Tomorrow at 7:30 the new Winnipeg Jets will face off against the old Winnipeg Jets at MTS Centre. Actually it's the new Jets vs the Phoenix Coyotes, but they are the franchise that once called Winnipeg home.
This is one of the most anticipated games of the season and in many ways one of the most anticipated sporting events in the history of Winnipeg. But why is that?
Shane Doan is the only player left on the Coyotes that played for the original Jets and after that there is are no players or management involved with the Coyotes that moved over with the team in 1996.
To understand why this is such a huge game for fans, one must understand what this city went through when the Jets left. In 1996, the NHL was fully entrenched in it's Southern Experiment. Teams had been granted to cities like Tampa Bay, Anaheim and Miami (Florida Panthers)
Back in Winnipeg the Jets were losing bucket loads of money and playing in the Winnipeg Arena which was completely inadequate for the NHL. (Although personally I loved the place)
When it became clear that the Jets were indeed going to be sold, it was originally thought that they would be moving to Minneapolis. They had lost the North Stars only a few years previous and
it seemed like a good fit. At least if we were going to lose the team they would be going to a northern city that appreciated hockey and had just lost it's team. Then the news came that the team would go to Phoenix. This is when Winnipeg fans became enraged. They were going to take our team and put them in the desert. To add insult to injuy they renamed them the Coyotes and gave them, in my opinion, the worst jerseys in NHL history.
In many Winnipeger's minds, The Jets moving to Arizona was the greatest example of Gary Bettman and the NHL ripping teams from small market Canadian cities in an attempt to expand hockey to non-traditional markets. What's even more sad is that Gary Bettman and then Jets owner Barry Shankarow had death threats towards themselves and their families.
After the team left it became an accepted fact for many years that the NHL would never return to Winnipeg, but 15 years later we have a team and they are rightfully called the Winnipeg Jets. The Phoenix Coyotes may not be the same team that left here in 96, but what the Phoenix franchise means to this city is huge. They are the Jets that left supposedly for greener and richer pastures and now they are back playing the new Winnipeg Jets. It will be an electric and emotional atmosphere at MTS Centre tomorrow night.
I'll keep the blog nice and light this week. The Jets are playing Carolina and Boston this weekend and I'm hoping for at least one win out of these two, although I would of course prefer two.
And of course the Bombers are in the Grey Cup trying to win their first Grey Cup since Vanilla Ice was topping the charts.
I do this blog because I love to but also because I am studying media at College. One of my dreams is to be an on-air personality on either radio or T.V, but one of my nightmares would be to go on air and completely lose it. That's what happens in this next clip so I'll leave it at that this week and show you the clip. You will laugh hysterically and feel so absolutely terrible for the guy all at the same time.
The weekend is upon us and it will be a very exciting one for sports fans in Winnipeg.
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are set to host the East Final on Sunday and it will be the very last game at Canad Inns Stadium after 58 years. The stadium has been the home of the Bombers since 1953 and has also hosted concerts by such huge acts as U2 and Paul McCartney. I've had many a fun time in the old stadium and will definitely miss the old place.
It's also a big weekend for Jets fans. The team has pulled off two solid victories this week and they seem to be playing their best hockey. Evander Kane looks better with every game and is so fun to watch out on the ice.
This Saturday the Jets play the Philadelphia Flyers at 2pm and many Jets fans are excited for the chance to boo Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov, who made terrible comments about Winnipeg last season. He has since apologized but I assume the boo birds will still be out in full force.
If you had told me last year the Jets would be back and the Bombers would be hosting the East Final I would have laughed at you but here we are. So enjoy the weekend sports fans. It's bound to be a good one.
Last night I watched the Jets Panthers game and was very disappointed by what I saw. A bag piper played Pipers Lament and afterwards there was a moment of silence. A few in the crowd decided to yell Go Jets Go during it.
A hockey game should be a fun and entertaining experience but we all should have enough sense to respect a moment of silence for those who have been lost in War. I realize that this was a small minority in the crowd but I just can't get my head around how anyone would think it would be cool to yell during a moment of silence.
With that being said I attended a Remembrance Day Ceremony this morning at HMCS Chippawa and was moved by both the ceremony and the number of people who attended. All seats were full and there were people standing all over who couldn't get a seat. I have never attended a Remembrance Day Ceremony before and it was great to see high attendance. People constantly say that less people care about Remembrance Day these days but there was people of all ages at this ceremony and it was good to see.
