Winnipeg fans welcomed back NHL playoff hockey – and the 'Whiteout' – with great enthusiasm. (Getty)
source : yahoo.com
Silence. The puck came out to
the point, Francois Beauchemin fired it and Rickard Rakell deflected it
into the net 5:12 into overtime Monday night. Just like that, the MTS
Centre went from one of the loudest arenas of all-time to one of the
quietest.
As the
Anaheim Ducks celebrated their 5-4 victory and 3-0 first-round series lead over the
Winnipeg Jets,
you could hear their whoops and hollers all the way up to the rafters.
Fans started filing out.
After maybe a minute, some chanted, “Go, Jets,
go!” But soon they faded, and there was no sound again. Hundreds stayed
in their seats, stunned.
Nineteen years they had waited
for this. Nineteen years they had waited to see an NHL playoff game in
Winnipeg. Now they had to process a bittersweet mix of emotions – pride,
excitement, frustration, disappointment.
“That’s one you’ll always remember,” said Jets winger Blake Wheeler. “Just too bad it wasn’t a more fond memory.”
There had been Winnipeg weather –
cold, wind, snow – and talk of omens. There had been a return of
Winnipeg’s traditional “whiteout,” fans in white jerseys and white
shirts and white hats, fans with white wigs and white hardhats and white
helmets with red lights flashing on top. There were white suits and at
least a couple of white tuxedos. There was at least one wedding dress.
There were roars like you’ve never heard before. They didn’t just cheer Winnipeg goals. They cheered Anaheim
icings.
“That’s as good a building as I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Jets
coach Paul Maurice, who has been behind the bench for more than 1,250
NHL games in the regular season and playoffs.
Yet the Jets blew a third-period lead for the third time in three
games. Yet they gave up the tying goal to Ryan Kesler with 2:14 left in
regulation – the same Ryan Kesler the fans had been jeering all night.
Yet they couldn’t cash in on a power play right after that. Bryan Little
hit a post, then got robbed by goaltender Frederik Andersen.
This franchise still hasn’t won a playoff game since the Atlanta
Thrashers entered the NHL in 1999-2000. This city still hasn’t witnessed
an NHL playoff victory since April 21, 1996.
“It was a special, special night for us in terms of the energy from
the fans and the city,” said Jets winger Lee Stempniak. “We certainly
feed off that emotion. We have great fans. They’re a huge part of our
home-ice advantage. It’s hard to put into words how tough this loss is.”
* * * * *
The last time this city hosted an NHL playoff game was April 28, 1996. The original Jets were facing the
Detroit Red Wings
at Winnipeg Arena, the old barn with the portrait of the queen, and
everyone knew a loss would mean more than elimination. A loss would mean
relocation.
The Jets lost, and so the fans
said goodbye. They stood and cheered as players shook hands, and then
they stood and cheered some more as the Jets acknowledged them one last
time. A homemade banner unfurled from the upper deck: “OUR JETS WILL FLY
4 EVER.”
Fans
wept. Even players wept. The problem wasn’t a lack of passion for the
team or the game. The problem was economics and politics.
“The team when it left was a
victim of circumstances,” said NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. “The
government agreement was over. There was no prospect of a new building.
There was nobody that wanted to own the team here.”
The Jets moved to Phoenix – and took the traditional playoff
whiteouts with them – and Winnipeg became a minor-league town. But in
the mid-2000s, two things happened: the MTS Centre was built for the
AHL’s Manitoba Moose with 15,000 seats, just enough for an NHL team if
the opportunity ever arose, and the NHL introduced the salary cap,
changing the dynamic for small markets.
Mark Chipman and his partners at True North Sports and Entertainment
waited patiently and quietly, and they got their chance when the Atlanta
Thrashers ran into trouble and the NHL ran out of options in 2011.
Winnipeg would be the smallest market in the league. It would have
the smallest arena in the league.
But its time had come (again). People
partied at Portage and Main. They bought 13,000 season tickets in 17
minutes – and it took that long only because the computers needed 15
minutes to process the credit cards.
