Predators won the season series 3-1-1.

CBC, SN 360 at 7:00 p.m.

Tagline: "Catfish vs Goldeye"

Storyline: The series everyone in the media wanted, and the one many prognosticators say will determine the Stanley Cup finalist, if not the champion.

Quote: “If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best" - Donald Cerrone, American boxer (paraphrased by Ric Flair: "If you want to be the man, you gotta beat the man")

Quote #2: "OK, hear me out: We cancel the playoffs and just let the Jets and Predators play a two-month best-of-31 series for the Cup." - Sean McIndoe on twitter after Winnipeg beat Nashville 5-4 at home March 25,

Season review:

Game 1: Nashville wins 5-3 at home Nov. 20, their 7th win in 8 games, and climb to 12-6-2, within one point of 12-5-3 Winnipeg. Rinne and Hellebuyck are the goalies. 3 goals by Nashville in the 2nd period decided the game, Jets trailed 5-1 before two late cosmetic goals made it appear closer.

Game 2: Winnipeg wins 6-4 on the road on December 19, maybe their biggest win of the year, the one  that gives hope that this team can go all the way. After giving up 2 goals in the final minute of the first to trail 2-1, the Jets roared back with 2 Nic Ehlers goals to lead 4-3 after 2. Nashville tied it up early in the 3rd before Branden Tanev won it with 86 seconds left. Hellebuyck and Rinne were the goalies, Jets climbed to 20-10-5 and moved to within a point of both Nashville and St. Louis for top spot in the Central, while stopping the Preds 8 game undefeated streak.

Game 3: Nashville wins 6-5 in Winnipeg on February 27 in the game that would ultimately decide the President's Trophy.  A scoreless first period gave way to old time 1980's hockey in the second, as the teams poured in 6 goals in the last half of the period. Back and forth play had the Jets up 4-3 going into the final stanza, and it looked promising when trade deadline pick-up Paul Stastny scored with 10 minutes left. But the joy was short-lived as Nashville tied it up within the next 4 minutes, before Nashville's own deadline acquisition Ryan Hartman broke their hearts with a last minute goal. Hellebuyck and Rinne again between the pipes, Roman Josi had 5 assists. It was the only time all year the Jets would lose a game in regulation when leading after 2. Predators won their 5th straight (en route to a 10 game winning streak) and moved to 39-14-9 while Winnipeg fell to 37-17-9.

Game 4: Nashville wins 3-1 at home on March 13 as a tired Jets squad wrapped up a 6 game road trip.  3 goals in the first 9 minutes against Michael Hutchinson (2 of them shorthanded) settled the game early, but Hellebuyck shut out the Preds the rest of the way in relief. Only Kyle Connor could beat Rinne on this night. Nashville jumped to 45-14-10 and into a tie for the league lead, while Winnipeg fell to 41-19-10. Little did we know then that the Jets would only lose once more to close out the regular season.

Game 5: Winnipeg wins 5-4 in a shootout to clinch a playoff spot on March 25. Down 2-0 after 1 (including a last second goal against), Winnipeg roared back in the second to tie it at 3 before exiting the second down by a goal. It was Winnipeg's turn to turn a 3rd period deficit into a win when Blake Wheeler tied it one minute in. Mark Scheifele scored the only goal in the shootout against Juuse Saros while Hellebuyck stopped all 3 of his shootout foes. Jets climbed to 46-19-10 with win 5 of what would be a 6 for 6 home stand, while Nashville fell to 48-16-10.

Fun fact: With 114 points, Winnipeg set an NHL record for most points in a season by a team that did not lead their division (or their conference, for that matter) in points. In fact, only 2 teams in NHL history have had more points in a regular season and not had home advantage in a series - Philadelphia had 118 when they went up against 127 point juggernaut Montreal in the 1976 Stanley Cup finals, and 115 point Montreal lost to 117 point Calgary in the 1989 Cup finals . The 231 combined points for these teams is the 6th highest total all-time for playoff opponents (behind the 2 aforementioned pairings, Montreal (129)-Boston (113) in the '78 Final,  Montreal (132) - NYI (106) in the '77 semi-final, and that same Montreal team against Boston (106) in the '77 Cup Final. 

Fun fact #2: Since the original expansion in 1967-68, the #1 and #2 regular season teams have met a total of 14 times, but only 7 since the league went to a full 4 round playoff series in 1980. The #1 team has won 10 of 14, but the #2 team has won the last 2. No meeting had ever occurred earlier than the Conference Finals before last year, but the Jets-Preds meeting is the second straight year the #1 and #2 teams have met in Round 2, after Pittsburgh and Washington did it for the first time ever just last season:

Mtl (1) 4-2 over Bos (2), 1969 semi-finals 

Bos(2) 4-0 over Chi (1), 1970 semi-finals

Bos (1) 4-2 over NYR (2), 1972 Finals

Phi (2) 4-2 over Bos (1), 1974 Finals

Phi (1) 4-2 over Buf (2), 1975 Finals

Mtl (1) 4-0 over Phi (2), 1976 Finals

Mtl (1) 4-2 over Bos (2), 1978 Finals

Edm (1) 4-1 over NYI (2), 1984 Finals

Edm (1) 4-1 over Phi (2), 1985 Finals

Edm (1) 4-3 over Phi (2), 1987 Finals

Cal (1) 4-2 over Mtl (2), 1989 Finals

NYR (1) 4-3 over NJ (2), 1994 Conf. Finals (In double OT!)