My Grandfather fought in the Navy in World War II and the stories of what he saw and went through are both amazing and terrifying. He died a few years ago at the age of 92, and I always think about him on Remembrance Day. This picture shows him both as a young man and a few years before he passed.
I grew up hearing some of the stories about what he went through in WWII and also knowing how seriously he took Remembrance Day. So enjoy your day off but don't forget what this day is about.
The Winnipeg Jets came into the 2011 season having to deal with one of the biggest circus atmospheres ever associated with an NHL hockey team. There may have never been a more anticipated NHL game than the Jets home opener. Looking back, it should come to no ones surprise that they looked so bad in that game. It is impossible to think that any hockey team could live up to those expectations.
After losses in Chicago and Phoenix, things were looking really bad for the Jets, with some people even tweeting stuff like "the honeymoon is over"or "Jets are crash landing"
Well here we are almost a month later and the 2011 Winnipeg Jets are showing major improvements, not only in the standings, but in their nightly play on the ice. I have watched every jets game so far either live or on the PVR and every night things are looking better. Players are playing their positions far better than they were a month ago and this is likely due to the guys learning coach Claude Noel's systems and buying into them.
True North bought the franchise and proceeded to clean house. Both the coach and GM were fired and new guys were brought in. It takes time for players to buy into what these guys are preaching and it's even harder when the hopes of an entire city are hanging off of the team.
Andrew Ladd is starting to show the leadership that he is known for. He scored a key goal against the Flyers with about a minute to go to win a crazy 9-8 game and also showed he's not afraid to drop the gloves to stand up for his teammates.
Evander Kane's offensive abilities are starting to show with some good numbers in the last few games and overall the offensive abilities of this team is starting to look promising.
Pavelec is looking solid in net after a very shaky start to the season and he put up an impressive shutout last night against the New York Islanders.
The Jets spent the first few weeks of the season dead last in the Eastern Conference and there was definite cause for concern. Now they sit only two points back of eighth place in the conference. It is still early and nobody should be planning the Stanley Cup parade in Winnipeg, but I like what I'm seeing from this team.
A few blogs back I wrote about how Twitter and Facebook were so instrumental in how people got their information about whether or not the Jets were coming back. Someone left a comment on that blog post that simply said "we are the media" and nothing more. I had to really sit back and think about what he was saying and for a second even thought that he was sarcastically making fun of me. Eventually I realized that in four short words he had basically said what took me over 400 words.
I believe there will always be a distinction between those who are "in the media" and those who are not. Every day, people take courses at College or University to get specific credentials to get media jobs and when many of us watch the news we often see media people as sort of pseudo celebrities who are somehow slightly above us regular folks.
What blogging has taught me is that the distinction between a blogger and a media person from a mainstream media source still exists. Brian Stelter is a prime example of this. For years Stelter ran a very successful blog but I still had a hint more respect for him when I heard he was working for the New York Times. Many reports about him being hired by the NYT, said that he had “moved up to the New York Times.” In a way this is assuming that going from an independent blog to a mainstream news publication is taking a step up.
This is merely my personal opinion but I still believe there is a different attitude towards what a media professional is and what a blogger is. There are excellent blogs out there with lots of followers and there are people who get famous from their blogs. However, starting a blog is as easy as singing up on a blog site and getting started which means that the number of blogs out there is astronomical. For every blog that catches some attention, there are countless ones that don’t.
It also seems like the competition for bloggers to get attention is so great, that bloggers sometimes sink to new lows to get attention. A great example of this is thedirty.com. This blog allows users to say awful and hateful things about people they know and also publish unflattering pictures. Some of the stuff written on this site is so hateful towards people, and I’m sure a few lives have been shattered by this site. With that being said, the site has made its owner Nik Richie a millionaire and he gets paid thousands to do appearances at clubs, Whether it's ethical or not, it is one of the most popular websites in the world. I am not saying that this is a prime example of what a blogger is, but it does give the idea of blogging a bit of a bad name.
So when we compare bloggers and mainstream media publication, the question is “are we the media? or “are they the media? There is no direct answer. We are definitely alot more of the media than we were ten years ago, but it seems like mainstream media has weathered the storm of 2009 when It seemed like the whole medium was doomed. It has survived and seems to be adapting and my personal opinion is that mainstream media is still what many of us consider to be "the media."
