Stanley watch

 The best of all playoffs began over Easter weekend, and the good news is, the regular season champs DID NOT CRASH AND BURN. OK, so they crashed a little, for awhile, but they didn't burn.

I'm speaking, of course, of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and of the Winnipeg Jets, who finished the regular season with a league-best 56-22-4 record. Their 116 points were five clear of the second-best team, the Washington Capitals, and their goal differential -- plus-86 -- was the best in the league by nine goals. They also had the league's best goaltender in Connor Hellebuyck. 

All of this traditionally should doom the Jets in the playoffs. 

That's because the best team in the regular season hardly ever hoists Stanley, and you can look it up. It's been 17 years since it last happened, when the Detroit Red Wings beat Pittsburgh in the 2008 Stanley Cup Final. And it's not like the Jets have a lot of history going for them on top of that.

No, sir. Neither the original Jets (who relocated to Phoenix in 1996) nor the reconstituted Jets (who arrived in 2011 as the former Atlanta Thrashers) have ever won a Stanley Cup. They've never even reached the Cup Final. 

Not once. Not in 53 years. Oh-for-53, that's the Jets.

But, hey, there's still hope!

The other night, after all, the Jets opened the playoffs with a 5-3 win at home over St. Louis. And, OK, so it wasn't pretty. Hellebuyck wasn't himself; he wasn't exactly a sieve, but he did give up three goals in the first two periods. The Blues, who barely scraped into the playoffs, led 3-2 at that point.

But then the Jets said, "Hey, wait a minute, we were the best team in the regular season, and they barely scraped into the playoffs!" (Or something like that). They scored three goals in the third, outshot St. Louis 9-2 and pulled out the W.

This means they're up 1-0 in the series and still in the running to become the first Canadian team in 32 years to put their paws on the Cup. Thirty-two years! Geez, Bill Clinton was a newbie president then. Donald Trump was just another mega-rich jackass palling around with Jeffrey Epstein and putting his name on stuff. It was a long time ago.

The good news for our neighbors to the north is they've got more chances than ever this year to end the drought, on account of every Canadian team except Calgary and Vancouver made the playoffs. Winnipeg, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and Edmonton are all in. Surely one of them could hot for two months, right?

Except for, you know, the Jets, because the best team never wins. And also the Maple Leafs, because, well, they're the Maple Leafs -- the Chicago Cubs of the NHL, continually raising their fans' hopes only to cruelly dash them on the jagged rocks of failure. 

(Or something like that)

Anyway, that's your Stanley Cup watch for now. May the best team win.

Or the sort of best team. Or some team. Whatever.