{"id":459404,"date":"2024-12-28T07:53:58","date_gmt":"2024-12-28T12:53:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=459404"},"modified":"2024-12-28T07:53:58","modified_gmt":"2024-12-28T12:53:58","slug":"nhl-predictions-dec-28-winnipeg-jets-vs-ottawa-senators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/12\/28\/nhl-predictions-dec-28-winnipeg-jets-vs-ottawa-senators\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Predictions: Dec. 28 Winnipeg Jets vs Ottawa Senators"},"content":{"rendered":"

An all-Canadian matchup is on tap Saturday in the NHL with the Winnipeg Jets<\/a> hosting the Ottawa Senators<\/a> at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Welcome to NHL Predictions here at\u00a0Last Word on Hockey<\/em>, where each day we preview and predict the upcoming slate of NHL games around the league! In this article, we will be previewing and predicting the matchup between the Winnipeg Jets and Ottawa Senators. Be sure to check out all of our NHL Predictions throughout the 2024-25 season and follow along your favourite teams.<\/p>\n

NHL Predictions<\/h2>\n

Winnipeg Jets vs Ottawa Senators<\/h3>\n

Time<\/strong>: 7:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)<\/p>\n

TV<\/strong>: CITY, SNW, SN360, TVAS<\/p>\n

The Winnipeg Jets and Ottawa Senators will faceoff for the first time this season in Winnipeg on Saturday. These two teams split a couple of one-goal games a season ago, with Ottawa defeating Winnipeg 3-2 in Winnipeg and the Jets defeating the Senators 2-1 in Ottawa. Historically, this has been a streaky matchup, with the Jets taking four of the last five meetings between the two teams and holding Ottawa to under three goals in every game.<\/p>\n

Winnipeg is coming out of the Christmas break with some good vibes surrounding the team. They defeated two of the top teams in the NHL in back-to-back games (Minnesota and Toronto) both in impressive fashion. They’ve also won four of their last five games and are looking a lot more like the team that started the year on fire. Ottawa saw their six-game winning streak snapped right before the break at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers (3-1 defeat). However, prior to that game Ottawa was playing their best hockey of the season and have catapulted themselves up the standings into the playoff race in the Eastern Conference. They’ve won eight of their last ten games and have allowed more than three goals against just twice in that stretch.<\/p>\n

Winnipeg Jets Start Wasn’t An Aberration<\/h3>\n

The historical start that the Winnipeg Jets got off to this season was trending towards “fluke<\/em>” status from the latter half of November till the first week of December. They were getting outplayed, having trouble scoring, no-showing on home ice and losing the majority of their games. However, the fashion in which they’ve righted that ship in the last ten games has proven that they are a contender to win the Stanley Cup. Dominate wins over Boston, Minnesota, and Toronto in that span shows that they are among the best in the NHL.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, their power play continues to be lethal. They are converting at a 35% clip over their last ten games and are still leading the NHL with a 32.1% mark overall. As well, their goaltending is tops in the league Connor Hellebuyck<\/a> leads the NHL in GAA, SV%, Goals-Saved Above Average (GSAA<\/a>) and shutouts, and as a team they’ve allowed the third fewest goals in the league. And finally, they have arguably the most dangerous top line in the NHL with Kyle Connor<\/a>, Mark Scheifele<\/a> and Gabriel Vilardi, they<\/a> have combined for a whopping 56 goals this season. Whatever was happening in November has passed and the Jets are back in “wagon<\/em>” status.<\/p>\n

Can The Ottawa Senators Actually Make The Playoffs?<\/h3>\n

Entering play on Saturday morning, theSenators are holding the final wild card position in the Eastern Conference. They are a single point clear of the Pittsburgh Penguins and have two games in hand on them. Ottawa has finally appeared to take a step forward this year with the core of Brady Tkachuk<\/a>, Tim St\u00fctzle<\/a>, and Thomas Chabot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After years and years of disappointing tire spinning, this team looks poised to play meaningful hockey once again. It seems like an eternity ago that the Senators were in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, in overtime, versus the Pittsburgh Penguins. Well, that was way back in 2017. The franchise has changed significantly since those days with ample turnover, but new owner Michael Andlauer<\/a> has injecting life into the nation’s capital and has built a formidable looking team in 2024-25. There’s still a long way to go in this season, but the promise is growing in Ottawa day by day.<\/p>\n

NHL Predictions \u2013 Jets vs Senators<\/h3>\n

This game will be an aesthetically pleasing matchup for hockey lovers. Both teams play with incredible speed to their game and invoke a physical, hard forechecking style of play. As well, Winnipeg and Ottawa are each in a stretch of consistent play and success. In a league where the margins are so tight, it usually comes down to one thing, goaltending; in just about every matchup (and including this one), the Jets have that edge, especially with the injury concerns for the Senators surrounding Linus Ullmark<\/a> moving forward. Not only that, but with backup Anton Forsberg on the shelf<\/a> as well Ottawa might be searching for answers in their crease indefinitely. We expect this to be an entertaining, chance-laden hockey game with the Jets coming out victorious. Winnipeg’s top line and powerplay will feast on Ottawa in this contest.<\/p>\n

Prediction: Jets win 5-2<\/em><\/p>\n

Prop Bet of the Night<\/h3>\n

There should be more than enough goals to go around in this game. Winnipeg and Ottawa have both been filling the net of late, with the Jets scoring five goals in back-to-back games.\u00a0 Since the Jets top line has been all over the scoresheet of late, we like Mark Scheifele, who is coming off a hat trick versus Toronto, as an anytime goal scorer in this contest; gambling sites have that line at +185. Expect to see plenty of scoring in this one.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Dan Hamilton – Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Please play responsibly, check for your local rules and age restrictions, some jurisdictions require ages 21+. Gambling\u00a0problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An all-Canadian matchup is on tap Saturday in the NHL with the Winnipeg Jets hosting the Ottawa Senators at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Welcome to NHL Predictions here at\u00a0Last Word on Hockey, where each day we preview and predict the upcoming slate of NHL games around the league! In this article, we will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5383,"featured_media":459513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,4547,4548,8,4524],"tags":[2133,359,920,702,3476,362,8019,6109,804,4230,6110],"class_list":["post-459404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jets","category-hockey","category-nhl","category-senators","category-nhl-predictions","tag-brady-tkachuk","tag-connor-hellebuyck","tag-gabriel-vilardi","tag-kyle-connor","tag-linus-ullmark","tag-mark-scheifele","tag-michael-andlauer","tag-ottawa-senators-predictions","tag-thomas-chabot","tag-tim-stutzle","tag-winnipeg-jets-predictions"],"modified_by":"Levi Pike, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5383"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459404"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":459514,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459404\/revisions\/459514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}