After the kick in the nuts that was last nights loss to the Washington Capitals, a little bit of a miracle is what it is now going to take for the Winnipeg Jets to secure a playoff spot to participate in this spring's NHL Stanley Cup tournament after being owned last night by the Capitals who clinched the South-East division with a 5-3 win.
This leaves the Jets at the mercy of other teams to do their job for them. Before last nights game, the Jets still controlled their own destiny. With a win, they would have overtaken first place in the South East division and the third overall seed in the Eastern Conference (although the way the Capitals have been playing and with games in hand, the Caps probably would have retaken the division lead anyway.)
Now the Jets must win against Montreal tomorrow at the MTS Centre and pray that either the New York Rangers or Ottawa Senators collapse in their remaining games; two for New York, three for the Sens.
Many dominoes will have to fall into place for the Winnipeg Jets franchise to see the post-season for the first time since 2007 when they won the South-East division crown and were summarily ousted in four straight games by the Rangers.
Both the Rangers and Senators will have to lose their all their remaining games. If either of them win just one more game, the Jets are golfing.
In the unlikely event of the Jets tying either the Sens or Rangers (or preferably both) the Jets will steal the last playoff spot due to more wins and the "ROW" stat (combined regulation and overtime wins) being in the Jets favor.
In that event, in the case of ousting the Rangers,the New Jersey Devils could be the Jets best friends for a day because it was the Blueshirts that officially eliminated the Devils on April 21. The chance for the Devils to exact revenge and eliminate their cross-river rivals, historical rivals at that would be too juicy to pass up.
But all that will mean nothing if the Jets don't win against Montreal.
