TASK ONE:

Winnipeg nearly didn’t make it to the finals, but a key win in a crucial game 7 against Seattle ensured they did. This game was easily the most pivotal game for the Jets to this point because they overcame adversity against the Riot. They made short work of the defending champions in round one, and stormed into Seattle to open round two with a pair of wins on the road. They couldn’t close out the series at home though, and dropped two straight to let Seattle tie the series. Game 5 went to Winnipeg, and they travelled home for game 6 in front of their home crowd. Lofty expectations were on this team from very early on in the season, and they felt the pressure of wanting to close this out in Winnipeg, so the loss was demoralizing to some degree. Especially when you consider that moment in game 6 when Corey Bearss sent the building into a frenzy with a 3rd period goal to take the lead, which was then followed by that moment 12 seconds later when Cory Knouse silenced the crowd with a game tying goal. It had to be deflating for the Jets to repeatedly take leads in this series only to lose them right away. Kyle Kylrad’s overtime winner broke the hearts of everyone in attendance, and put the pressure on the Jets to bounce back. The key game for the Jets is game 7, because they had to get past the adversity they were facing in order to make it where they are now.

TASK TWO:

Max Weber is my pick for unsung hero, which might be a surprise since he had an excellent playoff season. The Jets were loaded with offense in this run, with 7 players hitting around a PPG average, so Weber ended up 7th on the team in scoring with 17 points. Naturally the guys scoring the big goals are going to get the praise, but not to sing the praises of Weber would be a shame. He lead the team in blocked shots, and lead defensemen in points and average ice time. Even with all the scoring from their forwards, I would argue that Weber was the MVP of this playoff season, and deserves as much credit for the success of his team. I think it was clear from the get go that Weber was not going to settle for anything less than the Challenge Cup this season, and that came out in the gruelling effort he put in away from the puck.

TASK FOUR:

Winnipeg goes into the Challenge Cup Final as the clear favourite to win, and the reason why is all in the numbers. First of all, Winnipeg is the superior faceoff team with a 50.47% average on the draw, meaning they’re going to control how the majority of plays begin. Winnipeg’s powerplay converts 23.08% of the time, and while the Stars have a good PK, they don’t have a strong powerplay so the battle of special teams should go to Winnipeg. Finally Winnipeg’s goal differential really tips the scale in their favour when trying to predict this series, with a Goals For/Against% of 141.18% to the Stars’ 118.75%. It isn’t always easy to predict the outcome of a playoff series, but if you were betting money you would bet on the Winnipeg Jets to win. The Stars have been underdogs before though, and there’s no reason to think this will be over quickly.

TASK SIX:

<a href='index.php?showuser=1722' rel='nofollow' alt='profile link' class='user-tagged mgroup-13'>Nereus</a> how dank is the Jets LR rn?

<a href='index.php?showuser=2327' rel='nofollow' alt='profile link' class='user-tagged mgroup-69'>ztevans</a> what’s the biggest difference between the Jets now and the Jets when you first arrived?

<a href='index.php?showuser=2476' rel='nofollow' alt='profile link' class='user-tagged mgroup-17'>ThePandava</a> were you surprised that Toronto made it to the Finals?