Thomas' Three Storylines - WPG @ NSH

PRESSURE IS ON
The Jets head into this afternoon's important contest sitting in the second wild card spot in the Western Conference. Winnipeg is three points up on Calgary, and four up on their opponent today, Nashville. Terms like "must-win" and "have-to-win" will be in the back of the minds of many with the Flames and Predators breathing down their necks. Calgary hosts Dallas later tonight. Rick Bowness wants his team to treat each of their remaining 14 games like a playoff game. Both games this season between the Jets and the Predators have been 2-1 scores with Nashville taking three out of four points in the series so far. The Jets will face Nashville one more time in Winnipeg on April 8 and Calgary will come to the Manitoba capital on March 5.

PLD GAME TIME DECISION
Pierre-Luc Dubois skated with the team again on Friday morning before the team left for Nashville. Bowness mentioned that Dubois is once again a game-time decision for this afternoon's tilt at Bridgestone Arena. Winnipeg is 3-4-1 without Dubois who has missed eight of the last nine games. If he plays, expect the top six to have Ehlers-Scheifele-Neiderreiter and Connor-Dubois-Wheeler.
TOUGH OPPONENT
Nashville is 6-3-1 in their last ten games and have caught fire after they looked to be a seller at the trade deadline. The Predators traded away Niederreiter, Tanner Jeannot, Mikael Granlund and Mattias Ekholm and it seemed they were thinking about the future. Well, Juuse Saros gives his team a chance to win every time he plays and young players like Tommy Novak (29 points in 36 games since being recalled from the AHL), Matt Duchene (30 points in his last 38 games), Luke Evangelista (4 points in his first 8 NHL games) and Philip Tomasino (10 points in his last 15 games) have raised their game to put the Predators back in the playoff picture in the Western Conference.