Bruins vs Red Wings

WINNIPEG -- The Winnipeg Jets made significant progress in the 2014-15 regular season, but their quick exit from the Stanley Cup Playoffs provided a blunt reminder of how far they still have to go.

The Jets set a franchise record with 99 points, experienced a stretch drive to the playoffs and had several young players blossom, but the Anaheim Ducks swept them in their Western Conference First Round best-of-7 series. It was the first playoff appearance for the franchise since 2007, when it was known as the Atlanta Thrashers.

The most pressing issue for the Jets this offseason will be potential roster turnover. Forwards Michael Frolik, Drew Stafford, Lee Stempniak and Jiri Tlusty each can become an unrestricted free agent July 1.

"The organization was great for me, and I love it here," Frolik said Friday, when Jets players, coach Paul Maurice and general manager Tim Cheveldayoff met with the media. "We've got a great thing going, and I would like to be back, for sure."

Once the sting of elimination from the Stanley Cup Playoffs by the Anaheim Ducks wears off, the Winnipeg Jets can begin to prepare for what could be a bright future.

The franchise reached the playoffs for the first time since 2007. A month-and-a-half stretch run and four games against elite competition in the Western Conference First Round can provide an effective, if painfully blunt, blueprint for a growing team.

A stretch drive to the playoffs is one thing; the Jets learned that a best-of-7 series is a different experience altogether.

Here are five reasons the Jets were eliminated:

For additional insight into the Western Conference First Round series between the Anaheim Ducks and Winnipeg Jets, NHL.com has enlisted the help of Frederic Chabot to break down the action. Chabot will be checking in throughout the series.

When teams squeak into the Stanley Cup Playoffs, fighting through the last portion of their schedule to clinch a postseason berth, it can give them momentum when playoff hockey begins.

It also can create a late-season grind, and that's something Frederic Chabot said finally might have caught up to the Winnipeg Jets in their Western Conference First Round series four-game loss to the Anaheim Ducks.

The Anaheim Ducks were supposed to have their hands full with the physicality and puck-possession game of the Winnipeg Jets. Many observers predicted a long series in the Western Conference First Round.

Few, if any, predicted four straight wins. But the Ducks pulled off the only sweep of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Wednesday when they again found an extra gear against the Jets, who played the first playoff games in Winnipeg since 1996.

It wasn't as easy as it sounds. Anaheim led for 38:26 for the best-of-7 series, the least amount of time a team has led in a four-game sweep, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. But the Ducks earned extra days of rest with their first sweep since 2006. They will face the winner of the series between the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames.

Here are five reasons the Ducks advanced to the second round:

WINNIPEG – For 11 days, the anticipation built.

From the time the Winnipeg Jets clinched a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs late on the night of April 9 to just before the drop of the puck for Game 3 of their Western Conference First Round series against the Anaheim Ducks on April 20, this city prepared to unleash its unique brand of postseason fury.

It had been 19 years since there was NHL playoff hockey in Winnipeg, but those 11 days between a Los Angeles Kings road loss to the Calgary Flames clinched a playoff spot for the Jets and the actual drop of the puck on Monday might have seemed even longer to these fans.

But after all that waiting, the whole experience lasted a little more than 48 hours.

WINNIPEG –- The Anaheim Ducks are playing a dangerous game and they know it.

The Ducks are ahead 3-0 in their best-of-7 Western Conference First Round series against the Winnipeg Jets despite trailing in the third period of each game.

The fact the Ducks have been able to come back in the third period should come as no surprise considering they were the best team in the NHL when it came to winning games they trailed after two periods. They won 12 of those 35 games in the regular season, a winning percentage of .343, considerably higher than the League average of .206. But even then, the odds were against the Ducks winning those games.

They've won three in a row against the Jets, but Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau knows this is not a trend that can continue, especially not Wednesday when they try to close out the series at MTS Centre in Game 4 (9:30 p.m. ET; USA, SN, TVA Sports, FS-W).

For additional insight into the Western Conference First Round series between the Anaheim Ducks and Winnipeg Jets, NHL.com has enlisted the help of Frederic Chabot to break down the action. Chabot will be checking in throughout the series.

Chabot was the goaltending coach for the Edmonton Oilers from 2009 to 2014. He played in the NHL for five seasons, spending time with the Montreal Canadiens, Philadelphia Flyers and the Los Angeles Kings.

Leading up to Game 3 of the Western Conference First Round series between the Winnipeg Jets and Anaheim Ducks, the anticipation and focus was on playoff hockey returning to Winnipeg for the first time since 1996 and what the crowd and atmosphere would be like at MTS Centre.

WINNIPEG -- A building that had been ear-splitting loud for hours fell deathly silent.

The contrast in the atmosphere at MTS Centre moments before and immediately after Rickard Rakell won the game for the Anaheim Ducks in overtime Monday showed how fleeting euphoria can be in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Especially for a city that hadn't experienced them for 19 years.

One moment, there's hope for the hometown Winnipeg Jets, perhaps the most hometown team of any in the NHL. The next moment that hope was gone and reality set in that the home team is down 3-0 in this Western Conference First Round series, losing three straight games it led in the third period.

WINNIPEG -- As NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman made his tour of the League during the first week of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, there was one question he says he heard more often than any other: Would he be in Winnipeg on Monday?

Commissioner Bettman was indeed at MTS Centre to witness Game 3 of the Western Conference First Round series between the Winnipeg Jets and the Anaheim Ducks, marking the return of NHL playoff hockey to the city after a 19-year absence.

"I'm here just to witness what I think will be a wonderful, emotional and exciting evening," Commissioner Bettman said about 90 minutes prior to puck drop. "I know that this has been a night that was 19 years in the making and you can feel the energy in the city. It's palpable."

WINNIPEG – There's snow in the forecast here Monday.

How appropriate.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs are returning to Winnipeg for the first time in 19 years, and there's a whiteout in the air.

When the Winnipeg Jets host the Anaheim Ducks in Game 3 of their Western Conference First Round series at MTS Centre on Monday (9 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN, TVA Sports, PRIME), nearly two decades of pent-up playoff fanaticism will be unleashed

Anticipation here is high. And just like his fellow residents, Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman can't wait.

"We've waited about two decades for this, 19 years to be exact, to celebrate our Jets in the playoffs," Bowman told NHL.com last week. "The excitement's pretty thick in the air. You can really feel it across the city."

Bowman, 43, said he was in the crowd at the old Winnipeg Arena in 1996, the last time the Jets were in the playoffs, attending one of the home games of their first-round series loss to the Detroit Red Wings. He cut up some white garbage bags back then to make homemade pompoms as part of the whiteout, a playoff tradition that began in Winnipeg and has since been adopted in other NHL cities.