After 15 long years, I am finally going to a Jets game this weekend and it feels so good to finally say that again. I was at the last ever Jets game and truly believed that the NHL would never ever come back. This video shows, what most believed was the last time that hockey fans would ever see the Jets.
To be fair, the 2011 Winnipeg Jets have not looked great on the ice and I doubt that they will be a playoff contender this year. It really doesn't matter to me right now though, as I am still in the giddy that we have an NHL team stage, mainly because I thought it would never happen. When the Jets left it seemed like this city was in a downward spiral with no sings of stopping.
There was a lot not going for Winnipeg in 1996. The Jets leaving that year was just one thing that was making the city seem depressing. Portage Avenue was covered in boarded up buildings, the quirky but decrepit Winnipeg Arena was about the take in the Manitoba Moose as their new tenant, and the downtown area was just on overall eye sore. 1996 was the year I graduated from high school and it seemed like most of my peers career plan was simple. "Get the hell out of here."
Well here it is 2011 and alot has changed in this city. Downtown is still far from perfect but slowly with every new building that sprouts up, the area improves. Main on either side of Higgins was just downright depressing for years and it has come along way in the last 15 years.
Now that the Jets are back in town, the revitalization will hopefully come quicker. Professional sports is big business compared to how it was even in 1996 and Arenas have to be complete entertainment destinations, not only with whats inside them but with what surrounds them. One of the most exciting aspects of the return of the NHL will be the continued revitalization of the area around the MTS center.
A brand new state of the art hotel will be built directly across from the MTS Center and CanadInns announced that they will be re-opening the historic Metropolitan Theater as a multi-purpose Entertainment complex that will among other things show all Winnipeg Jets away games in a theatre style setting. Also the massive 4play sports bar opened not long ago and it will be packed before and after games all season along with the Tavern United. The area around Portage Avenue is slated to become a massive Sports and Entertainment Center and this will do wonders for Portage Avenue and downtown.
It wasn’t long ago after the Eaton’s building closed that this same area had been left for dead. Every second building was boarded up and falling apart. People were simply not going downtown and especially were not going to Portage Avenue, and to be fair there still not going downtown in droves but it's getting better. I started to think that the city’s downtown was never going to recover. Well thankfully I was wrong.
The return of the Jets may also lead to other Winnipeg entrepreneurs racing to open bars and restaurants in the downtown area. NHL players from the Jets and from other teams will be looking for bars and restaurants to frequent after the games and their fat wallets and their appeal will lead to bar owners fighting for their business. Winnipeg has always lacked a major downtown club district like there is in most other major cities and hopefully this will make people want to open more entertainment options downtown. The sad thing is the Exchange has so much potential to be a cool club district ,but it just seems to never work out. Hell, I'll go anywhere new if it means I don't have to go to The Pal.
Of course a huge benefit of the return of the Jets is the national and international attention that this city is receiving. When I think of any major North American city often the first thing that comes to mind is that cities major sports team. Sports franchises travel North America and take their cities names with them wherever they go. In the eighties the Edmonton Oilers put the city of Edmonton on the map by winning Stanley Cups and drawing huge crowds wherever they played. Suddenly everyone around the world knew about a small Canadian city because of the Edmonton Oilers. Whenever I travel in the states and tell people where I am from the one thing that they know about this city is the Winnipeg Jets. Sports teams are representatives of a city. Jets games are broadcast on CBC and TSN which gives the city much needed exposure. We will be seen as a major league town again and that kind of exposure and attention is priceless.
The Winnipeg Jets finally hit the ice for a regular season hockey game on Sunday, for what many were calling the most anticipated sporting event in Winnipeg's history. The hysteria leading up to this game was unlike anything I have ever seen. I saw lots of tickets going on kijiji for upwards of $700 for an upper deck seat. I also saw a pair of tickets in the upper deck going for $1600 and I have no doubt that many of the people asking these outrageous prices got what they asked for.
I have to admit I seriously considered paying a ridiculous price to go to the game but stopped myself before doing something really stupid. I wanted to be there more than anything but a three hour experience is not worth going broke for.
