Fans are ready

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/10/2011 (5183 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Including today, the sun has risen 5,642 times since a meaningful NHL game was last played in Winnipeg.

A new era dawns today when the re-born Winnipeg Jets opens their 2011-12 NHL season by facing off against the Montreal Canadiens at the MTS Centre at 4 p.m. (CBC, TSN Radio 1290).

The build-up to today’s game has been unrivalled.

“It’s such a unique situation that I don’t know if it’ll ever happen again,” Jets captain Andrew Ladd said, asked if he has ever experienced such anticipation for a season of any kind. “It’s unique because of the city of Winnipeg, a smaller town that really embraces their hockey and having lost that, and now given a second chance for a fresh start over, it’s a real renewal.

“I don’t think anyone can remember a lead-up to an NHL game in their home opener like this.”

It been 16 years 2 days since there has been one in Winnipeg (Oct. 7, 1995) and in the preparations, Ladd and his teammates have been interviewed, poked and prodded non-stop since they began arriving in town in late summer.

Today, more than 250 members of the media have been accredited for the game and its surrounding activities.

There will be plenty to report, since the fan mayhem since True North’s deal to buy the Atlanta Thrashers was announced May 31 has only escalated.

Jets first-round draft pick Mark Scheifele, who was just three years old when the earlier-era Jets were bounced out of the playoffs by Detroit, four games to two, on April 28, 1996, has been amazed by what he’s seen at his first NHL training camp.

“I’ve told (my friends) this is unreal, one of the best feelings ever,” Scheifele said on the eve of the opener. “It’s just so cool that people here recognize your face.

“I was at a restaurant a few days ago and the TV was on TSN and a Jets commercial came on and the people just started chanting ‘Go Jets Go.’ That’s been just unreal.”

Claude Noel, as head coach of the new Jets, is the man in charge of preparing his team for today’s game against the Habs, a task made all the more challenging given the history and the buzz.

Noel spoke Saturday about the team’s experience with that in the pre-season games at the MTS Centre and how that may translate to today.

“It’s almost like 15 years of vented emotion,” Noel said. “As soon as the anthem started, everybody sang. It just gave you goosebumps. It’s just like they had to let it out. It was beautiful.”

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Noel has a good idea of how those emotions are likely to come pouring out again today and he plans to soak them up, in part because his mother Alice, 80, and two sisters will be in the crowd for the game.

“I won’t be missing any moments, “Noel said. “I’m walking out there for the warmup and I’ll be walking out there for the start of the game and I will smell the coffee, smell the roses, there’s no doubt.

“Life’s too short. I learned that a long time ago.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca