Professional calm covers Jets’ emotions as post-season berth nears

Opinion

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This article was published 09/04/2015 (3817 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DENVER — A scene that has stuck with me since late Tuesday night in St. Louis…

So there was Chris Thorburn — fresh from doing hero-of-the-moment interviews in the Winnipeg Jets dressing room after a 1-0 win over the Blues — walking across the hall and spying Mark Scheifele. Thorburn races up to his teammate, wraps his arms around his waist and lifts him off the ground in a massive bear hug. The two then simultaneously let out primal screams in a moment that was akin to a catcher sprinting out to the mound to celebrate a no-hitter.

 

And that might just best sum up what this franchise is on the cusp of doing this week.

Look, these Jets have been doing and saying all the right things over the last few days in their home stretch toward the Stanley Cup playoffs. They’ve posted back-to-back road shutouts against two imposing division rivals in Minnesota and St. Louis and have a chance to make history tonight in Denver against the Colorado Avalanche.

But their reaction has been seriously muted during it all. Now, much of that is by design in a business in which the players are trained to stifle emotion or any signs of personality when the camera lights are on and the notepads flipped open.

And, granted, a heaping helping of caution is needed here, because this whole thing could still blow up in their collective mugs if they don’t seal the deal in Games 81 or 82. Until that coveted playoff spot is secured — which would be a first for the franchise since the spring of 2007 and the first in Jets 2.0 history — no one will speak of anything beyond puck drop tonight against the Avs.

Makes sense.

Again, though, spying that moment Tuesday night made it impossible not to think about what all this means to guys such as Thorburn and Scheifele, Ondrej Pavelec and Bryan Little — heck, everybody in Jets colours — as the team inches closer to playing post-season hockey next week.

Thorburn, it’s worth noting here, has 602 NHL regular-season games on his resumé, but zero playoff games. Same goes for Little, who has played 555 games with the Jets/Thrashers franchise but is yet to suit up for a Stanley Cup playoff tilt. Ditto vets such as Toby Enstrom (543), Jay Harrison (370) Jiri Tlusty (414) and Pavelec, who last tended the blue paint in a playoff game way back in 2007-08 while with the Chicago Wolves.

So, yeah, this has been a huge couple of days for those guys, just as it is for the fresh-faced folks such as Scheifele, Jacob Trouba, Adam Lowry, Ben Chiarot and Michael Hutchinson, all of whom have played critical roles in getting the Jets this close.

What would a playoff spot represent for those guys? Everything.

Would it mean to Andrew Ladd, Dustin Byfuglien and Michael Frolik, guys who already have Stanley Cup rings? Remember, it was just a few weeks ago when Ladd — who has won with both Chicago and Carolina — was asked about all the praise the Jets’ draft-and-develop blueprint was getting from across the NHL map.

Said Ladd: “I’m 29, so I could care less about the draft-and-develop model. I want to win right now.”

It’s true, qualifying for the Stanley Cup derby may draw yawns in Detroit, where the Red Wings are in the field every spring. And in places such as Montreal, Chicago and St. Louis where the playoffs are expected.

But this Jets team was written off by most last October before the anthems were even sung in the season opener. It was given up for dead when the defensive corps was ravaged by injuries in December, had obituaries written when Mathieu Perreault, Bryan Little and Dustin Byfuglien pulled up lame over the last month or so. And, even this week, knowing the schedule featured stops in Minny and St. Louis — and minus both Enstrom and Byfuglien — the list of doubters was significantly longer than believers.

Yet, here they are on the cusp of writing an important chapter in Jets 2.0 history. And if they achieve it, there will not only be more scenes featuring Thorburn and Scheifele, the bunch of them might become the first NHL franchise to have a parade held in its honour… just for getting to the playoffs.

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPEdTait

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