{"id":522175,"date":"2026-03-25T15:25:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T15:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/522175\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T15:25:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T15:25:16","slug":"analysis-winnipeg-jets-maintain-poker-face-as-playoff-stakes-increase-winnipeg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/522175\/","title":{"rendered":"ANALYSIS: Winnipeg Jets maintain poker face as playoff stakes increase &#8211; Winnipeg"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\tDescrease article font size<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tIncrease article font size<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tAt this stage of their season, it\u2019s probably a bit of a gamble to suggest the Winnipeg Jets will make the playoffs, but until they are officially eliminated, don\u2019t bet against them.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>If a playoff spot is indeed in the cards for the\u00a0Jets, then the hand they\u2019ll need to continue to play \u2013 at least as this week moves along \u2013 won\u2019t be dealt from the bottom of the deck.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, with the team being all in since the Olympic break, there has been no sleight of hand, as Winnipeg has moved within five points of the playoffs with now just 11 games remaining on its schedule.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>And while the Jets are low on chips to stay in the game, they certainly haven\u2019t cashed them in, moving their record to above <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/tag\/nhl\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">NHL<\/a> .500 on Tuesday night with a <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11744717\/winnipeg-jets-keep-faint-playoff-hopes-alive-with-4-1-win-over-golden-knights\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">commanding victory over visiting Vegas<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/national.jpg\" alt=\"Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won't miss a trending story.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n<p>Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won&#8217;t miss a trending story.<\/p>\n<p>The win was impressive on many levels for sure, as Mark Scheifele recorded another Gordie Howe hat trick and he and Kyle Connor each scored their team-leading 32nd goals of the season.<\/p>\n<p>But what was most notable was their ability to enter the big blind \u2013 a week where they face playoff-bound Vegas and then Colorado twice \u2013 by producing a winning hand to start this casino royale of high-stakes action.<\/p>\n<p>Understandably, Winnipeg will be running the gauntlet as the week unfolds, especially with a home-and-home series starting Thursday night against the first-place Avalanche.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore on Sports<br \/>\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>But from what we witnessed Tuesday, they seem well invested and deserving of a seat at the table to try and turn their overall fortunes around, especially amid their first win against Vegas at home in four years.<\/p>\n<p>At this point, the Jets are fully aware there is no room for bluffing and their margin for error is the complete opposite of playing with house money.<\/p>\n<p>Although starting the week with a win Tuesday night was an important hand to be played for the Jets, dealing out another win or two later this week will be equally crucial if a playoff spot for the team this season is indeed in the cards.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Descrease article font size Increase article font size At this stage of their season, it\u2019s probably a bit&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5121],"tags":[5,78,4,43,77,18,387,5288],"class_list":{"0":"post-522175","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-winnipeg-jets","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-jets","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-winnipeg","13":"tag-winnipeg-jets","14":"tag-winnipeg-sports","15":"tag-winnipegjets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116290515844195906","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}