and I think we could see the Jets hang a good offensive total on Scott Wedgewood, who will likely start here, and may be in for another tough night. Wedgewood holds an .894 Save % with a poor -7.7 Goals Saved Above Expected rating this season.
Jets vs. Coyotes Pick
Winnipeg's comeback win over Vegas was quite impressive, and it seems like the type of win to get them kickstarted in the right direction after pausing the season and resetting without Paul Maurice.
A matchup with the Coyotes should allow the Jets' talented forward corps to create a lot of chances for. This is also an opportunity to help insulate the Jets shaky team defense and build on that excellent effort in Vegas.
This sets up as a great spot for the Jets to dominate some lesser competition, and I like the chances we see a really sharp and focused effort here.
The Coyotes have played in some notably high scoring games of late and have continued to allow a lot of goals against. They will have a hard time preventing that trend from continuing against a talented Jets offensive unit here.
There's two plays I like on this game which I feel are more likely to occur than the well above plus money odds suggest. I like a half unit on the Jets to cover -1.5 at +135 and a half unit on Winnipeg to win parlayed with the Over 5.5 at +188.
Pick: Half Unit Jets -1.5 (+135, Play to +115) | Half Unit Jets ML + Over 5.5 Parlay +188
