Wild Ready for Playoffs
The Minnesota Wild open the 2018 NHL Playoffs against the rival to the north, the Winnipeg Jets. The Wild finished the regular season with 101 points and face the Jets in the first round. The Jets were the second best team in the conference, with this sort of new NHL playoff system it has the fourth best team in the west playing the second, not fair, but it does not look like that will change anytime soon.
Nikolaj Ehlers getting stoned on a breakaway by Devan Dubnyk in Game 1 on Wednesday (pictured above)
The Jets are built on youth, speed and offense, which sounds like bad news but usually young teams that rely heavily on young inexperienced scorers have a harder time winning in the playoffs. That being said it will be tough for the Wild to slow down a team with this much scoring power. Patrik Laine, Blake Wheeler, Mark Scheifele and Nikolaj Ehlers are some of the best offensive players in the game today, so it is no easy task.
The Jets also come in as one of the favorites to hoist the cup come June. On the other side the Wild are not picked by any expert to win more than a few games. The Wild are also without star defenseman Ryan Suter for the remainder of the season as he deals with a leg injury.
The Wild have not produced in the postseason since the arrival of Parise and Suter but being heavy underdogs against a weak defensive team in the Jets could bode well for them. As long as they can eliminate close range shots and not take too many penalties they have as good a chance as any to come out on top in this series. Expect all the games to be close and go Wild!
Jets Fans support their team with a White Out (pictured above)
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