Well, that was a fun season. I can't believe it's over already, but how awesome was it having the Jets back?

Despite losing 4-3 to the Tampa Bay Lightning in overtime this evening, the game still gave the 15,004 in the MTS Centre lots to cheer for. Sure, part of it was when Steven Stamkos scored his 60th of the season, which actually earned him a rare standing-O from the Winnipeg crowd. But it was mostly a Jets love-in as it's been all season, as the sold-out building took every chance to cheer on their squad like crazy for the final time in the 2011-12 season. Since the fans didn't want this season to end, Jim Slater did what he could to extend it as his goal with 53 seconds left meant overtime. And so what if Teddy Purcell finished off his hat-trick 1:08 into extra time? The result didn't matter. Tonight's game was simply a chance for the players and the fans to thank each other for an amazing season. Welcome back boys. We hope you enjoyed your season in Winnipeg and we already can't wait for next year.

The Winnipeg Jets 2.0 will now be repaired, cleaned up and put into storage for the summer after finishing their 82nd game of the season, as their 84 points (37-35-10 record) was only good enough for 11th spot in the Eastern Conference. The Jets ended up eight points out of the 8th and final playoff spot, and ten points out of 1st in the Southeast Division. If only we didn't suck so bad in the second half of back-to-backs...

On the positive side, the extra point for the Lightning means that both teams finished with 84 points, but due to the ROW tie-breaker the Lightning finish the season in 10th spot and the Jets 11th, moving the Jets up one spot in the NHL Entry Draft. At this moment in time, the Jets hold the 9th overall pick. At least we'll have that to look forward to...

Recap and game thoughts after The Jump.

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Well, here we are. It's almost hard to believe that we are shovelling the final heaps of dirt on the eternal resting corpse of 2011-12. Only five months ago, things seemed so bright, so fresh, so new. Now, looking back, the season kind of blends itself together in a blur of highs and lows, wins and losses.

Tonight the Winnipeg Jets took part in their final road game of the regular season on Long Island. Most playoff seeds have been decided and there was very little for both these teams to compete for, unless you consider the Islanders trying to get Steve Staios a victory on what was the 1000th game of his career as a form of motivation, if so, then mission accomplished..

Further to this mornings post about Defining Moments, every hockey team has a destiny to uphold. The destiny of teams such as the Ottawa Senators and Florida Panthers has been to exceed all expectations set for them. The Washington Capitals destiny seems to be continued disappointment to the residents of D.C. Then you have teams like the Minnesota Wild, who's destiny has been to find ways to lose, by and means necessary, after being the league leaders in overall points by the seasons opening quarter.

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The game started with so much promise, as 33 minutes into the game the Winnipeg Jets trailed the Florida Panthers 3-0 and appeared to have finally signed on to play #greatesttankbattles. Unfortunately, a great pass from Spencer Machacek (damn this kid has impressed) to Evander Kane jump-started the Jets offense, and in the 11 minutes that followed Kane's 30th of the season the Jets put three more past Jose Theodore to take the lead. Apparently Jets and Tanks don't get along on the battlefield.

Despite being hobbled by the direct missile hit, our Tank appeared to rally late in the game. Tomas Kopecky scored from an awful angle late in the 3rd, and with roughly 20 seconds left in the game the Tank appeared to have the Jets in its sights for the kill-shot as Tomas Fleishmann was sprung on a breakaway. One-on-one with Ondrej Pavelec. Southeast Division on the line. Pavelec with an iffy record in the breakaway contest. And Ondrej the Giant stones him cold. The kill-shot missed the Jets by inches, and in overtime the Jets returned with a kill-shot of their own.

Andrew Ladd scored his second OT-winner in three games, effectively destroying the 2011-12 Tank for good. The "Road Warrior" Jets finally found out how to win on the road, as they have managed to pick up 5 of 6 points so far on this four game road trip with a visit to Nassau Coliseum still to come. Ugh. Nothing like waiting until it's too late to figure out how to win on the road. Good on them for coming back from the 3-0 deficit when they have nothing left to play for but pride, but did they really have to win this game? Come on boys. Even the Maple Leafs have finally figured out how to tank properly, as they blew two two-goal leads in a 6-5 OT loss to the Sabres.

