I grew up a Jets fan. It’s true, I know. Hard to believe, isn’t it? Well, I grew up not a Winnipeg Jets fan, but a New York Jets fan. The correlation is important, I’m certain.
The Winnipeg Jets have done a lot in just a few short years. It took me a long time to find Tampa Bay Rays fans, and I certainly never saw any Tampa Bay Devil Rays fans.
In about ten years, they managed to meld into the league and the novelty was gone. The Winnipeg Jets have reached that point, basically. The Rays did it by ditching the ‘devil’ and making it to the World Series.
You could say the devil was in the details. Also, I’m not going to say that the removal of this devil magic propelled (Jets pun, you’re welcome) the team to relevance, but we gotta give some credit to the Big Guy.
Where was I? Okay, so my dad doesn’t really like hockey. Can’t get into it. He’s always been moderately interested, and, being from New York, a Rangers fan. As was (am?) I growing up. It all started with NHL 2001, I believe.
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My father bought us a copy and installed it on his computer for us. We had a fighter-jet style joystick, and, of course, played almost exclusively with the blueshirts. I remember even having a favorite player, Theo Fleury. Love that guy.
The Thrashers were in it, but this was before Dany Heatley and Ilya Kovalchuk. Not a whole lot to care about there. But ten years after that game, the Jets were reborn. Risen, not unlike a Phoenix (get it?), if you will.
And 2010 is about when I really got into hockey. The Rangers were on the verge of being really good, and the Yankees were about to hit a lull in their dominance (they were just coming off of a WS victory).
I was out of high school, college is a lot shorter, and I wasn’t working very often. I had time. And I filled that time with the most exciting damn sport I know of. EA’s NHL series became a staple. Oh, also, it gave us perhaps the greatest Vine (RIP) of all time.
But I’m into hockey, I’m watching the Rangers lose in the SCF to the LA Kings (HATE THE KINGS). Side note, Ilya Kovalchuk going to the Kings made all of them very easy to hate.
Enter the Jets. I’m doing a fantasy draft at my buddy’s (and one of our contributors) apartments. I have never played fantasy hockey. It’s roughly 2011. Yes, I backtracked. The Rangers lost in 2014, but I had to bring that up.
I’m doing a draft. I need a defenseman. I see someone who can play both the wing and defense on this fantasy league. I’m thinking in my head, “This dude is going to be getting reps at forward, and thus forward points totals, and he’s blueline eligible, this is a steal”.
So I turn to my buddy, and I ask him who Bye Fug Lee En is. Dude laughs in my face and says, “oh, Dustin Byfuglien“, but, you know, pronounced correctly. We proceed to have a 10 minute debate on whether or not he’s playing a joke on me, and that culminates with my ordering a Byfuglien shirsey, which I still have. Love that thing.
I also drafted Byfuglien, and while I remember being disappointed by his point totals, I fell in love with his style. Bada boom, bada bing, I’m following Winnipeg any chance I get. I adopt them as my second team. I realize I don’t have an ending for this story and blather on for another ~75 words.
So, I’ll leave you with the second reason I fell in love with this team. And it’s not pretty, so I’m just going to link with the photo. It’s okay. Sports are fun, it’s easy to forget that sometimes. Enjoy yourselves, and pick up the phone.