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THE WINNIPEG JETS ARE going to win the Stanley Cup in 2019. It’s true because the guys from The Hockey News wrote it in the paper. Or at least we predicted it in our annual Future Watch issue four years ago. And nothing has happened so far this season to cause us to backpedal from that prediction. So much has to go so right for a team to be the last one standing in June, and that will be the case again this year. But take one look at the Jets and it’s clear they have the size, the skill and the depth to be that team and end the 26-year Stanley Cup drought for Canada.
THERE WASN’T ANY HISTORY BEFORE US. WE GOT A CHANCE TO START A NEW CHAPTER, AND I’M PRETTY HAPPY TO BE A PART OF THAT
– Blake Wheeler
Before they can do that, though, the Jets have to get through the grind of the regular season. And it doesn’t get any grindier than a three-game trip though the Atlantic Division in February. This is the point in the season when the truly elite teams begin to separate themselves from the rest of the league. Sitting atop the Western Conference with fewer than 30 games remaining, Winnipeg has done just that. Sure, there are some trouble spots, as there are with any team, and this road trip will reveal Winnipeg’s few remaining warts. But the Jets are exactly where most people thought they’d be. They’ve gotten there with a good level of consistency heading into this road trip, which is a compressed one – three games in four days, including back-to-back afternoon affairs. They’re 14-10-0 on the road, a decent mark by NHL standards, and they swept a three-game trip through New York and New Jersey in December, so nobody would’ve been surprised if they came out of this one with three more victories.
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But there are no easy games in the NHL, not even when you’re the second-best team in the standings. This is a trip where the Jets can create distance between themselves and the Nashville Predators and they know it. Coming off a 3-2 overtime loss at home to the San Jose Sharks, it’s time for the Jets to hit the road and get back to work.
IT’S THE KIND OF morning that would make even the most fervent Montrealer wish to be somewhere…