Last Minute News, Rumors, Reports Ahead of Jets vs Stars

Carolina 7, Winnipeg 0. That was November the 1st, their 9th loss in a row, and it left them 4-8-3. In the last four of those losses, they were outscored 23-7. Two weeks earlier, they traded away their goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, who was the franchise goalie who carried this organization for the last decade. The season looked finished, and nobody was talking about if they were going to get a playoff spot, they were talking about if this team would even compete or not. Since then, Winnipeg has won four straight, and one of those wins came from four goals down in the third period. Tonight, they play in Dallas, a team that has beaten them in five straight regular season games and knocked them out of the 2025 playoffs. So is this a real run that the Winnipeg Jets have been on? I think so, and I think it gets them a close win tonight. The newest proof came Tuesday, November 10th, when Hellebuck came back to Winnipeg with the Devils and New Jersey did not start him. The Jets won 4-2 that night. Hellebuyck told reporters, quote, when I said I was going to be a Jet for life, I meant it. A few weeks ago that night would have felt like a funeral and said the Jets played like they already moved on. He skipped training camp, asked out, and the Jets traded him to New Jersey on October 23rd. Back came Mercer, Dawes, Buechstad, and Pix. That made Stuart Skinner the number one goalie, with Dawes and Clay Stevenson behind him. Skinner is 6-4-3-13, starts with an 8-8-3 save percentage, and a 3-2-6 goals against average. That is not a goalie who steals games, and the skid showed that. Hellebuyck started 3-0 in New Jersey with a 1-9-5 goals against average. On October 29th in the middle of the skid, the question in Winnipeg was whether coach Scott Arniel would keep his job. The team stopped losing and nobody can point to one big change. It was four games and each game was won a different way. It started on November the 3rd in Montreal when the Jets trailed 4-0 early in the third period. Cole Caulfield had two goals for Montreal and the Canadiens goalie made 42 saves by the end. Winnipeg scored four goals in just over two minutes and tying goal came with 32 seconds left. Kyle Connor scored two of them and Sandberg won it in overtime 5-4. The Jets had 47 shots on goal in that game and Montreal had 22. Montreal outscored the Winnipeg Jets for over 50 minutes in that game and they still got the two points out of it and the win and that's the kind of win that gives this team a little bit of belief. Two nights later Vancouver came to town on a four-game losing streak and Winnipeg led the whole way and won 6-2. Skinner made 24 saves, Scheifele had a goal and an assist and Dawson Mercer scored his first as a Jet. Efalo scored on the power play in Vancouver 3-14-1 on the season He's never got closer than two. That was an easy one, and it matters because the Winnipeg Jets hadn't had an easy night probably the entire season, so sitting back and seeing you guys can win and have an easy win like that gives this group a lot of confidence going forward, and we've seen that in the next two games afterwards. November 8 against Tampa went the other way, with a 3-0 lead gone in four minutes and through seven seconds. Rookie Braden Jaeger scored his first NHL goal early, and the Jets' power play went 3-5 in that game. Scheifele won it on a 5-on-3 power play with 1.6 seconds left. Then came New Jersey, where the Jets led 2-0 and the Devils tied it in the second period. Winnipeg scored twice in the third, and Connor's empty net goal came with 57.3 seconds left. Mercer scored twice that night, and his second goal came against his old team. A comeback, an easy one, a lead they almost gave away, and a game they had to grind out. Those are four ways to win, and a bad team does not usually win all four. The record says be careful because Winnipeg is 8-8-3. That is 8 wins, 8 regulation losses, so 4 wins in a row only got them back to even. They scored 19 goals in 4 wins and 7 goals in 4 losses before them. That is 4.75 goals a game, and on this season, they scored 2.79, 26th out of 32 teams. The defense has not changed as much because the Jets still allow 3.42 goals a game, 12th worst. Over the whole season, they have scored 53 and allowed 65, a minus 12 goal difference. In the four wins, they allow 11 goals, which is 2.75 a game, so the goals have been fine and the shooting has just been much better. Nico Dawes has a .910 save percentage in three games, better than Skinner's 8-8-3. Skinner has started 13 of the Jets' 19 games, so most nights this is his net. Dodds has made two starts and he has the better save percentage, but it is only three games, so I would not read into that much. That is one decision that the Jets coach needs to get right tonight, because Dallas does not score a lot, and an 8-8-3 goalie on the road against the third best defense in the league is not a comfortable matchup. The Jets will have to be sharper than that tonight. So the wins really get tested tonight, because like we said, we're averaging about 4.75 goals a game through