Bobby Launderville (left) and Travis Paskaruk joined thousands of fans who lined up to get their hands on white merchandise after a ‘whiteout’ was announced for the Jets home playoff games.JOHN WOODS/The Canadian Press
"A Storm is Coming."
So say the white T-shirts and the tweets and the newspaper headlines. But Wednesday afternoon at Portage and Main it seemed already here: the air a temporary dust bowl and the gusting winds hip-checking shoppers hard enough to stagger them.
At the MTS Centre a few blocks down Portage, the determined shoppers joined a line that also staggered: 30 minutes or more from last place around the block to the security guard manning the door to the Jets Gear shop and letting one shopper in only when one shopper left, parcels in hand.
Two young paramedics – Andrew Risk, 24, and Kevin Stambrook, 23, from the Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority north of the city – come out fist-pumping, clutching their treasured 'Winnipeg Whiteout' T-shirts fans of the original Jets used to sport during the playoffs.
"Anybody in this city who doesn't have one of these on Thursday night is going to be shunned," shouts Mr. Risk, holding his shirt up. "Shunned!"
There is madness in Manitoba these days and the reason is simple: the Winnipeg Jets, the team that was brought from Atlanta and reborn as the Jets little more than three years ago, are in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
It has been 19 years since Winnipeg hockey fans cheered for a postseason team and that, sadly, was a year of enormous disappointment – the original Jets losing four games to two in the opening round to the Detroit Red Wings and then, adding hideous insult to grievous injury, the team moving off to Phoenix because it found a better deal.
It hasn't worked out very well in Arizona but it has worked out magnificently back in Winnipeg, where the former Thrashers became the Jets in 2011 and where they moved into the most-in-your-face rink in the country, the MTS Centre that stands on the grounds of the old Eaton's store.
The statue to Timothy Eaton still sits in the corridors of the newish rink, its brass toes rubbed to a bright sheen by those who believe this simple act will bring them, or their team, good luck.
The Jets will need all they can get. By squeaking into the eighth and final playoff spot in the National Hockey League's western conference, they must play the team that came first, the Anaheim Ducks. In three meetings with the Ducks this season, the Jets did not win a game. The Ducks feature such star scoring power as Ryan Getzlaf, Ryan Kesler and Corey Perry.
The Jets, however, are not without their own bragging rights. They had 11 players score more than 10 goals, led by Blake Wheeler's 26. Captain Andrew Ladd and Bryan Little had 24 each. They have a goaltender, Ondrej Pavelec, whose career was once threatened when he suffered what doctors called a neurocardiogenic syncope at the start of a game while still with the Thrashers and fell backward unconscious. Fully recovered, it was Mr. Pavelec's play that made eighth place possible.
And they have a new coach, Paul Maurice, who wasn't good enough for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but who is credited with the Jets turnaround since he came aboard just over a year ago in replacement of Claude Noël.
Another critical change was forced when general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff, who had a reputation for standing pat, realized he had to move troubled forward Evander Kane, once considered the team's future. In a deal struck with the Buffalo Sabres, Mr. Cheveldayoff gave up Mr. Kane and defenceman Zach Bogosian but landed Tyler Myers and Drew Stafford, both of whom have starred. He added veterans such as Lee Stempniak and patiently waited for youngsters such as Mark Scheifele and Jacob Trouba to mature. With three players who already have Cup rings from other teams – Mr. Ladd, Dustin Byfuglien and Michael Frolik – the Jets were a feel-good story this year as they used speed and size to reach the playoffs.
The Jets are likely as close as it comes, at the moment, to a "Canada's Team." They are the only Canadian team that doesn't appear to offend anyone. In a country of real and perceived slights, Ottawa hates Toronto, Toronto hates Montreal, Montreal and Toronto hate Ottawa, Edmonton hates Calgary, Calgary hates Edmonton, both hate Vancouver and Vancouver fans hate everyone they think hates them – but no one could possibly hate the Jets. Could they?
"It's good for the city," says Mr. Risk, the paramedic. "It's for the people after – what has it been? – eight months of winter. It's mayhem downtown because of the Jets."
Downtown offices have changed dress codes so that workers are free to wear their Jets gear during the playoffs. The old Park Theatre is opening up to show Game 1 from Anaheim on its 10-metre HD screen. Even fire engines answer downtown emergency calls with large Jets flags tied to their back ladders.
Mr. Stambrook's family has four season tickets and he expects to go. His sister, Megan, who lives in Toronto, has already booked her flight home next week when the Jets will play Games 3 and 4 at the MTS Centre.
Back in 1996, you could pick up a ticket for the Winnipeg-Detroit series for $25. Tickets today range from $107 to $340 a game if they are available. The tickets that went on sale this week were completely sold out in five minutes.
"People are telling me it's like 2011 opening night all over again – only ramped up," says Andrew Shefchyk, Boston Pizza's director of marketing. The restaurant by the MTS Centre plays host to game-day broadcasts of TSN radio and will, of course, be packed.
"Pretend you're seven years old again and tomorrow's your birthday," says Mr. Shefchyk. "That's how excited people are around here."
"Hockey's been gone far too long," says Mr. Risk. "I was only 5 or 6 when they left, but I still remember that team.
"Quite honestly, hockey means so much to me that I was going to seek employment in another city, probably farther West. I wanted to live in a place that had NHL hockey. But then the Jets came back and I don't have to move."
Roy MacGregor