Road to cup rarely straightforward

There has never been a perfect Stanley Cup champion.

Don’t believe us? Look through the NHL’s record books and you’ll find blemishes on the last team standing every spring. Some left quite a mark.

For example, the Florida Panthers lost eight combined games over their four rounds last year — including doozies by scores of 6-3 in the first round (against Tampa Bay), 5-1 in the second round (against Boston) and 8-1 in the Final (against Edmonton). Nobody remembers those now, of course, because their 16 combined wins ultimately rendered them moot.

The 2023 champion Vegas Golden Knights dropped six in total, including ones by scores of 4-1, 5-1 and 5-1. The 2022 Colorado Avalanche only fell four times that year, but two were by scores of 4-1 and 6-2. Fact is, since the NHL moved to four best-of-seven rounds back in 1987, not a single squad has ever gone 16-0.

Bottom line: Teams are going to get knocked down when playing emotional, high-stakes hockey. Games sometimes get out of hand and momentum shifts can be extreme this time of year. Even the greatest clubs are going to lose. Likely several times. Maybe even in ugly, lopsided ways.

Which brings us to the Winnipeg Jets. It’s far too early to say if this group will be sipping out of Lord Stanley’s mug in about seven weeks from now, although hopes were certainly raised when they quickly jumped out to a 2-0 series lead over the St. Louis Blues with a pair of hard-fought home ice victories (5-3, 2-1).

However, any thoughts of a perfectly paved road to the promised land were tossed out the window Thursday night in the form of a 7-2 beatdown at the hands of the St. Louis Blues.

Anything that could go wrong seemingly did go wrong. From a “You’ve got to be kidding me?” goal by Pavel Buchnevich just 48 seconds into the contest to a controversial Cole Perfetti no-goal that sure looked like a goal to a Connor Hellebuyck puckhandling blunder that ended up in the back of his net, this was a disaster on multiple levels.

The Jets didn’t just lose the game, but their cool, too. They tried to take their pound of flesh in the third period but ended up filling up the penalty box, which allowed the home team to keep piling on much to the delight of their fans.

As far as we know, Winnipeg hospitals didn’t experience an overnight surge thanks to scores of Jets fans limping in with ankle and foot injuries. But it sure felt like plenty of folks were jumping off the crowded bandwagon fast and furious over one lousy, out-of-character performance.

Cause for some concern? OK, we’ll give you that. A reason for full-blown panic? Hardly.

“It’s one game. We lost one game. Whether it’s 7-2 or 1-0, we lost one game in this series,” Jets coach Scott Arniel told reporters in St. Louis.

This wasn’t a case of the bench boss simply trying to put on a brave face. Arniel is speaking the truth.

While it may not feel this way to some, the Jets are still in a solid position by holding a 2-1 advantage in the series with Game 4 set for Sunday at noon. There’s no cumulative score here. It’s the first team to four wins that moves on. That perspective is important. As is some additional hockey history.

We bring you back to 2018, which remains the benchmark for playoff hockey in Winnipeg. The Jets won their first postseason game in franchise history in the form of a 3-2 squeaker over the Minnesota Wild, then followed that up with a 4-1 victory in Game 2.

That was the only other time, until this week, the Jets were off to a 2-0 series start off a pair of home wins. How did Game 3 go on the road that year? A 6-2 loss, which sure looked a lot like what went down in Missouri on Thursday. Winnipeg couldn’t match the desperation of Minnesota that year, which was basically in a “must-win” situation. Same goes for St. Louis.

Let the record show the Jets quickly picked themselves up off the mat and responded with a rock-solid 2-0 road triumph in Game 4, then a 5-0 victory in Game 5 back at Canada Life Centre to quell any hopes of a Wild comeback, ultimately making it to the Western Conference Final.

We have no idea if a similar script might be followed this time around, but it should at least demonstrate that one ugly loss does not automatically spell doom. Not for Winnipeg. Not for any playoff team. Just ask the Lightning, Bruins and Oilers from last year, who weren’t able to turn dominating wins over the Panthers into sustained success and a series victory.

It’s why you won’t see or hear the Blues taking any victory laps over one impressive, 60-minute effort.

“I think every game has its own momentum and its own feel to it. All it is is Game 3 in our mind,” said veteran St. Louis defenceman Cam Fowler, who led the way with a goal and four assists.

“We came out, had a great first period. That helped us get back in the series and helped us win the hockey game, but when that puck drops on Sunday, none of that matters. It’s about the preparation between now and then and getting ready for a huge game on Sunday.”

The Jets didn’t have many stinkers like this during the regular season, which explains why this finished on top of the standings with a 56-22-4 record. Maybe the closest reasonable facsimile happened in Salt Lake City back on Jan. 20, when the 5-2 deficit against Utah likely flattered the visitors and had Arniel publicly calling out himself and his team.

It was a rare show of anger from Arniel, and it sent the intended message. Winnipeg responded with an impressive 3-2 victory two nights later in Colorado, the first of what would become an 11-game winning streak.

They’ll need more of that kind of internal drive and resolve to get back on track this time. But that’s where losing 7-2 instead of 1-0 might be an even bigger motivator. This is a proud group that just got embarrassed and humbled, which might help bring out their best. There was no moral victory, no “we should have won this” mentality.

Following the rout, players like Josh Morrissey and Cole Perfetti repeatedly mentioned “turning the page,” and that’s something these Jets have been very good at all season long. No doubt getting defenceman Dylan DeMelo (illness) and perhaps forward Gabe Vilardi (upper-body injury) back into the lineup would help the cause.

This year’s playoff story was never going to be simple and straightforward. No team’s ever is. There’s always a few plot twists along the way. But whether this one for Winnipeg ends up being a mere footnote or something more substantial has yet to be written.

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X and Bluesky: @mikemcintyrewpg

Mike McIntyre
Reporter

Mike McIntyre is a sports reporter whose primary role is covering the Winnipeg Jets. After graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College in 1995, he spent two years gaining experience at the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 1997, where he served on the crime and justice beat until 2016. Read more about Mike.

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