This series marks the first time the two clubs have ever played in the playoffs, and in fact the first time Minnesota has ever played Winnipeg in the postseason, even dating back to the old Jets and North Stars of yesteryear.
"It's gonna be fun. It's gonna be a great challenge," said Wild forward Eric Staal. "They've had a great year, they've got a good team. We've had a good year, we have a great team. So it's gonna be fun. It's gonna be competitive. Pretty good rival there, north of the border. It's something we should all be excited about."
The Jets finished second in the division behind the Nashville Predators, but their 114 points were also second-most in the NHL, trailing only their Central counterparts who won their first ever President's Trophy as the League's top regular season team.
The 215 combined points between the Wild and Jets are the second-most between two first-round opponents since the NHL adopted its current divisional playoff format in 2013, and the most since 2014, when the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks combined for 218 points.
"They present a lot of challenges. They have a lot of skilled forwards that are skilled guys, shooters, dishers, guys that can skate. There's a lot of challenges there," said Wild defenseman Nate Prosser. "We've got to make sure we do what we can. I think we've got to make sure we're making the hard, simple plays, not turning pucks over. Pucks out at the blue line, pucks in at the offensive blue line. There's a lot of little things that we've got to make sure that we're doing right."
Without defenseman Ryan Suter, who was lost for the season two weeks ago to a fractured ankle, and with Jared Spurgeon perhaps a bit rusty after returning from a hamstring injury following nearly a month on the sidelines, it will be up to a young Minnesota defensive core to be at the top of its game against a deep group of Jets forwards.
Winger Patrik Laine ranked second in the League in goals this season (44), winger Blake Wheeler leads the team in points with 91, and forwards Nikolaj Ehlers, Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor and Bryan Little and defenseman Dustin Byfuglien all scored more than 40 points on the campaign.
"They come at you, nine deep," said Wild coach Bruce Boudreau. "You better be able to play good defense against them. Without giving anything away, you can't trade chance for chance with them; they're too good for that. We have our work cut out for us."
The Jets rank near the top in nearly every telling category this season, including goals for (second), goals against (fifth), power play (fifth), penalty kill (ninth) and face-off win percentage (fifth).
By comparison, Minnesota ranks 11th in goals for, 11th in goals against, 18th in power play, 13th in penalty kill and 16th in face-off win percentage.
Winnipeg also won three of the four regular season meetings between the clubs. But the teams haven't played since Jan. 13 (a game the Wild won 4-1 in St. Paul) and they haven't played in Winnipeg since just after Thanksgiving, a forgettable 7-2 loss for Minnesota.
The Wild and Jets played a pair of one-goal games in October, both won by Winnipeg. But those close, tightly-contested games have been the M.O. of this matchup through the years.
And in the playoffs, don't be surprised if they are again.
"I think playoffs, everything is wiped clean," Staal said. "It doesn't matter what happened during the regular season. You gotta just focus on Game 1. For us, I'm sure we'll do a lot of pre-scout and a lot of talk amongst [ourselves] on what we can do to be successful against them and then when Game 1 starts, we'll be ready to go."
