Winnipeg Jets vs Carolina Hurricanes Prediction: Best Bet for Sunday

Winnipeg has lost five straight and scores 2.43 goals per game, and Sunday it walks into the building of an 11-2-2 Carolina team that allows 2.33 and has not lost with its best goaltender in net. The Jets are also missing the defenseman who plays their hardest minutes, which turns a bad matchup into a question of how long they can stay in it.

The Matchup

Carolina is 11-2-2 with a plus-1.40 differential, the product of scoring 3.73 goals per game while allowing 2.33. The Hurricanes fire 33.2 shots per game and allow just 22.2, so most of their games are played in the other team's end, and Sebastian Aho leads them with 19 points while Logan Stankoven has 9 goals and Jackson Blake has 12 assists. Carolina is not whole either.

Taylor Hall is out with an upper-body injury, Alexander Nikishin is out, and Jordan Staal is on injured reserve with a calf injury, absences that thin the Hurricanes without touching the players who drive their pressure. Winnipeg is 4-7-3 at minus-0.93, scoring 2.43 goals per game and allowing 3.36, and the Jets have lost five straight, three of them by two goals or more.

Kyle Connor has 11 goals and 15 points and Mark Scheifele has 10 assists, but the support behind them is thin, and Josh Morrissey is on injured reserve with a wrist injury, removing the defenseman who takes the toughest assignments from a blue line that is already chasing most nights. Vladislav Namestnikov is also on injured reserve, which shortens Winnipeg's middle at the same time.

Key Factors

The crease is the widest gap in the game. Pyotr Kochetkov is 9-0-0 for Carolina with a 1.66 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage, while Stuart Skinner sits at 2.97 and .899 for Winnipeg, with Clay Stevenson at 3.57 behind him.

Special teams point the same way. Carolina's power play converts 22.6 percent against a Winnipeg penalty kill at 71.8 percent, and the Hurricanes kill 82.4 percent of their own penalties against a Jets power play at 17.9, so Winnipeg has no phase of the game where the matchup tilts back toward it. The honest counterpoint is Carolina's backup.

If Brandon Bussi starts instead of Kochetkov, his 3.27 goals-against average and .865 save percentage give Winnipeg a real opening, and a heavy home favorite only needs to win by one to make a puck line sweat. But Winnipeg's recent losses are not one-goal heartbreakers. The Jets lost 5-1 to Florida, 6-4 at Tampa Bay and 5-2 at Florida in the last week, and a team allowing 3.36 per game with its best defenseman out tends to give a margin away late rather than protect one.

Every pick is published with its line before the game. Odds via consensus sportsbooks at time of writing and move constantly. Must be 21+. If gambling is a problem, call or text 1-800-GAMBLER.