Win a round, or else
Anything less would turn stirring Jets season into a bit of a letdown
It’s probably been the No. 2 question on the minds of Winnipeggers for a couple of weeks, right behind, “When’s spring coming?”
I’m talking about how far the Jets are likely to go in the playoffs.
A casual glance at the standings, where they finished second, overall, suggests they have as good a chance as anyone to go all the way.
Experience tells us it doesn’t always work that way.
There are subtle signs this team expects to make a spirited run deep into the post-season.
Take this line from Mathieu Perreault after Monday’s practice.
“This is probably the hardest practice we’re going to have in the next two months,” Perreault said.
And this, when I asked Paul Maurice about Perreault’s comment.
“These will get shorter and shorter,” the head coach said of the near 40-minute workout. “We’ll get to the point where there will be very few.”
If the Jets get to that point, they’ll be in deep.
But at what point do we call their playoffs a success? Beyond the obvious step of winning it all, of course.
Here are the possible outcomes, and what each would mean in the big picture.
THE FIRST-ROUND FLOP
There’s no better way to erase the memory of a terrific regular-season than to take a nose dive in the first round of the playoffs.
We all know Jets V 2.0 has yet to win a playoff game. If that happens again, the season will have been wasted.
A first-round loss in five or six isn’t much better.
Even a loss to Minnesota in seven will raise a bunch of questions nobody wants to face about crumbling under pressure.
The road to perennial playoff underachievement (hello, Washington and San Jose) has to begin somewhere. Best never to make that wrong turn.
AN APPEARANCE IN ROUND 2
This has to be where any talk of a successful season begins for the Jets.
They simply have to get past the Minnesota Wild.
It can be ugly or it can be a work of art. A defensive gem or a series of track meets. A sweep or a back-and-forth seven-gamer. Doesn’t matter.
Most Cup winners have to experience some kind of trial run before they’re ready for the long haul. There’s knowledge to be gained by putting a team away, and seeing how difficult that fourth win can be.
For this team, that means reaching at least the second round.
Which brings us to the flashpoint of these playoffs.
TAKING NASHVILLE TO LIMIT
For the purposes of this discussion, we’re going to assume the Predators beat the Colorado Avalanche in Round 1.
If the Jets win, too, the top two teams in the Western Conference and the overall NHL standings would meet in the second round.
Here’s where things get really interesting.
It’s entirely possible the Jets could lose this series and still consider their season a success, in the big picture.
But they’d have to give the powerful Preds all they could handle.
Based on the season series, this would be a barn-burner of a Round 2 matchup, must-see TV, the perfect mixture of speed, finesse and good, old-fashioned playoff nastiness.
If the Jets throw everything they have at the Presidents’ Trophy winners and lose in seven games, there won’t be a soul outside of the dressing room calling the season a writeoff.
Sure, it’ll be a bitter pill to swallow for vets like Blake Wheeler, Bryan Little, Mathieu Perreault and Paul Stastny, all searching for that elusive first Stanley Cup.
But it’ll also be the hard lesson young players like Patrik Laine, Nik Ehlers, Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor and Josh Morrissey must learn to take that next step. These players might
suspect what it takes to go all the way, but they don’t know. They can’t.
Going through it and watching another team reach deeper is the only way to find out.
The Preds did that a year ago when they lost the Cup Final.
It just so happens the playoff format forces the Jets to face a team like Nashville so early.
LOOKING BEYOND
Anything past a second round appearance against Nashville will be gravy.
It’ll be a level nobody could have predicted or realistically expected this young team to reach so quickly. Remember, the Jets weren’t even close to the playoffs a year ago.
That said, if the Preds somehow lose in the first round, all bets are off and the West becomes wide open.
With the Jets’ front-end talent and overall depth, losing a playoff series to any team, other than Nashville, would be underachieving.
So if the Preds are out, the Jets should be satisfied with nothing less than reaching the Stanley Cup Final.
Spring should even be here by then.