What a time to be a fan in WINnipeg, ‘the hottest sports city in Canada’
Let’s just put a little more emphasis on the name of Manitoba’s capital, shall we? Welcome to WINnipeg.
The city has become the envy of sports fans in other markets as its pro teams continue to carve their names into history.
The NHL’s Winnipeg Jets and CFL’s Blue Bombers are fully in the spotlight for their ongoing remarkable runs, while the baseball Goldeyes just capped a season in which they clinched their division and played for the league championship, and the basketball Sea Bears have shattered league attendance records after just two seasons in existence.
“How fun would it be to be in Winnipeg right now?” sportscaster Jay Onrait recently said on his TSN show, SC with Jay Onrait.
It’s an oft-repeated comment these days, on podcasts, websites, radio and TV sports shows, and among rival teams.
For Neal Einarson, the answer is simple: “It’s phenomenal to be a Winnipeg sports fan right now.”
He’s been a Bombers season ticket holder for 23 years, suffering through a nearly 30-year Grey Cup drought, and has had Jets season tickets since the franchise relocated from Atlanta in 2011.
Einarson is soaking it all in, but is also realistic.
“It’s not going to last forever, so we have to enjoy every moment of it.”
The Jets are off to the fastest start in history. Not their history — in the history of the NHL.
The Bombers, meanwhile, have triggered talk about being a dynasty as they head to their fifth consecutive CFL championship game this weekend.
“I’ve been going to Bombers and Jets games since I was a kid, and I’ve never seen a run like this. Winnipeg is the hottest sports city in Canada, and it’s an incredible time to be a fan,” said Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham.
Saturday was particularly monumental, as the Jets and Bombers both entered the annals of their respective leagues.
The Jets won their 14th game in just the 15th game of the season on Tuesday, becoming the quickest team to ever do that. The Bombers dismantled the Saskatchewan Roughriders to win the CFL West Division final.
“From an analysis perspective, I think it’s a big deal, because it’s almost impossible to do [what the Jets did], and usually it requires a healthy dose of luck for a team to pull this off,” said Sean Reynolds, Sportsnet reporter and Hockey Night in Canada host.
“It hasn’t taken the Jets luck to get here. They’ve been that good. They’ve been the better team, night in and night out.”
Only four other teams in the NHL’s 107 years have won 15 games by their 17th contest. Winnipeg stands alone in doing it in just 16.
“I grew up watching the Habs, with [Montreal Canadiens legend] Guy Lafleur and company, and they didn’t do this. This is incredible stuff,” said Scott Regehr, host of CBC Radio’s morning sports.
No one is scoring more than the Winnipeg Jets in the NHL, with an average of four goals per game, and no one has had fewer goals scored against them. The Jets have a +39 goal differential. The next closest is Carolina with +23.
“Not only is it going to be hard [for opposing teams] to generate chances against the Jets, because they’re so good defensively, you have to beat [goalie] Connor Hellebuyck, which is not easy to do, but now you have to worry about a potent offensive team,” TSN hockey analyst Frankie Corrado said on Sportscentre this week.
“They are a full team. There’s no weakness with this group.”
And they’re doing it by committee, rather than relying on one or two stars. Winnipeg has 11 players with 10 or more points.
If the Jets’ skaters happen to struggle at any point in a game, the league’s best goaltender has their back.
Hellebuyck is the reigning Vezina Trophy winner and a two-time recipient of the award for top NHL goalie. And early in the season, he’s making a solid bid for this third.
He just came off setting a record for the longest shutout streak for the Jets, going 191:47 without allowing a puck to slip by him until Dallas scored with only one minute and 22 seconds left to play on Saturday.
“Connor Hellebuyck is the best goaltender in the world, and it’s not really a conversation,” Reynolds said.
“If you’re a Winnipeg Jets fan, you are watching something right now … that not many fans of any team at any time in the history of the NHL have have seen. So enjoy what you’re seeing. It’s extremely rare.”
Jets head coach Scott Arniel, a former Jet who is in his first season as the team’s bench boss, said the team expected success after finishing last year’s regular season as the No. 4 team overall, but maybe didn’t expect this much, this soon.
“I don’t think I quite drew it up this way, but certainly, you know, the guys have earned every inch of it.”
It’s caused some whiplash injuries for hockey pundits who’ve had to spin their heads and take notice of a team they don’t often given enough credit, Reynolds said.
“To say the Winnipeg Jets are opening eyes would be an understatement,” he said. “It’s early in the season, and you don’t win the Stanley Cup in November, by any means. But I think everyone thinks right now it’s the Winnipeg Jets [versus] everybody else.
“No one is coming close to touching the Winnipeg Jets right now.”
As for the Bombers, they are 10.5 point favourites to win their third Grey Cup in five years, a remarkable turnaround in a season that saw them sputter to an 0-4 start and then 2-6, before stepping on the gas and going on an eight-game winning streak.
“Basically, we’re in the middle of a dynasty with the Bombers here,” Reynolds said. “But it sure does seem like someone is smiling down on this team, the way things have lined up for them.”
It looked like there was some divine intervention on Oct. 26, when the Bombers seemed set to lose to Montreal in their final game of the regular season, opening the door for Saskatchewan to possibly steal first place. Sudden wind gusts caused Montreal to botch a punt and then propelled a winning Bomber field goal from 51 yards out.
“It almost feels like the football gods out there are massive Blue Bomber fans,” Reynolds said.
They might need a little of that support again. Just one more time.
Although the Bombers have only lost once since July, the team that beat them was the Toronto Argonauts — their opponent in Sunday’s Grey Cup.
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