Its nearly time for the Whiteout.....

Winnipeg is white for 6 months of the year and ths year that is set to continue.
No. this isnt another moan about the weather and the snow. This is about sport and one of the things that nearly every Winnipeger takes to his heart - The Winnipeg Jets.
The local sports stores are currently full of stuff like this...

Let me explain why.....

For those of you who don't know, the Jets are an Ice Hockey team who play in the NHL. This is the Hockey championship held in North America between 31 Canadian and American teams.

Every year after 82 games are played, the top 16 teams qualify for the playoffs, where they play in best-of-7 knockout games until the ultimate winner takes home the coveted Stanley Cup.

Me with the Stanley cup from a visit to Toronto in 2011.

The Jets are part of the lifeblood of this city and even more so after returning here from a 15 year absence...

The original Jets were based here between 1972 and 1996 until the franchise ran short of money, was bought out and moved to Arizona to became the Phoenix Coyotes.
The people of Winnipeg were gutted to lose their team, but they have good memories.

The peak of these memories was the Winnipeg Whiteout. This is a tradition that occurs when the fans wear white to home playoff games, which started in 1987 as a response to the Calgary Flames fans wearing Red (The C of red)

Being Winnipeg though, with the official loudest fans for Hockey and for Football, the Whiteout was much bigger and more batshit crazy than anything any other team does. It has been a tradition ever since - It has been copied by other teams fans, but no one does it like Winnipeggers.

This is from an excerpt I found about the whiteout...

'While the Jets play off success was never that great and they never won one another play off series, (the first win came against the Flames in 1985) the passion the Jets fans had during play off games and the birth of White Noise at the White Outs became legendary and something all players talked about after experiencing.'

Here's a photo from the whiteout at the old Winnipeg Stadium, now replaced by the more modern  Bell MTS Place (Also known as the MTS Centre)

When True North Entertainment bought a team from Atlanta in 2011 and relocated them to Winnipeg, the main intersection in the City (Portage and Main)  had to be closed down because of thousands of locals celebrating. In the years since the Jets have struggled and only made the playoffs in one season.

Portage and Main  - Winnipeg Jets celebration

But in that season the fans lived up to the hype and the Whiteout was back....
This is a short video of that Whiteout from 2015. Any sports fan who has been in an arena, stadium or by a pitch side when the fans are going crazy should appreciate just how awesome this is!!

Unfortunately, in 2015, the Jets lost 4-0 and were knocked out of the Cup. But the fans knew that it was just the beginning. They stood by the team and knew what was going on behind the scenes..

You see North American Sports work on a draft system - That means the worse teams, who finish near the bottom of the standings get pick of the best young players coming through. This is what the very forward thinking team from True North and the General Manager Kevin Cheveldayoff have been carefully planning on for the last 6 years. Slowly, older players have left to be replaced by younger, stronger, fitter, bigger players.

Mark Scheifele, Adam Lowery, Jacob Trouba, Connor Hellebuyck, Andrew Copp, Kyle Connor, Jac Rosovic and Patrik Laine have all joined the team amongst others who have been traded carefully. Add these to older more experienced players like Bryan Little, Team Captain Blake Wheeler and the old dependable Dustin Byfuglien (pronounced Bufflin) and you have an almost perfect team

Patrik Laine (Pronounced Lie - Nay) has been a revelation. Only 19 years old but 6ft 5inches tall, he has scored 42 goals so far this season and is 2nd ti scorer in the league. He also has the crappest beard you have ever seen as he has a bet with his brother over who can grow the longest.

Laine and his beard.

He will have to keep growing now though as the Hockey Tradition is that any team in the playoffs don't shave till they get knocked out. So you see a lot  photos of the Cup final players sporting huge facial hair!

This is not unusual.

But back to the Jets. The big question is  - Can they win the Cup?
There is a simple answer to that - Yes they can. For the first time ever the Jets really have a realistic chance of winning the thing. At the moment they seem to be able to win any game. Over the last two nights they played Montreal and Ottawa. They led early inboth games 3 - 0. Let a few goals in and then seemingly at will turned on the afterburners and scored again. They won 6-5 and 5-4 and have won 9 out of the last 10 games.

It will be difficult and the Jets fans know that with the depth in the team, they will challenge this year and for the next 2 or 3 years at least. There are more players coming through and with the fans behind them anything can happen.

I will be watching every Play off Game if I can. Its an exciting time to be a sports fan in Winnipeg. Its a small city, but when something special is happening like it is at the moment there is a special feeling just being here. Everywhere you look you see Jets tops and fans. The bars are full for the games and since the team returned in 2011 every game has been  a sell out.  The Stanley Cup playoffs start next week with the final being played at the end of May and into June.

That's the middle of summer in Winnipeg - But I wouldn't bet against Portage and Main being closed because its covered in a layer of White!!
So if you like sport and you have the time, get online and watch a Jets game in the coming weeks. I promise you wont be disappointed.

Go Jets Go.