On T.V the atmosphere looked electric and I was proud of the show that Winnipeg was putting on for the rest of the nation. The only problem was that in many ways the Jets didn't show up. Their play was sloppy, and they looked out played by the Montreal Canadiens at all ends of the rink. The Jets definitely did not give the fans what they wanted, but by all accounts it was still an event to be remembered and a once in a lifetime experience for anyone they was lucky enough to be there.
The most emotional part of the evening was a beautiful tribute to Rick Rypien, the newly signed Winnipeg Jet and ex Manitoba Moose and Vancouver Canuck who passed away this summer from an apparent suicide.
Rypien's mother was in attendance to watch the tribute on the scoreboard and do the ceremonial face off and it was as touching of a moment as I'd ever seen at a hockey game. It is getting a bit redundant with the amount of times it gets said, but the fact is that True North Sports and Entertainment is a classy organization. Professional hockey is a business and they are obviously out to make money, but Mark Chipman always presents himself and his organization in a positive and classy way and seems to have the respect of this city.
Inviting Rypiens' mother and doing the tribute before the game was a great move by the Winnipeg Jets organization. This day was a day to celebrate the return of the Jets but they had to acknowledge that one of theirs had passed away, and they did it in such a beautiful way that I teared up watching both the tribute and shots of his mother watching the tribute.
As a parent myself I can not even begin to understand what it would be like to lose a child at such a young age and I applaud his mother for keeping her composure through the video which was emotional even for those who had never met Rypien. I was also very impressed with the way that Jet owners Mark Chipman and David Thompson and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman stood with his mom while she did the ceremonial face off.
There is lots of time to analyze why NHL enforcers are having personal problems or to agree or disagree with Don Cherry's comments about the issue last Saturday, but one must remember first that a mother has lost her son.
Good for the Winnipeg Jets for doing the right thing last Sunday and honouring Rypien's life. Once again True North has shown it's class.
Well the Thanksgiving weekend has finally arrived and any Jets fan with a ticket to the home opener has a lot to be thankful for. Barring some sort of miracle, I will not be at game one, but I am still excited for the start of the season.
Instead of doing a flowery story about how the Jets are back and it's good for the city, I thought I would profile a young man who is quickly catching the hearts of Winnipeg hockey fans. And that man is of course rookie Mark Scheifele
Well it now seems almost certain that Mark Scheifele will make the Winnipeg Jets for at least nine games. He was tied for the lead league in scoring in the NHL preseason and Jets coach Claude Noel has said publicly that he is a big fan of his talent and work ethic and that he would be schocked if he didn't make the team. Scheifele is quickly becoming a fan favorite in Winnipeg and there is a great back story to this kid, with a Winnipeg connection
Dale Hawerchuk was selected first overall by the Winnipeg Jets in the 1981 NHL entry draft. The Jets were coming off one of the worst seasons for an NHL club in history, only winning nine games in the 1980-1981 season.
Hawerchuck made the team in 1981 and in his first year in the league put up 45 goals and 58 assists for 103 points, easily winning the Calder trophy as rookie of the year.If your not up on your Hawerchuk history here's a little video to get you up to snuff.
Hawerchuck is now the coach of the Barrie Colts, the CHL club that Mark Scheifele played for last season. It now appears that Scheifele will make the Winnipeg Jets as an 18 year old, just as his coach did twenty years ago. With that being said the Scheifele pick was one that was definitely questioned by many Jets fans.
There was a weird and somewhat awkward moment at the NHL draft party back in June that deflated the arena for a moment. After the Ottawa Senators picked Mika Zibenegad, there was a eruption in the crowd from the more knowledgeable hockey fans. Sean Coutourier, a player ranked number one by central scouting at the beginning of the hockey season was still available and now the Jets had the chance to scoop him up.
When Kevin Cheveldayoff announced that the pick would be Mark Scheifele, the room suddenly looked confused and somewhat deflated. A man in front of me flipped furiously through his rankings to try and simply figure out who this kid was. Jets fans were definitely surprised and a bit worried about their first round pick. The old Jets had a history of making bad first round draft picks and some thought we were on the same course once again. You can see in this video that even the announcers for TSN were suprised with the pick.
And why wouldn't they be? Many were not so much shocked with who we picked but more with who we did not pick. When the Ottawa Senators picked Mika Zibanegad with the sixth pick most Winnipeg hockey fans believed that there was no doubt that Sean Coutourier would become our first draft pick.
