There is not much I can say about the first Jets game in fifeteen years that hasn't already been said. I was not one of the lucky ones who was there. On T.V the building looked electric, and the Jets looked solid.
My Dad, however, was lucky enough to be there. Five years of supporting the Manitoba Moose has paid of nicely for Brian Baxter, and I couldn't be happier that after fifeteen years he and my Mom are once again doing what they love to do. Going to Jets games. Well Dad also took his camera with him and got some amazing video so let's let the videos do the talking on this blog and why don't we start with the very first Winnipeg Jets goal.
Before the game even started one of the best moments of the night was watching 15,000 people singing Oh Canada in unison. Fifeteen years ago many Winnipegers thought that the United States was stealing the game of hockey from us and I think the way that the crowd belted out the song was in some ways a response to that.
If there were two players that stole the show on Tuesday it was rookie Mark Scheifele and of course big Dustin Byfuglien. Bigg Buff is a taylor made fan favorite and his center ice hit at the start of the game looked like someone skating into a brick wall. It didn't take long for Buff to irritate a few of the Blue Jackets and there were a couple fights within the first minute. So here they are.
No Jets game could be complete without the wave.
Well at the end of the game the crowd stood and cheered for the entire last minute. You would have thought the team had just won the stanley cup and this was just a preseason game. So let's end by watching that last minute in all it's glory.
Well now the hard part. For this week we've been asked to blog specifically about our experiences with Twitter. Well I can't just say that this week won't be about the Jets because I have to talk about Twitter. If this is going to be a blog about the Winnipeg Jets than taking a week off from writing about the Jets ain't gonna fly. (pardon the pun)
So, as a way to tie the two topics together I thought I'd talk about the role that social media like Twitter and Facebook had in fueling the frenzy among Winnipeg's hockey fans over the last two years. It was two hockey seasons ago that I started to hear whispers that Mark Chipman had been having conversations with Gary Bettman about wanting an NHL team for Winnipeg. It was around the same time that the bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes were struggling to find ownership that would keep them in Phoenix. The stars seemed aligned for the Coyotes to make a return trip to Winnipeg but just as quickly as the city got excited. these dream were dashed by a city council in Glendale Arizona who agreed to foot the bill for the teams losses for the entire next season.
Well this definitely seemed like a band-aid solution for the Coyotes as they still had no prospective owners and were in the red for millions of dollars. It appeared to be a matter of time before the Coyotes or another money losing NHL team would be packing their bags for Winnipeg.
and this is where Twitter comes into the story.
I began noticing that the public hunger for any information about the situation in Phoenix became so great that mainstream media sources weren't enough to give the public here in Winnipeg what it wanted. I watched in amazement as a new rumour hit Twitter and Facebook almost every day. One day it was that Gary Bettman was golfing with Marc Chipman at Cresentwood Golf Course. Another day I heard that a secret podium had been set up at the forks for a press conference. There was the teenager seen below known in the twitterverse as "epicpuckbunny" who posted a fake news release that the NHL was returning and fooled the whole city into believing that it was true. This girl even made the front page of the Winnipeg Sun for this little trick.
Then there was the moment I knew things had gotten completely out of hand. Someone on Twitter shared a link that could track if any private Jets were heading towards Winnipeg, because if there was one on it's way, than Gary Bettman would definitely be in it ready to tell us the good news. It was at this point that I realized the whole thing had gotten a little out of hand, but it also made me realize the power of social media.
It was not long ago that people got their news from their trusted anchorman at supper time and from the morning paper. If something urgent was happening they would flip on the radio. These days media is immediate. Smartphones allow us to get updated on any topic in real time. Facebook and Twitter allow us to comment on stories and get in on the conversation. Twitter is great for quick updates and links to articles. However, as good as social media can be for getting information to people it is also good at getting wrong information to people.
In many ways following the possible return of the team was fun not only for monitoring if we were getting a team but also to watch the way in which social media grabbed such a huge part of the story. It seemed like Twitter and Facebook weren't just there to tell the story but instead became part of the story.
I started out just wanting to know about a hockey team, but by following the story so closely I also learned more than I could have imagined about social media.
The last two years have been an emotional roller coaster for anyone in the city hoping for the return of the Winnipeg Jets. Starting with rumours as early as May of 2010 that the Phoenix Coyotes may be moving back to Winnipeg, the city was whipped into a frenzy, that was only fueled by rumours flying around, not only in the mainstream media, but also on facebook, twitter and by countless bloggers all claiming that they had the big scoop on whether or not the Jets were really coming back.
The funniest part of the whole scenario was that people obsessed over the situation in Phoenix, while all the while it would be the Atlanta Thrashers who would move to Winnipeg and become the Winnipeg Jets.
Well the Jets are back now and all is right in the city of Winnipeg. The last five months in the city have been arguably the most exciting months for sports in the history of the city. In one beautiful, mosquito free summer, we knew that our beloved Jets would be back to play in October and like a sweet cherry on top of our ice cream the Bombers had one of their most successful summers in franchise history.
One of my greatest memories of this new and very young Jets era was the NHL draft party held at the MTS Center on July 24th. It was such a great feeling to walk into that Arena and see all the fans decked out in their jerseys and hearing the buzz in the crowd. It brought back memories of attending Jets games at the old Winnipeg Arena. The atmosphere at the old Arena during the whiteouts was something you could only understand if you were there, and videos and youtube clips really do no justice to how loud it really was in the old barn. But hey, it's the next best thing so why don't we all sit back and watch a video of what many believe was the greatest and loudest moment in the history of the old Winnipeg Arena. Dave Ellett's famous double overtime goal.
So anyways back to the draft party--It gave us the moment we had all been waiting for. Mark Chipman went up to the podium and asked GM Kevin Cheveldayoff to make the first pick "on behalf of the Winnipeg Jets. It was all the people in the stands needed to hear and the building exploded. At that moment it was real. The Winnipeg Jets are back
It has been speculated that the True North people considered going with a different name and I can understand why. The old Jets were a money losing franchise that played in an outdated Arena and missed the playoffs as much as they made them. The old Jets also struggled with a bad reputation, as many players simply did not want to play here.
Despite all that the emotional attachment that the fans had to the name and the brand was far to great and the fans made it clear from the start that they wanted to cheer for one team only and that was the Winnipeg Jets. Calling the team anything else would have turned into a marketing disaster,as fans at the MTS Center would have been chanting Go Jets Go no matter what they called the team.
But this will be a new Winnipeg Jets. The team has deep pocketed owners and will play in a state of the art building. True North will make this a team that players will want to play for and will treat it's players and staff first class the same way they did for 15 years with the Manitoba Moose. If you have any doubts about this exciting and first class new era of the Jets just check out this video of the new jerseys being unveiled.
I can only imagine what the scene will be like on opening night when the Jets take on the Montreal Canadiens. A fifteen year wait will be released on these players and it will be like nothing they have ever experienced before. The NHL is back where it belongs and this time it's not going anywhere
