Winnipeg | NHL Jets

[blueandgoldguy]

Originally Posted by BlackDog204

lol....

You were not alive during the 80s, I take it. The NHL only had 21 teams between 1979 and 1991. To miss the playoffs was very hard, as only one team missed the playoffs in each division. It is not like today, when only 50% of NHL teams qualify.


Here are some of the Jets records, where they "made the playoffs":

1981-82: 33-33-14
1982-83: 33-39-6
1983-84: 31-38-11
1985-86: 26-47-7
1987-88: 33-36-12
1995-96: 36-40-6

There is zero chance any of these records would be good enough to qualify for the NHL playoffs today. In fact, the only years the Jets 1.0 would have qualified for the playoffs in today's NHL would have been 1985,87,1990, and arguably 1993.
And this is just the Smythe Division. Teams with the 2nd worst record in the entire league made the playoffs in the old Norris Division. Comparing the Jets 1.0 to Jets 2.0, based off how many playoff appearances they made, is about the most inaccurate argument one can make.

They probably would have qualified for a couple of those years given loser points awarded for OT/shootout losses awarded today whereas back then an OT loss resulted in 0 points. Some of those ties back then would have also resulted in a shootout/OT wins with 3 on 3 play. There's a reason we see 18 or so teams finish with 90 or more points nowadays.