Jets Failed to Reach Their Full Potential in Playoffs That Ended Painfully

Scheifele’s overt heartbreak and grief just compounded the feeling of his teammates and Jets’ fans alike: that their historic season and quest for the Stanley Cup came to an end way too soon.

While the Jets’ playoff run was longer than either of their past two, it was more painful than pleasurable to observe overall and the ending was gutting to watch at all. The window was more open than it may ever be again for the Jets’ current core, but they ran into a wall 10 wins shy of glory.

“Heartbreaking,” Jets captain Adam Lowry said after the game. “You know, we felt like we had a great regular season, we felt like we had a team that could go on a run. For it to end the way it did and everything else surrounding the day, it’s just a lot of emotion.”

Jets Didn’t Play Up to Potential Consistently Enough in Postseason

The Jets’ run was deeper than in 2023 when they lost in five to the Vegas Golden Knights and deeper than in 2024 when they lost in the same number of games to the Colorado Avalanche. They were better this regular season than in either of those, capturing a franchise-high 56 wins and their first Presidents’ Trophy in franchise history.

They had a well-established blueprint of success to follow entering the playoffs, but did not follow that blueprint consistently enough in the 13 games between their two series.

There were a few times they had all of their phases clicking like they did so consistently in 82 games between October and April, but too often, one or more aspect of their play wasn’t up to par. Sometimes their undoing was poor goaltending, sometimes ineffective special teams, sometimes their inability to defend, sometimes their inability to score. Sometimes it was a combination of a few.

For too many stretches — and especially on the road where they went 0-6 and were outscored 27-9 — the Jets simply did not play to their identity. They made uncharacteristic self-inflicted defensive gaffes. They unraveled when something went wrong and allowed goals in bunches. Their secondary scoring dried up, in the second round especially.

The fans did their part, donning their finest whites, packing Canada Life Centre and the streets around it, and putting “Whiteout Mania” signs in their yard. There was a sense of optimism around Winnipeg there wasn’t in 2023 or in 2024. The fans were encouraged by the strong culture head coach Scott Arniel continued to build and that the team had no passengers.

This was “their year.” Unfortunately, it wasn’t.

The Jets struggled a lot in the first round against a red-hot, relentless, and physical St. Louis Blues squad that not many predicted would even make the playoffs. The Jets blew 2-0 and 3-2 series leads, were dominated in all three road games, and it seemed they were destined to crash out in the first round for the third-straight time when they were down 3-1 in Game 7 with two minutes to go.

However, a legendary comeback that will be talked about for ages in “where-were-you-when?” conversations got the Jets into the second round. The fact they scored two goals with the net empty — including one with 2.2 seconds left — to draw even and a got double-overtime game winner made it feel like this team might be different, mentally stronger, more resilient than squads of the past. The “We Believe” sign, displayed prominently behind the Jets’ bench in the dying moments of Game 7 when all seemed lost, communicated a collective feeling deeply held.

The Jets didn’t play badly against the Stars in the second round. They didn’t choke, really. It wasn’t a “Presidents’ Trophy curse.” They had two shutout wins, were leading 1-0 in Game 1, entered the third period of Games 3 and 4 tied, and lost Game 6 in overtime. However, the Stars were just a bit better and got put-the-team-on-your-back-style performances from their top guys when it mattered most. The Jets didn’t. The series illustrated nothing if not the thin line between victory and defeat.

Questions Abound About What It Will It Take For Jets To Find Prolonged Postseason Success

The Jets did not have an easy postseason. They were without Nikolaj Ehlers, Josh Morrissey, Scheifele, and Gabriel Vilardi at times due to injury. Scheifele’s profound personal loss clearly took a toll on the team as a whole in Game 6. They couldn’t overcome the amount of adversity they faced, and it’s a shame, because it seemed like they could.

Questions abound, as they always do when a great team doesn’t reach the heights it should. What will it take for this franchise to go on a long run? Why was their core once again inconsistent on hockey’s biggest stage? Why couldn’t they find the grit to kill off Scheifele’s minor, a penalty he had to take to prevent a last-minute breakaway, as Lowry said they tried so hard to do?

Why couldn’t they win a single game on the road as they did an NHL-high 26 times in the regular season (they have the dubious distinction of being only the second team in NHL history to go winless in their first six playoff games.) Can the core ever get over the top, and if so, how? Will Connor Hellebuyck — who finished a third-straight postseason with a goals against average above 3.00 and a save percentage under .900 — ever be “that guy” in the postseason like he is in the regular season?

General manager (GM) Kevin Cheveldayoff built a tremendous regular-season team, but in a results-based business, the results were underwhelming. If one defines a team by their postseason performance — they’d already proven in seasons past they could be great in the regular season — 2024-25 is not a runaway success. At the end of the day, no one really remembers who won the Presidents’ Trophy or which teams had franchise-best seasons. They remember the last team standing that hoisted the hardest trophy in professional sports to win. That trophy has eluded the Jets again.

If there’s any consolation, it’s that this iteration of the Jets got over the first-round hump and did show glimmers of the resilience required to complete a two-month slog to the Cup. The question now is if they can learn the required lessons and channel the pain into fuel next postseason. They’ll probably be right back in the dance next April. They are clearly tight knit. Ehlers may have played his last with the Jets, but they are clearly very skilled. Their window is in no way closed.

However, as another longer-than-anticipated offseason begins, Cheveldayoff must ask himself some serious questions about what may need to change, both about his personnel and strategy. He may have to swing a trade or two. He might have to get a little more ruthless. He might also have to look inward: as much as it made sense at the time of the trade deadline to not change his group too much and disrupt chemistry, he left $6 million on the table. The players Dallas Stars’ GM Jim Nill acquired for their Cup run played key roles in ousting the Jets. The Stars are heading to their third-straight Western Conference Final. The Jets are heading home.

After getting crushed by the Avalanche last year, the Jets talked extensively about how they’d apply the painful lessons learned and be better the next time around. They were in fact a bit better, but are leaving another postseason with more painful lessons than anything else.

The pleasure of hoisting the Stanley Cup is still something they could feel within the next few years, but for now, they and their fans will have to deal with the anguish of another opportunity lost.