from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

So, you don’t like the playoff format that gives us Winnipeg versus Nashville in Round 2, as compelling a matchup as we’ve looked forward to in years? Let’s talk, shall we?

In 49 years of playoff hockey — since expansion in 1967 minus one lockout year — the top two regular season teams have met in the playoffs prior to Round 3 only once. That was last season, when No. 1 Washington lost to Pittsburgh in Round 2.

In this, the 50th playoff season, it happens again when the 117-point Predators host the 114-point Jets, a series that some folks complain will unfairly eliminate one of the top two regular season clubs. Others, like me, will remind that in the 36 seasons of a "one vs. 16" or "one vs. eight" format, the top two clubs met just eight times — in a Conference or Stanley Cup Final....

For the first time in the history of either Winnipeg franchise — the Jets-Coyotes or Thrashers-Jets — Winnipeg represents Canada’s last remaining hope of bringing Stanley home to where he originated. Back to the land where Big Silver has not summered since 1993.

So, you can moan about a series that may or may not have happened had Nashville met San Jose and Winnipeg played Vegas, or you can book off every second night starting Friday to watch a pair of teams that combined for 41 non-shootout goals in five meetings this season.

"They come at you in swarms, they have good goaltending, a lot of good D-men, a tough building to play in but a fun building to play in," Jets centre Paul Stastny said of Nashville this week.

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