It took some unheralded heroes off of the Jets bench to secure the victory as Aaron Gagnon and Antti Miettinen scored to help keep their slim playoff hopes alive with a 2-1 victory.
Captain Andrew Ladd extended his personal point-scoring streak to seven and he will need to extend that as well as Blake Wheeler, Bryan Little and Evander Kane will have to produce to keep the Jets playoff hopes alive. The Jets now possess 51 points, one point behind both Ottawa and the New York Rangers for seventh and/or eighth. They are just two points behind the New York Islanders for sixth. But one game at a time. It doesn't really doesn't matter who they play, every game is a playoff/elimination game.
Consider this. With the Jets winning five out of six during their last home stand and including last night's win over Buffalo (who are already eliminated from playoff contention) they have captured 13 out of a possible 14 points (6-0-1). But during that streak (which continues tonight in Washington) the Capitals, Rangers, Senators and New York Islanders have also all been winning consistently, so in spite of all those points, the Jets haven't made up any ground. Such is the race for the NHL playoffs.
So tonight's tilt in Washington is the biggest game of the season. The importance of it cannot be overemphasized. If the Jets lose, it's pretty much over unless either the Rangers or Senators lose their last two games. In fact, if the Jets lose tonight and the Rangers beat the lowly Panthers (which is pretty much a given) the Rangers will clinch at least eighth. However, if the Jets can secure a win over the Caps tonight, they will leap-frog over them by one point and unbelievably back into first place in the South-East division for third seed in the Eastern Conference. But with two relatively easy games left for both the Capitals (after tonight's contest with the Jets) and the Rangers, the Jets best hope for post-season action is now stealing the last available spot from the Ottawa Senators.
Should the Jets win tonight, that will force the capitals to beat the Sens on Thursday, which would then force the Sens to beat both the Philadelphia Flyers and Boston Bruins to knock the Jets down to ninth again.
Who says the end of the season is meaningless?
In other news, forward Kyle Wellwood suffered a hand injury in last night's game against the Sabres and will miss at least the rest of the season. Coach Claude Noel said he would be out "long-term."
That means Nik Antropov, fresh off of injury reserve himself, will be inserted into the line-up.
Zach Bogosian still remains out of the line-up with concussion symptoms.
The Jets wrap up the regular season at home against the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
