Times flies by for Jets Fans
This grizzled gargoyle of the media was a mere sapling of 23 on April 16, 1987, when the Winnipeg Jets defeated the visiting Calgary Flames 6-1 to (cue trumpets) win an NHL playoff series.
Another 11,327 days elapsed before the Jets — the 2.0 version — would celebrate another clincher.
A protracted drought was snapped Friday night, when the Jets (2.0 version) blanked the Minnesota Wild 5-0 to end a best-of-seven Western Conference quarter-final in five games.
The dry spell had spanned the length of my career, which did not begin on a full-time basis until Sept. 8, 1987.
And now people are asking if I am retiring, or if I have retired. Others are imploring me to retire, sometimes garnishing the request/demand with words such as ... uh, never mind.
Once upon a time, I presumed that Winnipeg had been irreversibly retired as an NHL market. The team fled to Arizona in 1996 and, for the next 15 years, it was difficult to manufacture any interest in professional hockey.
When the NHL returned to the Manitoba capital, the bar was not set especially high. I was just happy to have my team back. Every game, regardless of the outcome, was a bonus ... a happening, even.
But this season, the Jets have advanced far past the “just happy to be here” stage.
Following a 52-win regular season — the original NHL Jets did not register their 52nd victory, overall, until Year 3 — and an impressive opening round against Minnesota, the Jets are a (this is not a misprint) legitimate Stanley Cup contender.
Replace “Stanley” with “Avco” and that was once the realistic aspiration. There was a time, long ago, when the Jets captured three World Hockey Association championships, including the final one in 1979.
Then came the WHA-NHL merger, in which the Jets’ roster was gutted, and it was “just happy to be here” time again.
I remember taking a Dash Tours bus trip to Winnipeg on March 13, 1980. The next evening, the Jets were to oppose
Guy Lafleur and the Montreal Canadiens.
The deluxe motor coach was packed with Habs fans. One of the travellers asked me, pointblank: “Why do you cheer for the Jets?” (Well, Winnipeg is the closest NHL market to Regina.)
The question persisted throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s. Nobody asks it anymore.
It is now fashionable to cheer for the Jets, even though I am the antithesis of cool, and the hockey universe is taking notice.
Meanwhile, back at LeaderPost World Headquarters, the entire phenomenon is tougher to digest than a vending-machine danish.
After all, Winnipeg hockey fans have not enjoyed such a victory celebration since ... since ... since ... well, let’s check the LeaderPost of April 16, 1987.
The legendary Bob Hughes reported that the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Ottawa Rough Riders were close to exchanging quarterbacks. (The reporting was correct. Tom Burgess joined Saskatchewan, with Joe Paopao heading eastward.)
Advance Quality Electronics was selling a Clarion electronic quartz-locked AM/FM stereo cassette receiver for the low, low price of $199.95. (No GST!)
Mister Sound — “The only place to buy records and tapes,” the advertisement proclaimed — was selling “Happy Together,” by The Nylons, for $7.99.
Danny Gallagher of the LeaderPost reported that the Regina Pats’ Doug Sauter was earning $47,000, which then made him one of the highest-paid head coaches in the WHL.
The Philadelphia 76ers’ Julius Erving — Dr. J — was poised to play in his final home regularseason game.
And the Jets? Well, their 6-1 victory over Calgary was just what the doctor ordered.
On to Round 2 ...