The Winnipeg Jets try to snap a five-game losing streak Thursday when they visit the Tampa Bay Lightning at Benchmark International Arena in Tampa, Florida. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. ET, with the game streaming on ESPN+. The biggest question entering this Jets vs Lightning preview: can Winnipeg’s power play find traction against a Tampa Bay team that has won seven of its first 11 games despite a banged-up blue line.
Winnipeg enters at 4-5-3, sitting seventh in the Central Division with 11 points. Tampa Bay is 7-3-1 and holds 15 points, good for sixth in the Atlantic Division. This marks the first meeting of the season series between the two clubs.
Jets Vs Lightning Game Information
- Date: Thursday, Oct. 29
- Time: 7 p.m. ET
- Venue: Benchmark International Arena, Tampa, Florida
- TV/Streaming: ESPN+, The Spot – MTN
Can Winnipeg Stop The Bleeding?
The Jets have dropped five straight, including a 5-1 loss to the Florida Panthers on Wednesday. That skid covers a stretch against Carolina, St. Louis, Dallas, Montreal and Florida, and Winnipeg was outscored 14-7 over the five games.
Kyle Connor leads the team with nine goals and 12 points, while Mark Scheifele paces the club with six assists. Winnipeg’s offense has managed just 28 goals on the season, the lowest total among the numbers provided for either club, with an 8.6% shooting percentage.
Winnipeg is also dealing with a thin lineup up front and on the back end. Vladislav Namestnikov and Garrett Brown are both on injured reserve, Nick Bjugstad remains out following left pectoral surgery, and defenseman Josh Morrissey is sidelined on injured reserve with a right wrist injury. Stuart Skinner is projected as the probable starting goalie for Winnipeg.
What Shape Is Tampa Bay In Up Front And On Defense?
Tampa Bay has won seven of 11 games but dropped its last two, falling 6-3 at Colorado and 5-4 in overtime at Utah. Nikita Kucherov leads the Lightning with 14 points on four goals and 10 assists, while Brandon Hagel tops the club with seven goals. The Lightning have scored 38 goals as a team with an 11.4% shooting percentage, both ahead of Winnipeg’s marks.
Tampa Bay’s health picture is more uncertain than the record suggests. Hagel is listed as day-to-day with an undisclosed issue, and defenseman Victor Hedman is also day-to-day with a lower-body injury, both tied to Thursday’s date. Zemgus Girgensons is out with a lower-body injury, and Yanni Gourde remains on injured reserve following hip surgery. Andrei Vasilevskiy is projected as the probable starting goalie.
Key Matchup: Winnipeg’s Stalled Attack Against A Thin Tampa Bay Blue Line
Winnipeg’s offense has scored a league-low total among these two clubs at 28 goals, and the Jets have been shut down in each of their last five games, never topping two goals. Tampa Bay’s defense has allowed 270 shots against with a .884 save percentage, numbers that reflect some vulnerability even with the win total. If Hedman cannot go given his day-to-day status, that absence would thin a blue line already without Girgensons and Gourde.
Connor and Scheifele need to find space against a Lightning penalty kill and even-strength defense that has still managed seven wins despite those absences. For Tampa Bay, protecting a lead matters given its own recent back-to-back losses by a combined 11-7 margin to Colorado and Utah.
What To Watch
Winnipeg sits at the bottom of a tightly packed Central Division, with only one point separating it from St. Louis and two points back of Dallas for a playoff position. Tampa Bay, meanwhile, is working to stop its own two-game slide and stay ahead of a crowded Atlantic Division where four teams are within three points of each other. Both goaltending situations bear watching given the day-to-day designations on Tampa Bay’s injury list, along with whether Winnipeg’s power play, which has matched Tampa Bay’s six goals on the man advantage, can finally produce in five-on-five play.
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