Teams Heading In Wrong Direction Clash – Canucks Visit Jets Wednesday Night
Two Western Conference playoff hopefuls will look to stop the bleeding Wednesday night as the Winnipeg Jets, losers of four straight games and three straight on home ice host the Vancouver Canucks who hit a new low last time out and lost their 12th in their last 14 games.
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Vancouver (29-28-3-7) at Winnipeg (30-28-3-5)
When: 7:30 PM ET, Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Where: MTS Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Broadcast: TSN
Canucks vs. Jets Betting Lines from betonline.com
Vancouver Canucks +1½ -275 +119 Ov 5½ +120
Winnipeg Jets -1½ +230 -131 Un 5½ -132
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Each team has won once in the season series and each will need to start piling up some wins just to stay within striking distance in the Western Conference playoff race.
Everything had been looking good for Vancouver through two periods of their Monday night game against the Islanders – they scored more than two goals for the first time in 11 games, Henrik Sedin scored his first goal in an astounding 23 games (his first point in 13 games!!!) and Ryan Kesler recorded his first point (a goal) in four games.
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But then the third period happened – a period in which the Canucks surrendered seven goals to an Islanders team without John Tavares and Michael Grabner and a team with seven rookies in the lineup. It was as ugly as it gets Monday night.
The Canucks hit the road riding a seven game losing streak away from home – they have lost 12 of 13 on the road. Yannick Weber has points in his past two games, Shawn Matthias has one point in three games since arriving as part of the Luongo trade, but has six points in his past five games, Chris Higgins has two points in two games and Kevin Bieksa has two points in three games.
Not mind-boggling numbers by any means. Henrik still doesn’t look great and the Canucks offensively still don’t resemble a confident, cohesive bunch.
Eddie Lack, Despite giving up 13 goals in two of his last three starts will get that start Wednesday night – he is Vancouver’s #1 guy – like it or not Canucks fans! Lack is 1-2-0 in his last three starts with a 4.53 GAA and .821 save percentage.
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The Winnipeg Jets have fallen on hard times – the Paul Maurice honeymoon is officially over! The team has lost four straight games – one regulation win in six games since the Olympic break and like Vancouver, they are plummeting out of the Western Conference playoff picture.
The reason?
How about a slumping offense? Blake Wheeler has one point in his last four games, Devin Setoguchi, Jacob Trouba and Zach Bogosian are each pointless in their last four games. It’s a good thing for Dustin Byfuglien who scored twice last time out and now has three goals and an assist in his last two games.
The Jets have been disappointing on home ice losing their last three. As mentioned, the offense has struggled and goaltender Ondrej Pavelec hasn’t been there to bail out his team. Pavelec is 0-2-0 in his last two starts with a 5.45 GAA and .869 save percentage.
Dave’s FREE NHL Betting Prediction
A few trends to consider:
• VAN are 3-14 in their last 17 road games.
• VAN are 6-21 in their last 27 overall.
• Under is 19-6-1 in VAN last 26 vs. Central.
• WIN are 6-2 in their last 8 vs. Pacific.
• Over is 17-7-2 in WIN last 26 home games.
• WIN are 37-77-8 in their last 122 Wed. games.
• Under is 6-2-1 in the last 9 meetings.
The Vancouver Canucks have been miserable on the road and the Jets haven’t been all that good at home. So who wins Wednesday night? If you watched the Canucks Monday night you would have seen a team inventing new ways to lose – Vancouver seemed to will themselves to lose! The Jets on the other hand took some positives from their loss to the Avalanche last time out. The more confident team gets it done Wednesday which begs the question – HOW DOES JOHN TORTARELLA STILL HAVE HIS JOB?
Pick: Winnipeg Jets -131
