Jets vs Predators Game 1 Prediction: Home-Ice Wins Out

Thanks to the NHL’s geographically motivated playoff structure, the top two teams in the NHL will meet in round two as the President’s Trophy winning Nashville Predators (117 PTS) face the Winnipeg Jets (114 PTS).

Game 1 of the best-of-seven series goes tonight at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville (8:00 PM ET), where the Predators lost just nine times in regulation all year.

Largely due to their dominance at home, the Preds opened as pretty sizeable -151 favorites, while the O/U is at 5.5 with the under carrying a better payout. Find all the odds, important stats, significant injury news, and final score prediction below.

Straight-Up Playoff Prediction Record: 8-3
Moneyline Playoff Prediction Profits (based on $100 wagers): +$278.00

Opening Odds

Neither team was pressed too hard in round one. The Jets made short work of a Minnesota team that dearly missed Ryan Suter and received subpar goaltending from Devan Dubnyk. Mark Scheifele led Winnipeg with four goals in five games while Dustin Byfuglien logged a beastly 25:13 minutes per game while chipping in with five helpers.

Connor Hellebuyck was solid in net, outside of a 6-2 shellacking in Game 3, ending the series with a .925 SV% and 1.93 GAA.

The Predators were pushed to six games by the upstart Avalanche, but looked like the significantly stronger team all series. They would have ended things in five, as well, if not for a virtuoso performance from third-string Colorado goalie Andrew Hammond in Game 5.

As usual, Nashville received offensive contributions from all over; six different players had at least five points in the series, mirroring the regular season, where six Predators finished between 51-64 points.

Pekka Rinne was good enough, but not spectacular by any means: .909 SV%, 2.60 GAA.

Key Injuries & Absences

The Predators come into the series as the healthier team, with only Weber, a bottom-pair defenseman, banged up.

The Jets should be welcoming Toby Enstrom back to the lineup, though, which will help atone for Kulikov’s ongoing absence. Both missed the entirety of round one.

Regular Season Team Stats

Betting Results & Trends*

*All statistics date back to regular season.

Score Prediction

The Predators got the better of the regular-season series (3-1-1) and have been downright terrific on home ice this season. The Jets were just as good at home — better, actually — but wound up losing the division race because they couldn’t pick up enough points on the road (20-13-8, overall).

Their road issues continued against the Wild in round one. After outshooting the Wild by 47 in the first two games of round one (in Winnipeg), the teams were level on SOGs in Games 3 and 4 (in Minnesota).

There’s no reason to think that this season-long trend will ebb in the playoffs, and that should be the difference between these now-heated rivals in Game 1.