Deal them in Jets return to NHL playoff table in Vegas By: Mike McIntyre Posted: 3:33 PM CDT Friday, Apr. 14, 2023 Last Modified: 10:01 PM CDT Friday, Apr. 14, 2023 Updates

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/04/2023 (876 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Welcome to the most wonderful time of the hockey year.

Thirty-two teams began the NHL marathon last October. Sixteen are still in the race. The finish line is starting to come into focus, with the Stanley Cup just 16 more victories away for every competitor.

Only one will be left standing by mid June.

The Winnipeg Jets staved off what would have been a historical collapse by getting their act together and sneaking in as the second wild-card in the Western Conference with a 46-33-3 record and 95 points, barely holding off the Calgary Flames and Nashville Predators in the process.

Their reward? A date with the Vegas Golden Knights, who are the cream of the conference crop (51-22-9, 111 points). Games 1 and 2 are set for Tuesday and Thursday in Nevada, although the league hasn’t confirmed start times.

Expect some late nights, Jets fans.

Some might view this as a mismatch on paper — especially when you consider Vegas won all three head-to-head meetings in the regular season. However, could appearances be deceiving in this case?

Moneypuck.com actually ranks this as the closest of the eight first-round series, giving the Golden Knights a 50.2 per cent chance of winning, and the Jets 49.8 per cent. That’s essentially a coin flip.

There’s plenty of underlying analytics to suggest Winnipeg was the victim of plenty of bad puck luck which began to turn around in the last couple weeks and makes them a lot more dangerous than a No. 8 seed would normally pose to a No. 1 team. It wasn’t that long ago that the Jets were flirting with first before a prolonged nose dive.

I see this best-of-seven going the distance. To get you ready, here are seven of the best storylines in the series:

1) REVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED COLD

It’s been five years since the Golden Knights ruined a good party around here, rattling off four straight wins in the Western Conference Final to turn a 1-0 deficit into a convincing series victory and end Winnipeg’s hopes of a first-ever date with Lord Stanley. (Vegas would go on to lose to the Washington Capitals).

Fans haven’t forgotten. And you can bet the core players who were here — Mark Scheifele, Blake Wheeler, Kyle Connor, Nikolaj Ehlers, Adam Lowry, Josh Morrissey and Connor Hellebuyck — haven’t either.

No, the Jets won’t be able to re-write history, and we’ll always be left to wonder what might have been. But the chance to create some happier hockey memories by vanquishing Vegas and exorcising some demons would certainly help cleanse the palate, don’t you think?

2) THE STAR VS. THE UNDERSTUDY

Hellebuyck and Laurent Brossoit were a perfect one-two punch for three seasons in Winnipeg. The two good friends share the same off-season trainer (Adam Francilia), the same agent (Steinbach’s Ray Petkau) and much of the same philosophies on the sport they love.

Brossoit headed to Sin City following the 2020-21 campaign, seeking to get out from under Hellebuyck’s rather imposing, Vezina Trophy-winning shadow. And after two up-and-down, injury plagued years which included a 23-game pit stop in the AHL earlier this season, Brossoit now has the prominent platform he was looking for, seizing control of the starting job down the stretch with a stellar 7-0-3 record, sparkling 2.17 goals-against-average and .927 save percentage. This, despite a long list of other masked men in Jonathan Quick, Logan Thompson and Adin Hill competing for playing time.

Standing in Brossoit’s way at the other end of the rink will be his good buddy, Hellebuyck, who is having another monster year and is arguably the only reason the Jets are even here in the first place.

Goaltending is always pivotal in the playoffs, and this battle has some rich history behind it.

3) ONE LAST HURRAH

It’s no secret that a day of reckoning is coming for Winnipeg’s roster.

Hellebuyck is only under contract for one more season. Same with the club’s top two centres in Scheifele and Pierre-Luc Dubois. General manager Kevin Cheveldayoff may have no choice but to move on from some or all of them as early as this summer if long-term extensions can’t be reached. With Wheeler also a pending UFA in another year from now, this feels like one final kick at the proverbial can for the organization as we know it.

The Jets could look a heck of a lot different by the fall, so it would be a good idea to try and make the most of the present with such an uncertain future on the horizon. No doubt a prolonged playoff run could go a long way to convincing the likes of Hellebuyck, Scheifele and Dubois to stick around. Of course, how that trio performs will play a massive role in the outcome.

It would also help True North’s aggressive season-ticket campaign which launched this past week in an attempt to start filling some of the empty seats which became a common sight this season.

4) MANITOBA FLAVOUR

No, we’re not talking about Old Dutch chips.

However, there’s plenty of homegrown talent on the Golden Knights in Mark Stone, Keegan Kolesar, Zach Whitecould, Brett Howden and the injured Nolan Patrick, with general manager Kelly McCrimmon an honourary local product as well given his many years running the Brandon Wheat Kings junior team.

Vegas has always looked to Manitoba when it comes to its roster — Ryan Reaves, Adam Brooks, Cody Eakin, Cody Glass and Brendan Leipsic are all alumni, while Jermaine Loewen is currently playing for their AHL team in Henderson, Nev. — which you can trace to McCrimmon.

Of course, the 2018 playoff result means the majority of hockey fans in these parts, save for family and friends of those players, likely have a hard time rooting for the local boys.

5) HI, JACK

It’s hard to believe a player of Jack Eichel’s calibre has never once been to the dance. But the No. 2 overall draft pick from 2015, with 476 regular-season games on his resume and 446 points under his belt, will finally make his playoff debut.

Eichel, 26, led the Golden Knights in scoring with 66 points in 65 games — injuries cost him 17 contests — but now the burning question is whether he can shine on the sport’s biggest stage. The Jets hope the answer is a resounding “No,” and keeping Eichel in check would drastically improve their own chances at success.

You can expect Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness to try and get Lowry’s checking line out against him as much as possible, while Vegas bench boss Bruce Cassidy will likely try to avoid that matchup when he has the benefit of last change on home ice.

6) NO PAIN, NO GAIN

Ehlers was banged up in Tuesday’s monumental victory over the Minnesota Wild and sat out Thursday’s meaningless finale in Denver against the Colorado Avalanche. The hope is he’ll be ready to go when the puck drops Tuesday. Fourth-line centre and rock-solid penalty killer Kevin Stenlund didn’t finish the game against the Avalanche, so his status is also a question mark. And then there’s Cole Perfetti, who has resumed skating after he suffered an upper-body injury in mid-February. Could he be an option at some point in the opening round, giving an already deep Winnipeg forward group another weapon?

Stone is the biggest wild-card for Vegas. He’s recovering from back surgery and looks like he could be in the Game 1 lineup, which would be a huge boost for the Golden Knights. Whitecloud and defenceman Shea Theodore are also iffy, but their returns would be big for the blue line. Hill and Thompson are also working their way back to full health and would make for an even more crowded crease that already includes Brossoit and Quick.

The playoffs are typically a war of attrition, so staying as healthy as possible will help the cause.

7) HOME, SWEET HOME?

Vegas has home-ice advantage, but will it matter? They were actually better on the road this year, with a terrific 26-7-8 record away from T-Mobile Arena (where they went 25-15-1). That’s tops in the conference and second-best in the NHL behind only the Boston Bruins. No doubt Winnipeg, which was much better at Canada Life Centre (26-13-2) than in enemy territory (20-20-1) will hope the “Whiteout” can be a difference-maker.

Having been to all 32 rinks around the league, I can vouch for the fact that Canada Life Centre and T-Mobile Arena are two of the loudest and liveliest. It should be a ton of fun.

For all of the reasons above, this series has all the potential in the world to be a classic.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg