It's no secret that the Winnipeg Jets have failed to meet expectations in past postseasons. But could some of that lack of success be due to their allotted annual postseason draws?
When crafting the 1,312-game NHL regular season, the master scheduler Steve Hatze Petros, senior vice-president of scheduling and broadcast business, ensures that each of the 32 NHL markets maintains a consistent start time to its 82-game schedule.
No, each team has a variety of start times across the board, but as the regular season wears on, trends tend to develop.
For instance, most teams maintain an average evening start time of 7:00 PM locally throughout the season.
But for whatever reason, all of those familiarities go out the window for the Stanley Cup Playoffs - or, the most important time of the year, hockey-wise.
Building game-day routines for 82 games, including wake up times, meal plans, workouts, naps, rink arrivals/departures and returns, among other habits seem to be completely disregarded come the two-month chase for hockey's greatest trophy.
Broadcast rights play a massive role in the scheduling, as does arena availability.
As it stands, Winnipeg, the league's Presidents' Trophy-winning club, is expected to begin its postseason on Saturday, which is already an arena conflict as Bachman-Turner Overdrive is set to perform at 7:00 PM on Saturday at Canada Life Centre.
A rock group from Winnipeg, BTO certainly wouldn't be opposed to a reschedule for its hometown show, especially considering the level that the Jets have played at all season and the importance of a strong start.
Ending the 2024-25 campaign with a test against Anaheim at home on Wednesday, Winnipeg will be able to rest and prepare on both Thursday and Friday, before starting Round 1 on Saturday.
Whether that game is an afternoon start or the late-night Hockey Night in Canada affair remains up in the air.
The only thing it will likely not be is the prime time, 6:00 or 7:00 PM evening showdown that the team has gotten to know over not only this season, but its entire existence since moving back to Winnipeg.
The Jets played 41 games at Canada Life Centre this past season, 20 of them featured 7:00 PM start times. Thirteen others were played at 6:00 or 6:30 PM for the Sportsnet and Amazon Prime broadcasts. Winnipeg hosted three 5:00 PM Sunday starts, as well as five other weekend afternoon games (2:00 PM).
So, of the 41 home contests, 33 were played within the 6:00 to 7:00 PM window, locally.
Things certainly changed while on the road - as they do for each NHL club - but being so centralized among a North American-based league has hurt Winnipeg in terms of travel, scheduling, time zones and game-day habits/practices.
With Toronto and Ottawa already having clinched playoff berths and Montreal still pressing to do so, the Canadian contingent of Eastern Conference postseason teams continues to grow.
Edmonton has locked itself in within the Western Conference, while Calgary still has a good shot at earning its way to the dance.
It appears the only chance that Winnipeg would have at hosting prime time games would be if both the Oilers and Flames earned their way into the playoffs. That would almost ensure the Canadian broadcast to feature a late-night start time on alternating nights featuring both the Oilers and Flames in the West and the hope of alternating prime time starts on alternating nights with Toronto (which will likely face Ottawa) and Montreal.
That will leave Winnipeg as the odd team out, geographically. Based on its opponent, arena availability and travel opportunity, the league's No. 1 team will likely be forced to begin its week night playoff games in the late-game slot, meaning 8:30, 8:45 and 9:00 PM central start times, with festivities wrapping up around midnight, locally.
Once again, that would serve as a major change for players, coaches, staff and fans alike, who are used to seeing the final buzzer come far before 10:00 PM, even with the possibility of overtime or a shootout.
Winnipeg won its lone 6:00 PM start home game of the playoffs last year, before dropping two 8:45 PM home games as well as two non-prime time road games to Colorado.
2023 wasn't much kinder to Winnipeg either. Despite picking up a win in Vegas in a 9:00 PM start, the Jets dropped every game following that, including two 9:15 PM starts, a 3:00 PM start and an 8:45 PM start.
There wasn't much different back in 2020 either, with Winnipeg's four-game series loss to Calgary coming at the hands of an 8:30 PM start, a 2:30 PM start, a rare 5:30 PM start and a 9:45 PM start. 2019 did feature 6:00, 6:30, 7:00 and 7:30 start times against the Blues, but even against a team situated far more east than Winnipeg, did the two clubs have to play two 8:45 PM starts in the series.
With just one single game coming within Winnipeg's typical 6:00 to 7:00 PM start time window over the past two playoff experiences, it would be fair to say the schedule has played a role in the Jets' lack of success.
Now, seated at the very top of the standings, Winnipeg has done all it could to provide itself with home-ice advantage through the full four-round postseason, to which 16 total games could be played at Canada Life Centre.
Sure, the geographical location of the Jets' opponents will play into the start time equation, but despite the franchise's record-setting season, the playoff schedule will likely cause major disruption to the ordinary, once again forcing Winnipeg into new routines and habits just in time for the biggest tests of the entire year.
It is expected the full first round schedule will be released on Thursday, with pieces coming on Wednesday.