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Posted at 12:15 PM EST. 

OTTAWA -½ +240 over Winnipeg

10:05 PM EST. Regulation only. Obviously the news that surrounds this one is the Jets and Jackets completing a blockbuster deal today. Patrick Laine didn’t get along with Paul Maurice (Maurice wanted him to be more responsible defensively) while Pierre Luc Dubois wanted out of Columbus because he could not play for John Tortorella. Was this the Jets way of saying F-you to Laine? Seriously, If dude couldn’t play or get along with Maurice, how the f**k is he going to play for Torts, a coach that has a bug up his rear end the size of a lobster. In any case, there has to be a bit of shockwaves in that Jets dressing room and one never knows how a team will react to a trade like the one that happened today. Aside from that, the Jets are always beatable and when they are favored in this range, we’re happy to go against them.

Winnipeg beat Ottawa twice last week in Ottawa. This is the third team in succession that these two will play and Ottawa was not the second best team. The Sens dominated the first time in a 4-3 OT loss and played nose to nose with the Jets in the rematch. In the two games combined, Ottawa outchanced the Jets 38-31 and held an edge in both Expected Goals for and xGoals Against but that’s hockey, where the team that didn’t deserve to go 2-0 did just that.

Expected goals (also known as xG) is a predictive statistic that gives an indication of whether results are based on sustainable factors like a steady creation of scoring chances, or whether it is down to aspects such as shooting luck or outstanding goaltending. Anything below 50% is usually a sign that a team is struggling to control play and in that regard, Winnipeg’s xG is 46.27% while Ottawa’s is 51.13 and that’s after playing twice against the Maple Leafs and twice against the Jets. We mentioned last week that Ottawa’s value should hold strong for a while and we’re not coming off that position here.

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