Perhaps even more important than what Winnipeg did on the ice this summer is what they did off the ice. Ok, not perhaps, it definitely was because if there was no off ice work there couldn’t have been any on ice work.
To be honest this post doesn’t need much analysis. After 15 long years we finally got a hockey team. The plug was pulled on the embarrassment that was the Atlanta franchise (sorry Thrasher fans but it’s true) and packed up and moved north. Then, after much deliberating, TNSE decided to go with the Jets as a name, which resulted in one of the best draft moments in recent memory.
In setting up the new organization, TNSE basically told a lot of the old Thrasher employees that they weren’t welcome. I am sure a lot of people think it was callous and a little unfeeling, but it doesn’t bother me at all that TNSE wanted to bring in their guys, and it’s pretty obvious the Thrashers weren’t run well, so the more changes that were made, the better.Next came the logo. I’m on board as liking them. Some people wanted to go with the old logos to join up with the old name, but the team of course has to sell jerseys and other merchandise, so a new one was necessary. Some opponents have argued that the logo is a bit militaristic, a position that has gotten some backlash from the mainstream media. In an upset, I agree with the mainstream media. To me the logo is nothing more than a nod to the industry in Winnipeg, and a modern update to the logo. On the list of words I think about when Canada is mentioned, “militaristic” is about 10,000th on the list.
Despite a lot of things happening both on and off the ice for the Jets, the big ones were that we have a name, a logo and an actual hockey team. Oh yeah, and that we sold out our season tickets in about 20 minutes. The MTS Centre is going to be rocking October 9th when the Canadiens come to town, and while I don’t expect a playoff push from our boys, the fact that we can call them our boys again more than makes up for it.