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Winnipeg is sinking in the West, the Blues in a positive mood

The Jets and the Blues will meet in Canada today, two teams with completely opposite positions. Winnipeg is playing inconsistently, with a drop in form lately, looking for a return to the winning ways, while the poised, strong and tough Blues team are trying to maintain a good run.

The Winnipeg Jets are currently next-to-last in the new season's Western standings, finding themselves in a new situation after having been transferred from the Eastern Conference to the Central Divison in the West. Although they had a good start to the season, after a few games their weaknesses and handicaps started to show.  So, after seven games they are  next-to-last in the conference standings with three wins and four regulation losses, three of them at home. The last one was especially painful, when they were demolished 3-0 by the good, but not great Canadiens team, in a game where the Jets practically didn't show up.

Montreal humiliated the Jets in Manitoba, revealing all of their weaknesses, bad defense, Pavelec's poor goaltending and inefficiency on offense. Although Winnipeg doesn't allow many goals, they also don't score a lot, less than three goals per game on the average, resulting in narrow losses and low-scoring games. The last game was similar.

- This one was a tough game, a game that certainly we didn't have much control over. They play an east-and-west style, so now you're stretching here and there. Right off the start, they were in our zone, pretty much from the opening faceoff on. We chased the puck in our zone. We outshot them (35-25), but I think that's a misjudgment of the way that we played. We couldn't generate a whole lot. We got some shots on net. They blocked a lot of shots. We didn't get enough through - we didn't get traffic - and we struggled. They move the puck well. They move it quickly - Jets coach Noel commented on his team's last loss. He revealed many problems in his team's play, when they face a strong, tough, serious NHL team. Another problem for the Jets is the absence of Evander Kane, team's best player and biggest star, who is injured. He's questionable for the St. Louis game, and he didn't play against Montreal.

St. Louis is definitely a serious and tough NHL team. The impressive Blues team had a very good start to the season with four wins, but then suffered a tough loss to San Jose. Still, they're back on the winning path after a win in Chicago in the last game. They beat the defending champions in a penalty shootout, and the man of the match was Blues goalie Jaroslav Halak. This places the Blues in the fourth spot in the West.

The atmosphere in the Blues team is great, certainly better than in the Winnipeg's locker room. Also, the Blues usually win close games, unlike the Jets, so the Chicago win was their eighth in a row in games ending with one-goal difference. Of the last 21 games ending with one-goal difference, St. Louis lost only six.

- I thought after the first 10 minutes, we played really well. We weathered the storm, we knew we were going to weather a storm from what happened in the last game, but I thought after the first 10 minutes, we played a really good hockey game. Especially in the third period and overtime, I thought we played especially strong. We really played with a sense of composure and discipline. I was really happy with our effort - said Blues coach Ken Hitchcock about the Hawks game. Many of his words actually describe the Blues as a team.

The game in Winnipeg will be another challenge for the Blues. The Blues are the favorites, obviously. If Kane doesn't play, that would be a big blow to the Jets' chances, but if both teams are complete, any result is possible.

In the last three games Winnipeg had the total over/under of 2-1 with three goals. They haven't scored more than that ever since October 4 and their second game of the season. Moreover, it is questionable whether their best forward and player, the star of the team, Evander Kane, will be playing against the Blues because he has a slight knee injury. Lately, the team have been playing poorly so they went down to the position next to the last in the West. They haven't been playing well in home games and they had three defeats out of the total of four lost games playing home, whereas they were last defeated by Montreal with 0-3. They don't score or concede much, so in average they have less than 2.5 goals per game in both categories. Therefore, even an under could work in this game. However, the biggest problem here is the goalie Pavalec who is unreliable and could concede a lot of goals in a short period. This could particularly be the case since the tough St. Louis are coming to Manitoba. They have five wins in six games. The last one they played in Chicago against the current champions ended with a 3-2 score after the penalties. The Blues don't score many goals per game, only one to two on average, and they have been playing great lately. Even though they are going to be tired in Canada because this is going to be their second away game in a row, it is hard to believe that Winnipeg could score more than two goals against the amazing Halak, when the much tougher Chicago offense couldn't do it. Therefore, this bet definitely has its value.