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With seven games remaining the Winnipeg Jets sit in the number two wild card spot in the West. After last night’s win over Montreal, the Jets now have 39 wins, 90 points and are 12-2-2 in their last 16 homes games. It marked another win over a very good team. Establishing this kind of home dominance is key going forward. The Montreal game started a four game home stand with Chicago in Winnipeg Sunday, the Rangers Tuesday and the Canucks on Saturday.

The race has come down to six teams (Winnipeg, Minnesota, Dallas, Vancouver, Calgary, Los Angeles) battling for four spots. In past years it’s been that 95/96 point mark that gets you into the post season. It seems the bar has been raised. Of the teams mentioned all have been winning far more than losing. Los Angeles 8-2-2 last 12, Minnesota 11-3 last 14, Dallas 9-2 last 11, Calgary 7-2-3 last 12, and Vancouver 7-3 last 10. Jets are 6-1 last seven and 8-4 in March.

No one’s schedule is easy. The Vancouver game Saturday April 4th is the end of a four game trip for the Canucks, with stops in St.Louis, Nashville and Chicago. The Jets then take to the road and start a three game trip with a Monday game in Minnesota and a Tuesday game in St. Louis. It’s the ninth and final back to back situation for the Jets and they have a record of 3-1-4 in the second game of consecutive nights. The Kings finish a road trip with games in Minnesota and Chicago. The Wild have a five game home stand against Calgary, Los Angeles, the Rangers, Red Wings and Jets. Calgary starts a five game road trip with stops in Minnesota, Nashville, Dallas, St. Louis and Edmonton. Dallas is hanging in with games in Edmonton tonight and Vancouver tomorrow. With not much room for losses. Plenty of score board watching for sure.

There has been franchise success this season, but from coach Paul Maurice to the players, it’s not about the 39 wins, or the 90 points, it’s about playing the right way with the end goal a playoff spot. The 39 wins and 90 points are the most since 43 wins and 97 points in the 06/07 season. They have gotten to 39 wins (most since relocation) through a few other recent accomplishments. They had never won a game against Pekka Rinne until a 3-1 win in Nashville. They had gone seven straight games without wins over St. Louis and Washington – they took care of that as part of the three game home winning streak. They have scored the game opening goal 45 times. From Coach Paul Maurice, “Never on my way to the rink do I worry about whether or not this group will be ready to play. They do a great job of that.”

Through it all we have seen 22 year olds Mark Scheifele, Adam Lowry (22 on Sunday), 21 year old Jacob Trouba and 25 year old rookie tender Micheal Hutchinson make huge strides. Hutchinson has 20 wins and has played far more than he expected. There was never a doubt that Trouba was going to again play big minutes, after-all he did lead the team in minutes played 21 times last season. Scheifele was coming off a very good rookie season that ended early because of injury and right from the start of the season he was slotted into number two centre ice spot behind Bryan Little. When Little went down with an upper body injury there were games where Scheifele led all forwards in ice time, while Lowry saw his role change as he moved into Little’s spot between Andrew Ladd and Micheal Frolik and on many night’s went up against the other team’s best. And he never missed a beat. Scheifele’s goal against Montreal was his 14th, one better than he had last year. Lowry’s goal got him into double digits. Scheifele and Blake Wheeler started the year on the same line, and have now found chemistry with Drew Stafford. Stafford on an eight game point streak with four goals and 10 points, and 7-9-16 in 19 games with the Jets. Wheeler went 7-5-12 in 10 games, Scheifele 6-9-15 in 15 games. Wheeler battled through two root canals after having some teeth knocked out with a puck in Edmonton.  Ladd has set a career high for assists and equalled his career high for points. Tyler Myers has 3-9-12 in 18 games with the Jets. Ondrej Pavelec was named the NHL’s first start of the week and has rattled off a career tying six straight wins, allowing but seven goals.

Dustin Byfuglien returned to the lineup against Montreal after missing nine due to injury, with Bryan Little (out 10), Mathieu Perreault (out 16) and Ben Chiarot (out 14), all very close to returning. With the injuries the newcomers needed to contribute, and they have, big time. On the Jets being buyers at the deadline, this from Coach Maurice – “our goal with veteran guys was to have done enough that we are looking to add and get better. Every season our job is to bet to the deadline and be the team that management can say, we should add, we are a legitimate team here. We’re young enough. We have two 21 year old centre-men in our top two right now. We add a guy like Myers who is 25 and we’re pretty excited about how long he can play for us.”

BUT – from a numbers standpoint this season’s success with be judged by whether or not they play beyond April 11. If they don’t, individual and team growth will determine the success. There has been plenty of that.

Back to “being ready to play every night”, much of that starts with a vocal, spirited morning skate. Interesting to note the Jets do some defensive zone scrimmaging the morning of game days. Yes the skate is still designed to get your rhythm, your legs and your hands going, but why the short scrimmage Coach? “At the start we did it because it was an area we needed to address. How we played in our zone.  Now it’s a routine. Gets a little contact into the game – there are times you hold your breath, we had one guy go down in a morning scrimmage – but it’s a full contact game and it’s good to get a few bumps in so we set the tone on how we play.”

Seven games remain, four home and three on the road.