Well, it comes down to this…..a huge first round Game 7 involving our hometown Winnipeg Jets and the visiting St. Louis Blues. Things have hardly gone ideally for the True Northers in the playoffs so far, but they have managed to pull out wins at the Canada Life Centre and they will need to do so one more time if they hope to extend their 2024-25 Stanley Cup pursuit.
It is a bit strange that the Jets-Blues series was the first one to kick off the post-season, but will be the last one to determine a winner after the Dallas Stars outlasted the Colorado Avalanche last night to advance. So that means the franchise that ends up with the most goals this evening will be facing the franchise from the Lone Star State in Round 2.
Although head coach Scott Arniel indicated that injured center Mark Scheifele would be a game time decision today, yet the hopes for his return might have decreased as he was not a participant at the morning skate (**confirmed that #55 will not be playing). Based on the practice lines, the only alteration to the True North lineup will be the return of Haydn Fleury in place of Logan Stanley.
Here is how PuckPedia is currently predicting the players to lineup when the puck drops at 6 pm Central (since the site had Big Stan still in, I had to use a different format to make the Jets lineup so it looks a bit different than normal):
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Okay, time to look at the numbers from the series to date, which are fairly close in most of the categories, although St. Louis does hold key advantages in goals scored/allowed, shooting percentage, & save percentage. Winnipeg has recently closed the gap in the special teams statistics and continue to have the advantage during 5 on 5 play.
Good news for the White Out crowd is that the Jets have out-scored the Blues 12 to 7 at the CLC, so all the True North fans around the world will be hoping that trend continues.
Since giving the BOJA Boost to SoulBear helped our club come out victorious last home game, I have opted to try it again by highlighting Stacey Nattrass for this one. Let the music of the national anthems be the starting point for the Winnipeg Jets to put on a full 60 minute performance that reminds the fans of how they dominated opponents during the regular season. I will be manning the edit function at the start of the game in case I have to make a swap, since I have no clue which singer will be performing tonight.
I know a handful of people that will be among the white mob at the Canada Life Centre today and for the most part they were heading to the arena with an optimistic mind frame. Lets hear your thoughts about the first ever Game 7 playoff contest hosted by the Winnipeg Jets….can the True Northers do yet another “franchise first” this season by steam-rolling the Blues? Or will this be our club’s last game of the 2024-25 campaign?
Not sure that I am ready for my time as a writer about the Winnipeg Jets to be over….but if tonight doesn’t go our way then I will be sitting down to write my final Game Recap article for Arctic Ice Hockey. That will probably end up being a sad couple of hours of writing while dealing with the conclusion of two meaningful storylines in my life. And I would prefer to hold it off for as long as possible…..so our boys better win tonight and continue this amazing season.
Go Winnipeg!!!!!!!!!!!!!
***13 exclamation marks for the 13 wins the Jets need to lift the Cup.***
