Spector on Jets: Honeymoon over
Posted October 9, 2011 9:33 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
WINNIPEG — Hockey returned to Winnipeg exactly the way it had left things back in ’96, with a kick in the pants by an Original Six club, and a standing ovation from rabid Jets fans after the beating was over.
“That’s pretty incredible,” said young Mark Scheifele, one of many in a dressing room full of players who could not recall being feted quite that way after a 5-1 loss.
“In Barrie when we’d lose, people would be leaving halfway through the second period. Definitely, to hear that, to get a standing ovation when we lose, it just shows that we’re going to have fans behind us regardless.”
How long will that love affair last, if the Jets play like this? Everyone knows the answer to that question. But for now, Jets captain Andrew Ladd isn’t so worried about how the fans react to this butt-kicking by the Montreal Canadiens.
Ladd, one of the National Hockey League’s fine young power forwards, is far more intrigued with how his teammates react.
“The biggest thing is you’ve got to kind of pissed off and expect more from each other,” said Ladd. “That’s not the type of team that we want to be. We’ve got to be better.”
The defence was loose, the goaltending devoid of the big save, and the powerplay powerless. These concerns, however, are the kind a good hockey city can deal with. It’s why God invented sports radio.
The good news is, kids aren’t digging out their piggy banks this morning for a Save Our Jets campaign. Rather, only young Johnny Oduya will be in search of his jock strap, after a pair of key giveaways that both resulted in goals.
“We gave up some free pizzas in the middle of the ice,” said head coach Claude Noel. “The first one… that’s exactly what good players do. Turnovers result in goals. One chance, and it’s in the back of your net.”
Montreal’s Mike Cammalleri hushed a sold out MTS Centre with an early snipe, and it was 2-0 early in the third when Nik Antropov hacked a loose rebound in behind the entirely dominant Carey Price. Then came the call on which this game turned — an undeserved interference penalty to Dustin Byfuglien that quickly resulted in a powerplay goal and a 3-1 Montreal lead.
Yes, Jets fans. When you get the National Hockey League back, you also get its referees.
“It was a weak call,” said Byfuglien. “I had no clue where I was and he’s the one coming towards me. It’s hockey now. There’s nothing we can do about now.”
With Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the house, Winnipeg fans got a dose of their own new austerity program. The goals were few, the saves fewer, and the powerplay makes you want to Go Green, putting up an 0-for-7 on Winnipeg’s big day.
“I feel very, very fortunate,” co-owner Mark Chipman said before the game. “I’m just glad people feel so good about this.”
He spoke of a Winnipeg that, after losing its team in ’96, “didn’t just wallow in self-pity, and roll up the sidewalks.”
They built a lovely little ballpark down at The Forks, then hosted the Pan-Am Games in ’99 and knocked it over the fence, with Stubby Clapp and Team Canada taking the country’s sports pages by storm. Then they built the cozy MTS Centre.
“I hope this is another chapter,” Chipman said, “in that collective act of will.”
There is, however, a fine line between important and impotent.
This is last year’s Atlanta Thrashers, remember. A 12th place team in the East; an 80-point team that finished five points south of the Maple Leafs. Nobody really noticed its faults in Atlanta, of course, but on Thanksgiving morning in Winnipeg they’ll be carving up the Game 1 performances of Oduya, Pavelec, and even Scheifele, like a Butterball.
Yes, you Jets players, with the astounding crowd comes the suffocating introspection. With the adulation, comes the conversation.
“A lot of us aren’t used to it,” winger Chris Thorburn said of the ovations the Jets received for most of Sunday evening. “But at the same time it creates a lot of good energy for us. We’ve just got to learn to funnel it in the right direction and use it to our advantage.”
They’d better. Ovations after 5-1 losses won’t last very long.