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

oh I thought this would have been free

 

Game day!

11 hours ago, iHeart said:

oh I thought this would have been free

 

The money is going to a Jets charity. So, think of it like a donation. 

On 24/04/2018 at 1:04 PM, The Unknown Poster said:

 

So is Laine good to go?

**** them up

I used to think Nashville's "It's all your fault!" was funny/cute, but they never changed it and then it became lame. 
Relying on cheap pre-game gimmicks to stir up interest, blocking out of town ticket sales?
And Subban is such a ******, Myers should've wrecked him last game instead of letting him bail. 

I want Buff to set the tone in the first 5 minutes on absolutely anyone in his path

Looks like Vegas is the team to beat. Just a machine.

2 hours ago, JCon said:

The money is going to a Jets charity. So, think of it like a donation. 

fair enough

 

Armia looks to be out tonight.  Everyone else you'd expect should play.

Armia has been good.  Speedy recovery!

Booya!

2 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Armia looks to be out tonight.  Everyone else you'd expect should play.

Armia has been good.  Speedy recovery!

Not having Armia really sucks.  He's a solid player for us.

4 hours ago, kelownabomberfan said:

Looks like Vegas is the team to beat. Just a machine.

Cuz they beat a team who is old and aren't Very good? Nash or Jets will kill Vegas. 

Nashville!  I hate Nashville.

They are the source of the world supply of crappy assembly-line country music.

Also their uniforms are goddamn hideous.  They look like an entire  husky team peed on the ice and then all the players dared each other to roll around in it before it froze. And then for good measure they rolled around in a big ashtray.

Go Jets!

Edited April 27, 20187 yr by johnzo

2 hours ago, Goalie said:

Cuz they beat a team who is old and aren't Very good? Nash or Jets will kill Vegas. 

Sorry but your opinion on what constitutes good isn't really very reliable. 

GO JETS GO!

Edited April 27, 20187 yr by wanna-b-fanboy

one hour til game time this will either be a hot mess or a cold cream pie

3 hours ago, Goalie said:

Cuz they beat a team who is old and aren't Very good? Nash or Jets will kill Vegas. 

Beating the Sharks in the conference semis is basically a rite of passage for an NHL team.  Sharks have been in 11 conference semis and have lost eight of them.  They are really not good at this playoff thing.

I really hope the Sportsnet pregame is wrong and our 3rd line isn’t Tanev, Lowry, Copp.

sportsnet? but isn't the game on CBC tonight?

who's doing the anthems

 

what unclassy fans

 

my aunt thinks that the players look like boxes of KD

Edited April 28, 20187 yr by iHeart

Tanev, Lowry, Little on the 3rd.  I don’t get it.   Tanev isn’t a 3rd line player on this team.  Disappointing.

Ehlers is in the box

 

Holy craperoni we scored on Nashville, thanks Tanev!

Edited April 28, 20187 yr by iHeart

Ha!  I told my wife Tanev would likely score tonight.  Glad he did because that wasn’t a great period for us.

He still doesn’t belong on the 3rd line.

2 hours ago, kelownabomberfan said:

Sorry but your opinion on what constitutes good isn't really very reliable. 

Says the guy who thinks Enstrom sucks

1 hour ago, johnzo said:

Beating the Sharks in the conference semis is basically a rite of passage for an NHL team.  Sharks have been in 11 conference semis and have lost eight of them.  They are really not good at this playoff thing.

They are very slow