2019 photo by James Carey Lauder/USA Today [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/f0539498-1033-4e98-bc4d-71c6fad83cf4.jpeg] 2019 photo by James Carey Lauder/USA Today The Winnipeg Jets have pulled ahead two games to zero in their opening round, best-of-seven matchup with the St. Louis Blues. Thanks to back-to-back game-winning goals from Kyle Connor, the Jets have taken a stranglehold on a tough Central Division opponent that got red-hot over the season's second half. St. Louis, which actually had its franchise-best, 12-game winning streak stopped by the Jets in the season's final weeks, has not been a pushover either. The Blues led at two different points in Game 1, and never trailed by more than a single goal at any point in this series (with the exception of Adam Lowry's empty-net marker). The Jets know the Blues well. Playing each other roughly four times a year, the two divisional opponents also have a postseason history. In 2019, a similar looking St. Louis team challenged Winnipeg in the opening round. Having been dead last in league standings near the Christmas break, the Blues rebounded dramatically in the second half, earning their way to a date with Winnipeg in first round. They came into the former Bell MTS Place and stole both games away from the Jets, pulling ahead 2-0 in the best-of-seven. Winnipeg flipped the script with two wins in St. Louis, tying things up in advance of Game 5. But the Blues were just too strong and took the next two games, sealing the deal on the Jets' push for another lengthy postseason run. That Blues team was good, real good. So good that it went all the way to the Cup Final, where it beat the Bruins in seven games for the league championship. Should Winnipeg manage to find a way to take down St. Louis this year, the Jets would then go on to face the winner between the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars. Should the Avalanche come out on top, it would be another familiar opponent. Colorado was Winnipeg's Round 1 matchup last postseason. Despite beating the Avs in Game 1 at home last year, the Jets dropped the second contest, before hitting the road for Denver. They lost both games at Ball Arena only to come home and lose in the series-deciding contest, falling from the postseason in just five games - four after a dominant 7-6 win in the opener. Should Winnipeg play Colorado and manage to fend off its explosive offence, a date with the Jets' most familiar postseason opponent could be in the works. Should they beat the Minnesota Wild in the opening round and then take care of business against either Los Angeles or Edmonton in the second round, the Vegas Golden Knights could once again be waiting on the Winnipeg Jets in the Western Conference Final. Sure, it's quite a reach, Winnipeg very well could be squaring off with the team that has twice booted the Jets from the postseason - including shutting down their chance at going to the Cup back in the Western Conference Final in 2018. Vegas certainly has the depth and experience to take another swing at a lengthy postseason run. But it's just that. Are the Knights running out of oxygen? Will they sustain another series-and-a-half of playoff violence to make it to the conference final? The same question could be said of Winnipeg, which is already down Gabe Vilardi, Nikolaj Ehlers and Rasmus Kupari on offence due to injury. If the Conference Final was determined by regular season standings points it would already have guaranteed a matchup between Vegas and the Jets. However, this is NHL hockey - and Stanley Cup Playoff hockey at that, where nothing is given, every inch is earned. Yes, Vegas sent Winnipeg packing in five games back in the third round in 2018. Sure, that feels like a lifetime (and a pandemic) ago, but the wound still bleeds. More recently, the Golden Knights denied the Jets' hopes in the first round two seasons back. In a very similar way to that of Colorado's five-game victory, Vegas allowed a Jets win in Game 1 before storming back with four-straight to eliminate Winnipeg from contention. If it is Winnipeg and Vegas in the conference final and the Jets prove victorious, the only fitting opponent in the Stanley Cup Final would be the Montreal Canadiens - also known as the team that swept Winnipeg in four-straight games in the second round of the pandemic-shortened 2021 season. The idea of Montreal - the Eastern Conference's eighth-seed - making a run to the Stanley Cup may be the most preposterous part of this proposition, but the possibility is not completely far-fetched. The Habs would have to beat the top team in the East (Washington) before taking down a combination of Toronto, Tampa Bay, Florida and Carolina to make it to the Cup. It would be an insanely wild ride for the Jets and their fans, but it's not entirely impossible. Sure, many stars would need to align to allow this redemption tale for the ages, but for now, it starts with the Blues, as the Jets allow feelings from 2019, 2024, 2018, 2023 and maybe, just maybe, 2021 fuel their passion for greatness.