Coutourier is a player who started his season in the QMJHL as the player rated number one by central scouting. At 6’4 and 190 pounds he has the size to make an immediate impact in the NHL. He played well in last years World Juniors and he had two consecutive 96 point seasons with Drummondville of the QMJHL. If he went on to have a great career for the Philadelphia Flyers and Scheifele did not work out for the Jets it could have become an embarrassment for the new Jets franchise. It was a high risk/high reward move by the Jets. However I took some time to research Mark Scheifele and really see what this kid is all about. The more that I read I started to realize that although it was a bit of a risky move it looks like it was a calculated risk.
There are a ton of positives about Mark Scheifele. One of the biggest positives about this kid is his performance in his first year with the Barrie Colts. He was selected in the 7th round of the OHL draft in 2009 and in his first year with the Colts he put up impressive numbers tallying 22 goals and 53 assists good for 75 points in 66 games. As a rookie on a last place team there is no denying that these are impressive numbers and The 53 assists show that this kid has playmaking abilities. Now Scheifele has just finished the NHL preseason tied for the league lead in scoring.
Let's watch Scheifele's first ever goal with the Jets.
I also think that his size although a bit lanky is impressive. He is 6’3 but only 170 pounds. However at only 18 years old I believe this kid will fill out and I also believe that he will work hard and undergo a rigorous training program to begin bulking up for the NHL. By all accounts he is an extremely hard working and passionate kid and he will do whatever it takes to get to the next step. He also put up impressive numbers in the world under 17 tournament last year putting up 8 points in seven games. From all reports he is a smart two way player, he distributes the puck well and he sees the ice very well. He proved all of this in the preseason.
The new Winnipeg Jets are looking to build a club that has character and work ethic. They are not interested in quick fix free agent signings as Kevin Cheveldayoff has said from the start that this is not the way to build a winning hockey club. The Winnipeg Jets are looking to draft smart and bring guys up that will have not only solid hockey skills but also good character and passion for the game of hockey.
As I said before, former Jets legend Dale Hawerchuk spoke highly of his skill and character and it was a great endorsement for Scheifefle.
Was picking Mark Scheifele a risky move for the Winnipeg Jets? Yes. But his play on the ice in the preseason is quicky changing alot of minds in Winnipeg
This week I'll be talking about the movie Page One: Inside the New York Times. I can't tie the topic specifically to the Winnipeg Jets, as that would not do justice to what was an exceptional movie. However, I can tie it in to blogging in general and the changes that have taken place in media in the last ten or so years.
The movie is a documentary showing the inner workings of the New York Times office, but also showing how social media, blogs and the internet age in general are changing the game for mainstream media publications.
The film starts with video of a printing press at work printing traditional newspapers. It was a great way to start the movie. Even though there are printing presses at work all over the world, the viewer still feels like they are looking at something nostalgic, as more as more people switch to online sources for their news.
The person in the film who most spoke to me was New York times reporter David Carr, who can be seen in the image below. It wasn't his animated personality or troubled past that caught my attention. What got me about Carr was the fact that he defends and stands up for the New York Times, and shows such an immense loyalty to his employer. I got the sense that he truly loves his employer and I was inspired by this loyalty. But Carr also made me believe that traditional media is still important.
The internet allows me to have a voice and that is one of the great things about the internet age. Without having specific journalism credentials, I can write a weekly post and use social media to get it out to people. I have had total strangers read JetFiles and comment on it, and I like that I can have a voice to discuss a subject that I love.
With that being said, I still go to traditional media first when there is a breaking news story. For the most part, I trust that I will read something true and ethical if I go to a traditional media source. Some may call me niave but I would rather go to a reputable source first and then get different angles on social media and blogs.
I believe that it is not traditional media that is dying but just traditional news that is printed on paper. As the world slowly abandons printed news, traditional media will have to find ways to make money through their online publications. The New York Times now charges for a subscription to their website but continues to be the number one news website in the world. We may not be getting our news from the paper boy anymore but I believe a majority of us are still getting it from mainstream sources
Page one taught me that traditional news media is not dead. It's just working to adapt and ensure it's survival. Ultimately I believe it will adapt and survive.
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.
When it became clear that the Jets were indeed going to be sold, it was originally thought that they would be moving to Minneapolis. They had lost the North Stars only a few years previous and
