Are the Winnipeg Jets ready for the playoffs? Or, more appropriately, will the Jets make the playoffs? With only six points separating the South-East division-leading Winnipeg Jets and the second-placed Carolina Hurricanes, with 13 games to go for the Jets and 16 for the Canes, one probably should be careful when placing the Jets in the final eight of the Eastern Conference come early May.
Because although all the member teams of the South-East are egregiously under performing this season (with the possible exception of the Florida Panthers) every one of them (again, except Florida) still has a shot at the division lead.
Personally, I think the Jets will claim their first regular-season division title in their re-birth since being transferred to Winnipeg (it would be pretty cool seeing a championship banner hanging in the MTS Centre) but it won't come without a few bumps and scares, especially now that the Washington Capitals Alexander Ovechkin is back on track and starting to score. The problem for the Capitals is they don't have a legitimate top NHL goaltender. The same can be said about the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Hurricanes will soon have Cam Ward back between the pipes to alleviate their goaltending problems.
Although the Jets are, well, pretty much the same as the Jets 1.0 in that they can be counted on for one thing; they are consistently inconsistent. That is, they may win one or two here, then lose one or two there. They may even win two or three in a row and the city is all a buzz with how they played a disciplined, smart hockey game. Then they lose two, three or four in a row and the impatient hockey fans in Winnipeg will be calling for the heads of Coach Claude Noel and wanting to sell the farm for rental players at a chance to just enter the playoffs. But they're consistent at it. The one thing the Winnipeg Jets are not this year is predictable.
The CBC's Adam Wazny also thinks Jets fans should start saving their money for something that Winnipeg hasn't seen in 17 years...the NHL playoffs.
