Winnipeg Jets vs Florida Panthers Prediction: Best Bet for Friday

Winnipeg plays its second game in two nights after skating at Tampa Bay on Thursday, and the Jets score just 2.33 goals per game with their top defenseman on injured reserve. Florida allows 24.2 shots per game, the stingiest mark on Friday's slate, and Friday asks a tired team to manufacture offense against the wrong opponent.

The Matchup

Winnipeg carried a five-game losing streak into Thursday night's game at Tampa Bay, and Friday sends the Jets straight to Sunrise for the second half of a back-to-back against a rested Florida team. The season numbers explain why the trip is so unkind.

Winnipeg is 4-5-3, scoring 2.33 goals per game and allowing 3.00 for a minus-0.67 differential, and the offense runs through two players: Kyle Connor has 9 goals and 12 points, and Mark Scheifele has 6 assists, with very little behind them. Florida is 7-4-2, scoring 3.00 and allowing 2.85 for a plus-0.15 differential, and the Panthers have done it short-handed.

Aleksander Barkov is out on injured reserve with a lower-body injury and Brad Marchand is out on injured reserve with a leg injury. Matthew Tkachuk has carried the attack with 20 points and 16 assists, and Brady Tkachuk has 8 goals. Florida has played only three home games, going 2-1-0, so the building itself is not the story. The story is a thin, tired roster meeting a deeper one that suppresses shots better than anyone playing Friday, at 24.2 allowed per game.

Key Factors

The rest gap is the loudest factor in the game. Winnipeg played Thursday night in Tampa Bay and traveled down the state, while Florida waited at home, and a team scoring 2.33 goals per game has no reserve of offense to spend when the legs go in the third period. Winnipeg is also missing Josh Morrissey, who is out on injured reserve with a right wrist injury, the defenseman who moves the puck out of the Jets' end, and against a Florida forecheck that is exactly the absence a tired team feels most.

In net, Florida is without Jacob Markstrom, who is out on injured reserve with an upper-body injury, so Akira Schmid starts at 2.99 goals against and a .885 save percentage. Winnipeg's crease is the one place the Jets hold an edge on paper: Stuart Skinner sits at 2.60 goals against and a .911 save percentage, though whether he starts both nights of a back-to-back or hands the game to Clay Stevenson at 3.57 and .870 is the Jets' hardest call.

Special teams close Winnipeg's last shortcut. Florida kills 85.5 percent of penalties, the best mark on Friday's slate, against a Winnipeg power play at 18.2 percent, and Florida's own 23.0 percent power play draws a Winnipeg kill at 74.2 percent.

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.