Recap and thoughts on the game after The Jump.

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April Fools! Oh man, you should've seen the look on your faces. Now for the reveal: we fought our way to the lead, then got minor penalties until we finally gave up a goal. Joke's on us - instead of tanking full-on, instead of winning, we held until OT then lost. Yay for mediocrity.

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Honestly, you give a team 1 job to do...

The Jets did what most of us here would have preferred they not do, and defeated the Carolina Hurricanes by a score of 4-3 in overtime, thus increasing the margin in the standings between Winnipeg and other combatants in the #greatesttankbattles.

Can't fault them for trying though, as the Jets did find themselves trailing 3-1 at one point in the second period, only to have Spencer Machacek continue to make his case for staying up with the big club next year by dishing a sweet little pass for AC Slater to one-touch into the net on a 2 on 1 break that made the score 3-2 for the 'Canes after 2 periods.

The Jets would eventually tie the score late via a powerplay goal from Kyle Wellwood who managed to notch his 17th of the year, giving him 2 points on the game and 46 on the year, surpassing the 45 he accumulated in his rookie season as a Maple Leaf in 2005/2006.

The drama would carry on into OT, giving both teams unwanted points if you like high draft picks. Andrew Ladd would make sure the drama was short lived, as the Jets gained possession after Justin Faulk blew a tire and a hopeful Zach Bogosian pass into the area in front of the net fell onto the stick on Andrew Ladd who rang it off the post and in for his 25th of the year to give the Jets the W.

With the win the Jets won the season series over Carolina with a record of 4-2-0 while Carolina was 2-3-1 against the boys in Polar Night Blue.

The Jets now have 80 points on the year, good for 10th worst overall and putting some unfortunate distance between the Jets and the other tankers.

Highlights, Boxscore and Thoughts From The Tarmac coming your way after THE JUMP

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You can't hurt us anymore, we are in full tank mode. Screw the planes, I'm talking land warfare here. As a blog, we are so heavily concentrated on our mission that some guy tried to troll us and got crickets. This is no time to stop and entertain yapping children along the roadside, folks. We've got a war to win.

Oh, the game? According to media mogul Gary Lawless, we lost.

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Well, it was fun while it lasted.

If Winnipeg wasn't dead in the water coming into their game versus the Ottawa Senators, then tonight's result should be considered the final blow to the Jets already fragile playoff hopes.

At this point, it will take nothing short of a miraculous 6-0-0 finish to their season coupled with the collapse of both the Buffalo Sabres and Washington Capitals for the Jets to even have an outside chance of gaining a post-season birth. That task becomes even more unlikely when you consider that one of those two teams will be awarded two points tomorrow night as they are in direct competition.

But if tonight's result is going to be called the proverbial final nail in the coffin for the 2011-12 Winnipeg Jets team, at least they went down swinging.

On this night, they fought back after trailing on three separate occasions in a game that won't be regarded for any semblance of defensive hockey as both the Jets and Senators went shot-for-shot with each other until only three minutes remained in regulation.

It was then that Daniel Alfredsson struck for his 26th goal of the year - and second of the game - which was scored only twenty-four seconds after Antti Miettinen had tied things up at 4-4. It was Alfredsson's goal that would go unanswered by a Winnipeg tally and stood as tonight's game winner.

Milan Michalek's empty net goal with mere seconds left applied salt to Winnipeg's freshest of wounds and left 15,004 Jets fans reeling for the exits.

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Phew, that was close guys, the store was almost closed. The Winnipeg Jets 2 to 1 loss to the Nashville Predators was a pretty stark example of why we aren't in the playoffs...despite Ondrej Pavelec putting in a great performance, stupid errors and casual play by our top lines left us without any offensive punch. The coup de grace was Dustin Byfuglien's second minor penalty of the night, after pinching on a bouncer and, rather than opting to glove it, trying to bat it down with his stick. Why get my hopes up? Claude Noel is committed to playing Randy Jones despite his continued struggles with - y'know - hockey, and we have to lean on a line with two rookies and a former journeyman because everybody else has packed it in. Jets fans don't want to be done with this season yet, fellas.

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