- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 467,419
- Reaction score
- 44
You must be registered for see images attach
The dream of winning all 16 home playoff dates to secure the 2025 Stanley Cup ran out of road for the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday night.
After a back-and-forth opening round series with the St. Louis Blues that saw each of the seven games finish with the home club as the victor, the script was flipped for the Jets on Wednesday at Canada Life Centre.
It was Game 1 of the second round and the Dallas Stars - led by the scorching hot Mikko Rantanen - picked up the series opener by way of a 3-2 final.
This marked the first time the Jets had lost at home this postseason, crushing the notion that Winnipeg - which would have home ice advantage through the Stanley Cup as the Presidents' Trophy winning club - could take things easy on the road, only needing to win its four games per series at home.
"You know what, we gave up Game 1," head coach Scott Arniel said on Thursday afternoon. "We gave up home ice advantage last night. I’m not going to be disrespectful of Dallas, but we had a lot to do with that.”
The Jets will now look to earn a split with a victory on Friday in Game 2 from Canada Life Centre, which will also be played in the late-night, 8:52 timeslot.
Unable to find any sort of spark on the road in St. Louis the past two weeks, Winnipeg couldn't even get its Vezina Trophy shoo-in to last the full sixty minutes in any of the three contests. Hellebuyck was pulled prior to or during the third period in each of the three games, due to his performance.
Having seemingly shaken off the dust in the second half of Game 7 and the early stages of Game 1 vs. Dallas, Hellebuyck surrendered three second period goals to Rantanen, ultimately costing his team the game.
Now trailing 1-0 in the best-of-seven Central Division Final, the Jets will need to do something they have never before accomplished - WHA days, NHL 1.0 days, or within the 2.0 era: Win a series after losing the first game.
The have been 15 such occurrences to which Winnipeg has found itself down 1-0 in a postseason series. The team has never come back to win that series - ever.
Four of the featured series are from the Jets' 2.0 days, including losses to Anaheim, St. Louis, Calgary and most recently, Montreal.
Prior to that, the Jets lost nine series through the 1980s and 90s after falling behind after one game. Five of those battles came against the dynasty Edmonton Oilers.
With history not on Winnipeg's side, a strong showing on Friday, following by at least a split of the two games in Dallas would give the Jets some hope to find a way to bounce back from the Game 1 loss and rewrite the franchise's history books.
Friday's home game is set to begin at 8:50 and can once again be viewed live on Sportsnet/CBC.
Continue reading...
