Friday night in the NHL features the Winnipeg Jets hosting Central division foe, the Utah Hockey Club at Canada Life Center. Welcome to NHL Predictions here at Last Word on Hockey, where we preview and predict the upcoming slate of NHL games around the league each day! In this article, we will preview and predict the matchup between the Winnipeg Jets and Utah Hockey Club. Be sure to check out all of our NHL Predictions throughout the 2024-25 season and follow along with your favourite teams.
Time: 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)
TV: TSN3, Utah16; ESPN+
Winnipeg and Utah will battle it out for the second time this week. Utah defeated the Jets on Monday night in Salt Lake City by a score of 5-2. It was an extremely disappointing performance by the Jets, who were outwardly scolded by their coach Scott Arniel to the media following the game. Barrett Hayton had a goal and two assists for Utah and Clayton Keller added a goal and an assist of his own. For Winnipeg, it was only Connor Hellebuyck‘s second time allowing four goals against since the middle of November. This will be the teams’ third of four meetings this season, and won’t see each other again until April.
In the month of January, despite a 5-4-2 record, the Winnipeg Jets are exhibiting their control at five-on-five play. Comparing their numbers with those of the other NHL teams, the Jets have been teetering on analytical-darling status in January. Their within the top five in the NHL in Fenwick For %, Shots on Goal For %, Goals For %, Expected Goals Against, Expected Goals For %, Scoring Chances Against and High Danger Scoring Chances Against, and High Danger Goals Against. Obviously, these games aren’t played on a spreadsheet, but these statistics do hold value when assessing the trends and projections of a team moving forward. Even though luck is a major player in the outcomes of games, Winnipeg can expect to find more success moving forward with numbers such as these.
After shutting out the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night by a 4-0 margin, the Utah Hockey Club has now won three games in a row. They now sit just four points out of the final wild card position. Their winning streak has included victories over the Jets and St. Louis Blues. Barrett Hayton, Clayton Keller, and Logan Cooley have been leading the surge by Utah HC; Hayton has three goals and two assist, Keller has three goals and four assists, and Cooley has two goals and two assists over their last three games played. Question marks surrounded the direction Utah was going to go a couple weeks ago, but finding themselves back in the hunt has given them their answer. Furthermore, the club owes it to their new fans in Utah to push as hard as they can for a playoff appearance in their inaugural season.


With Utah beating the Jets rather handily and in embarrassing fashion earlier this week, Winnipeg will be out for revenge. Returning home after a massive overtime victory in Colorado, the Jets will need to avoid making the same mistake twice in one week. The script has flipped rather quickly for Utah, with three wins this week leaving their stretch of struggles far in the rearview mirror. However, being back on home ice will serve the Jets quite well. I expect Winnipeg to explode offensively in this contest, with their big guns (Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Josh Morrissey) all having huge performances. Their top-ranked powerplay will prove to be a headache for Utah and they won’t be able to stick around in this matchup.
Prediction: Jets win 5-1
As mentioned prior, the big guns of the Jets will be prominent in this game. We have our eyes on two props of the same theme: Gambling sites have Kyle Connor at +168 and Mark Scheifele at +215 to record two or more points in this game. Expect to see them both all over the scoresheet in this game and dominant the Utah Hockey Club.
Main photo by: Rob Gray-Imagn Images
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