Red Wings @ Jets: NHL preview, odds, & score prediction

The Winnipeg Jets are favored against the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday night. Sportsbooks with NHL odds see the Jets, 9-5-2 on their home ice, as the better team, with their +20 goal differential (4th in the league).

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But don’t assume the Red Wings are going to be clipped by the Jets (flying humor, get it?)... Detroit is anxious to get off the losing side after dropping three consecutive games. However, it’s certainly troubling that Detroit has lost six of its last seven, even if some of that can be attributed to lineup gaps caused by injury.

Yet, team captain Dylan Larkin is back on the line for Derek Lalonde. And even though Larkin has complained that it’s “hard to feel safe” on the ice after the punishing play that caused his recent injury, his presence is a comfort.

Since they stood at 14-7-3 on Dec. 5, the team has gone 1-6, including a 0-4 record at Little Caesars Arena. The reason isn’t mysterious: the team has allowed four goals per game over that stretch. Goalie Ville Husso has been demoted, or at least set-aside, like an Elf on the Shelf for a while with a nagging injury.

Detroit’s penalty-killing unit is lagging, ranked 15th in the NHL. Sure, when Detroit has their full contingency of offensive fireplugs, they are a high-scoring team. But, too often the lineup is banged up, or playing strangely inconsistently of late.

Perhaps it’s a mid-season hiccup, or more likely it’s an indication that the team is not as good as it seemed early in the season AND facing better opponents during this stretch of the schedule.

To Lalonde’s credit, the Detroit coach isn’t averse to flipping his lines around and breaking up his rotations. We’re seeing that on the defensive side of the ice. The Wings allow 3.19 goals per game, a figure a tad high for a team that wants to get to the playoffs and advance into the tournament.

• The Red Wings have been underdogs in 21 games and beat the odds by winning outright in 10 of those games.
• Detroit is 2-7 when listed as an underdog from a moneyline range of +125 to +145.
• The win probability based on the moneyline (+130 at publication time) is 43.48%.

• Winnipeg is 13-4 as favorites this season.
• The Jets defeated the Red Wings, 4-1 back on Oct. 26 in Detroit.
• Only the Canucks, Kings, and Knights have a better goal differential than the Jets, who have 20 more goals scored than allowed.
• The Jets rely heavily on defense and have allowed just 1.9 GPG over its last 10 contests.

Detroit has scored at least four goals in only one of its last six games. Which lends us to believe the offense is due to break out. We like the Wings to put pressure on a talented Winnipeg defense and score at least four times. A winning $100 bet on this game prop would win you $175. Check out the DraftKings promos to take advantage of their new signup offers.

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The Jets are an elite team in the NHL’s Western Conference, and they have a stellar record on their own ice over the last three seasons. All of which is to say: that Detroit will have difficulty stopping its losing streak on Wednesday.

The Detroit Red Wings travel to Winnipeg to challenge the Jets in a cross-border showdown. MLive has all your Red Wing hockey predictions, odds, and best bets.

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