Note: That sound you hear was the book being shut on the 2023-24 regular season with the conclusion of last night’s Jets and Canucks game which saw Winnipeg win by a final score of 4-2 which meant they locked up 2nd place in the entire West, they earned the William Jennings Trophy for least goals against and they enter the post-season on an eight-game winning streak. And they did it with the recalled prospects (Brad Lambert had an assist & Nikita Chibrikov had a goal) from the AHL, all playing big roles in their 52nd win of the season which matches the most wins this Jets 2.0 has ever achieved (set back in 2017-18).
Note II: The attention now turns to the Colorado Avalanche and to that end once the games ended on the last night of the NHL schedule we got the full first round schedule of dates (and times for the first four games) for the Jets and Avs. They have an optional practice scheduled for today so check back for the Playoff Practice Report.
Note III: The Moose are in Texas, and will be for some time, as they play the Stars in a back-to-back which begins tonight at 7 PM CDT. The AHL regular season concludes on Sunday. Then these same two teams will kick off a best of three play-in series on Tuesday with game 1 in Cedar Park.
Jets news:
Winnipeg Sun: Jets match records, win Jennings Trophy to close out regular season on a high. What this team did this season is quite remarkable given the state of things just this past summer.
Winnipeg Sun: ‘Whole different beast’: Wise vet and the kid gear up for Jets playoffs. Paul spoke to some players about how they gear up for the post-season.
Winnipeg Free Press: Dazzling debutants come up big. (Paywall). For those of us following along with the Moose it wasn’t a surprise that Nikita Chibrikov and Brad Lambert were able to be impact players as they’ve done that for most of the 2023-24 season in the AHL. While yesterday’s contest amounted to a glorified pre-season game there was still some very good NHL talent that these two went up against and they didn’t look out of place.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
Winnipeg Free Press: Jets on roll heading into playoffs. (Paywall). The Jets have figured out the template that works for them and we shall see if they can bring it forward into the playoffs.
NHL.com: Jets defeat Canucks, end regular season with 8th straight win. Get a view from both rooms with Darrin’s recap.
Global News: Chibrikov scores winner in NHL debut as Winnipeg Jets secure Jennings Trophy with 4-2 win over Canucks. His first NHL goal is a little more memorable than the first AHL one he scored.
Sportsnet: After meaningless finale, Canucks, Jets ready for bigger, better things. Technically not completely meaningless since the winner ensured home-ice advantage against every team other than Dallas and including over each other. Also for Winnipeg it allowed them to secure the William Jennings Trophy. But the greater point holds in that neither side lost a player to injury which was of premium importance heading into the playoffs.
The Province: From the ashes of failure, we present the Stanley Cup playoffs. Read about the game from a writer that covers the Jets opponent.
Jets video:
WST: Jets vs. Avalanche first round preview. Andrew “Hustler” Paterson is joined by Murat Ates of The Athletic for an early look at the Winnipeg Jets vs. Colorado Avalanche first round series in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