our winning streak, so right now, big test tonight, because they have a great goaltender in Jake Ottinger, they have the third best defense, if we can go out there and even score three goals tonight, I think we'll win this one. Dallas is 10-5-2 and has won seven of its last ten. They allow 2.29 goals a game, third best in the league. Jake Oettinger has a .906 save percentage and a 1.99 goals against average with three shutouts. Their 4-3 win over San Jose on November 7th had three power play goals and they killed five of six penalties. Miro Heiskanen, their best defenseman, is out with an upper body injury according to a Stars podcast account. That's a big loss for them, but a win for the Winnipeg Jets says they're going to be without one of their best defensemen who logs heavy minutes and makes the games closer for the Dallas Stars, so hopefully we can pick apart their defense tonight. Winnipeg's problem with this team is real. Last season, Dallas won all four meetings in the regular season by scores of 5-4, 4-3, 4-3 in overtime, and 3-0. They won again on October 22nd this season, 3-2 in overtime. That makes four of the last five meetings decided by a single goal. Dallas also won the 2025 second round, four games to two, and that Winnipeg team still had Hellebuck. Every Stars and Jets game is usually a close one, and that matters for my pick because I think in a close matchup, the Winnipeg Jets could have the edge. The Jets got a defenseman back in the last one because Josh Morrissey was activated off injured reserve on November the 10th. Václav Nemčík is out. Elias Salomonsson is out for personal reasons. And Nick Buekstad is out long-term after having pectoral surgery. Buekstad did come over in that Hellebuyck trade, but he hasn't played yet as he's on long-term injured reserve. So that piece, we haven't seen yet. Dallas is missing a lot more with Heiskanen in and out, Matt Duchene and Oscar Back on long-term injured reserve, and Kyle Cabotianco and Luke Kraus on injured reserve. Dallas does come in on a four-game point streak, and Jamie Benn got his 999th career point in it. So the Stars are healthy enough to beat us, but they are thin enough to be beaten, which is where we want to be as the underdog. The Jets aren't at full strength either, but we got the wins with this group, so I trust that more than a week ago. So here are the three numbers I'm watching for tonight's game. First, the Jets' penalty kill is 24th in the league at 73.7%. Dallas has the 7th best power play in the league at 27.5%, so every Jets' penalty is a problem. If the Jets stay out of the box, that one goes away. They did not take a lot of penalties in the last four wins, and they need to do that again. Second, the Stars had the best penalty kill in the league at 89.7%. The Jets' power play is 11th at 23.7% and scored three times against Tampa, so something has to give there. Third is the goalies, Ottinger's at 9.06 against Skinner's 8.83. Ottinger has been better by the numbers, but he is not stealing games either. Skinner does not have to steal one tonight, he just has to give them a chance, and if the Jets can score three, I think we'll walk out with a win. Dallas scores 2.82 goals a game, and the Jets score 2.79 on this season. That is not a night for six goals. That is one where a late goal will decide this one. Cole Perfetti scored in the first period against New Jersey, and he has 16 points this season, third on the team. Kyle Connor leads Winnipeg with 15 goals and 21 points. Scheifele has 19 points, second on the team. Connor and Scheifele have been the ones coming up in the clutch for us. Obviously, Connor scored those two goals in Montreal that tied the game and sent us to overtime, and Mark Scheifele won the game on the 5-on-3 power play in the dying seconds of the game, so hopefully these guys can show up again tonight in Dallas. Dallas has Mika Rantanen at 21 points with 9 goals. Jason Robertson has 19 points and 9 goals. And Wyatt Johnson has 16 points. The top lines are about even, but Dallas has the better defense and the better penalty kill. But the Jets are playing more desperate hockey right now. And if you want more Jets breakdowns just like this, go down below and hit that subscribe button. It's completely free to do so. My call tonight is a 3-2 win over the Dallas Stars in Dallas. I think our offense has just been clicking lately, and they're just on fire, and I think the new lines that Arneil constructed when bringing up Jaeger have been dominant, so I do think that we'll be able to go out and pick apart the Stars defense tonight. Obviously, there are some doubt as well. If the Jets do take a lot of penalties and give this Dallas team an opportunity on the power play, they're a hard power play to stop, so hopefully we can limit those penalties tonight. So, obviously, what to watch going in tonight is who scores first. I think that will give a big momentum boost. If the Jets score first on the road, I think they'll have the momentum for the rest of the game. And, obviously, looking at who starts, is it going to be Skinner or Dawes? I'd say it will be Skinner, so hopefully we'll see that tonight.