Col (2) 4-2 over Det (1), 1996 Conf. Finals

Pit (2) 4-3 over Was (1), 2017 Division Finals

 

 

Edited April 25, 20187 yr by TrueBlue4ever

41 minutes ago, iHeart said:

as we speak? oh.....I thought the Eagles weren't touring anymore

Yes they actually playing stadium in Regina next month. 

2 minutes ago, Jpan85 said:

Yes they actually playing stadium in Regina next month. 

oh it's a shame they're not coming to Winnipeg, my mom would love to see Vince Gill

5 hours ago, JCon said:

Fear the WhiteOut!

 

Accept the MustardStain? 

Makes sense. Mustard belongs on a hot dog.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...did he catch Ehlers's Maliase or whatever that was?

ALSO

 

Trouba Morrissey

Buff Enstrom 

Myers and Poolman rotating with Morrow and Chiarot. 

Toby gonna play. 

35 minutes ago, Goalie said:

Trouba Morrissey

Buff Enstrom 

Myers and Poolman rotating with Morrow and Chiarot. 

Toby gonna play. 

Good news.  Two thumbs up to Morrow for how hard he's played.  But people suggesting he's better than Toby, nope. 

Morrissey-Trouba

Toby-Buff

Chiarot-Myers

Thats as good a D as we've had most of the year, especially with how Chiarot has played.

19 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Good news.  Two thumbs up to Morrow for how hard he's played.  But people suggesting he's better than Toby, nope. 

Morrissey-Trouba

Toby-Buff

Chiarot-Myers

Thats as good a D as we've had most of the year, especially with how Chiarot has played.

I can only talk for myself, but I wasn't suggesting Morrow is a better player than Enstrom in possibly keeping the lineup as is we had against the Wild.

It's more of why try to fix something that isn't broken (2 shutouts in a row albeit a lot because of Helle but this is a team game) and he isn't as physical a player as Morrow and he may be a bit rusty that in the playoffs that we don't have the luxury of slowly getting his game speed up to playoff par.

BUT you also try to field the best team possible with the available players, i.e., dressing Enstrom over Morrow, Perreault over Roslo.

Awesome problem to have no matter which route you take.

 

Id imagine Perreault is done for the year.. I think he seperated his shoulder. 

 

32 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

 

Weird. They're desperate to get the Leafs to play, if they win game 7, on Saturday but leave three games on Friday? Why on Earth does the NHL have overlapping games when it's completely unnecessary? 2 & 2. They did it with afternoon games in round 1.

Tampa Bay is Canada’s team

39 minutes ago, JCon said:

Weird. They're desperate to get the Leafs to play, if they win game 7, on Saturday but leave three games on Friday? Why on Earth does the NHL have overlapping games when it's completely unnecessary? 2 & 2. They did it with afternoon games in round 1.

I thought Nashville had an issue where their arena was booked Friday night.  Maybe I misheard.  Everyone assumed Thursday and Sat.  So Im wondering is it still Saturday even if they play Friday?  Cant have game 2 be afternoon and less than 24 hours after game 1, can they?  Either way, I guess its the same for both teams but still.

Just something there tomorrow then its free till next Friday.

22 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

I thought Nashville had an issue where their arena was booked Friday night.  Maybe I misheard.  Everyone assumed Thursday and Sat.  So Im wondering is it still Saturday even if they play Friday?  Cant have game 2 be afternoon and less than 24 hours after game 1, can they?  Either way, I guess its the same for both teams but still.

Friday. Sunday. 

so how come Nashville gets home advantage in this round first?

6 minutes ago, iHeart said:

so how come Nashville gets home advantage in this round first?

Because they finished with more regular season points.

2 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

Because they finished with more regular season points.

oh right. So I guess if we advance we would get home ice advantage since we had more points than San Jose and Vegas

8 minutes ago, iHeart said:

oh right. So I guess if we advance we would get home ice advantage since we had more points than San Jose and Vegas

Yup.

so I guess True North wants to host away game parties too

https://www.chrisd.ca/2018/04/25/winnipeg-jets-whiteout-viewing-party/

3 minutes ago, iHeart said:

so I guess True North wants to host away game parties too

https://www.chrisd.ca/2018/04/25/winnipeg-jets-whiteout-viewing-party/

Tempted to go. Should be a lot of fun and for a good cause.  

well One outdoor party was enough for me, and well I'm not fitting my butt into those seats at MTS until I find a way to get my butt and my hips to shrink

56 minutes ago, iHeart said:

well One outdoor party was enough for me, and well I'm not fitting my butt into those seats at MTS until I find a way to get my butt and my hips to shrink

My 600 pound life? 

6 minutes ago, Goalie said:

My 600 pound life? 

less than that, it's less than 300 though

Edited April 25, 20187 yr by iHeart

8 hours ago, iHeart said:

less than that, it's less than 300 though

My 299 pound life??

They've also expanded the area blocked off for the home games: