I am very familiar with the format and our unfortunate loss to Calgary. The wordings and classifications are certainly ambiguous for this unusual season. I was just pointing out that we did indeed technically make the "postseason" (sometimes the branding breaks it down into "Qualifiers" and "Playoffs" so I'll say "postseason").
Here's a quote from the original press release:
"
For statistical purposes only, all games from the 2020 Stanley Cup Qualifiers (round robin and qualifying rounds) are considered part of the 2020 postseason. Accordingly, all skater/goalie/team statistics accumulated in these games will be included in the 2020 player and team postseason stats. Achievements from these games and series will be included on Records.NHL.com.
Teams participating in a best-of-five series during the Stanley Cup Qualifiers are considered to have made the postseason and participated in a postseason series." (
NHL, NHLPA ratify four-year CBA extension, Return to Play Plan)
So basically Winnipeg officially made the postseason, lost a best-of-5 series, and players picked up some playoff stats. I suppose this year the word "Playoffs" was reserved for the final 4 rounds of the postseason so it's a bit strange.
Regarding the other point, we were also in a playoff spot when the season was suspended. It doesn't matter that the season hadn't ended because that's the whole point of saying "X Team is in a playoff spot", say in February. While Nashville or Calgary may have won their games in hand and passed us, at the time of suspension, they hadn't and thus by the rules in place in October 2019, Winnipeg was ahead. Again, this is just semantics and doesn't matter.