As soon as winger Andrew Ladd arrived for a visit, he knew he wasn’t
in Atlanta anymore. The team had just been sold. It didn’t have a new
nickname or a logo yet. But as he stood at baggage claim, a fan
recognized him and said: “Welcome to Winnipeg.”
Chipman announced at the draft the team would be called the Jets, and
the city celebrated again. Then came the new logo. Then came the new
uniforms.
Before the first season started,
the fans already had gotten to know the players and adopted them. One
player visited an elementary school. A little girl handed him a can of
Barq’s Root Beer she had brought from home. She had heard him mention in
a radio interview it was his favorite.
The first regular-season game was Oct. 9, 2011. The fans cheered as
the clock counted down. When the play stopped with 1.6 seconds left,
that gave them one more chance to chant: “Go, Jets, go!” The standing
ovation continued through the final horn and didn’t end until after the
last man had left the ice.
And the Jets had lost to the
Montreal Canadiens, 5-1.
* * * * *
Soon Winnipeg wasn’t happy just to be back in the NHL.
“Our first year, they wanted a winning team,” said defenseman Jim
Slater, who has spent his entire 10-year NHL career with the franchise.
“Everything you read and hear on the radio, there’s obviously those fans
who want it to happen right now.”
General manager Kevin
Cheveldayoff remained patient – too patient for some. But he replaced
coach
Claude Noel with Maurice last season, and the Jets made a run. He
made a number of moves this season, and the Jets made the playoffs.
After the Jets clinched April 9, they returned from Denver after a 1-0 shootout victory over the
Colorado Avalanche
to find about 200 fans waiting for them at the airport. It was 2:30
a.m. It was a Thursday night – or a Friday morning, rather. But there
they were, wearing jerseys, holding signs, cheering as the players
walked to their cars.
“Where
we’re parked, I don’t even know how they know where we are, let alone
what time we’re going to be home,” Little said. “I don’t think you’d see
that in a lot of other places.”
Most season-ticket holders exercised their option to buy playoff
tickets. Less than 1,000 were made available to the public for Games 3
and 4 of this series, and they sold out in six minutes – and it took
that long only because the computers needed five minutes to process the
credit cards. If you were looking on StubHub on Monday afternoon, only
eight tickets were for sale. Eight. The cheapest was $649.
“Not a lot of people know where Winnipeg is on a map, but they
definitely know where their hockey team is, and we take a lot of pride
in that,” Slater said. “It’s a small community, but a big community with
hockey.”
Maurice, who has also coached the Hartford Whalers,
Carolina Hurricanes
and Toronto Maple Leafs, said the connection between the city and the
team in Winnipeg was unlike any he had seen before.
They appreciate
having an NHL team again. They appreciate this NHL team for how hard it
plays. He feels a responsibility to bring out the best in their loved
ones.
“You get the feeling like you’re kind of like the teacher here and
you’ve got their kids, and their kids are the Winnipeg Jets hockey
team,” Maurice said. “And through the course of the regular season
they’ve been getting pretty average to below-average marks, and they’re
finally getting some good grades. They kind of come over and thank you,
like, ‘Hey, my kids are doing great.’ ”
Fans lined up Monday night, waiting for the gates to open. Dean Cockrell, 63, was first at the ropes.
“The last game, it was sad,” said Cockrell, who was there 19 years
ago. “The team was leaving. I don’t know that anybody really knew how to
react back then. I think for a lot of people this is surreal. I’m in
the older generation, so I remember. I think for a lot of people, they
were so young, they really don’t remember the old Jets, so this is going
to be exciting for them, too. You have another whole generation now.”
* * * * *
Look at it this way, Winnipeg.
To lose, you have to be in the game. This is part of being in the NHL,
part of making the playoffs. And the series isn’t over yet. Just last
year, the
Los Angeles Kings lost Game 3 in OT at home and fell into a 3-0 first-round series deficit. They rallied to win the series and the Stanley Cup.
David Thomson, a co-owner of the
Jets, rode down an elevator without a word Monday night. Asked for his
feelings, he said: “It was an extraordinary game and a wonderful
atmosphere.”
He paused.
“And there’s Game 4.”
He paused again.
“And there’s Game 4.
