Golden Knights At Jets: 3 Keys To The Game

Neither team made the playoffs last season.
The Golden Knights, of course, weren't even a team last season. The Winnipeg Jets, meanwhile, went 40-35-7 and finished ninth in the Western Conference.
Miraculously, as we're now in February of the 2017-18 season, these teams are the top two in the Western Conference and lead their respective divisions heading into Thursday's showdown in Winnipeg.
The Golden Knights are 33-12-4 and have opened up an 11-point advantage atop the Pacific Division. The Central Division-leading Jets are 30-13-8 and could equal Vegas in points with a win in regulation tonight, although the Golden Knights would still have two games in hand.
Tonight's game starts at 5:00 PM (PT) and can be seen on AT&T SportsNet. It can also be heard on FOX Sports Radio 98.9 FM/1340 AM, and the doors to City National Arena will be open for a watch party in Las Vegas.
Here are three keys to tonight's game.

1. Litmus Test
The Golden Knights and Jets have faced each other twice so far. Both have been one-sided outcomes.
In November, the Golden Knights thrashed the Jets with three first-period goals at T-Mobile Arena, en route to a decided 5-2 win. In December, in Winnipeg, the Golden Knights never recovered from having a Colin Miller goal disallowed in the second period. What was a 2-1 Vegas lead spiraled into a 7-4 loss at the hands of the Jets.
Tonight is the final time the teams play, with the Jets coming off a win against the league-leading Lightning and having gone 7-2-1 in their last 10 games to overtake the Nashville Predators at the top of the Central Division.
What's been a lopsided season series that's filtered down to be equal between these two teams will be determined tonight. For Vegas, it will also be a chance to figure out how it stacks up against what's now the most formidable opponent it could possibly face in the Western Conference.

2. Wounded Jets
What's miraculous about the Jets' recent hot streak is that they've achieved it without franchise center Mark Scheifele, who's been out since late December with an upper-body injury. Scheifele has 38 points in 38 games this season, and was seventh in the league with 82 in 79 last year.
Schiefele has recently been joined on IR by Jacob Trouba, who hurt his ankle last week and is expected to miss 6-8 weeks. Trouba is arguably the Jets' most well rounded defensemen.
With these injuries, Winnipeg is clearly missing some of its top players.
Can the Golden Knights exploit this?
Despite these absences, Winnipeg has still been the Western Conference's hottest team since early January.

3. Take Away Laine's Space
The Jets have a lot of players that can put the puck in the net. Their 165 goals as a team are second in the Western Conference this season, only one behind the Golden Knights, who have 166.
Although with Schiefele out of the lineup, it puts even more focus on Patrik Laine, Winnipeg's 19-year-old sniper who has torched Vegas for four points (2G, 2A) in the teams' two games this season.
Laine's trademark is setting up just above the top of the circle and unleashing devastating one-timers that goalies have almost no time to react to. This player has 23 goals this year and had 36 as an 18-year-old last year. Laine also has five in his last eight games, carrying much of the load in Schiefele's absence.
If he were easy to stop, teams would already be doing it. Although if Vegas can limit Laine's chances to set up for one-timers, it would go far in disabling the Jets' attack.