Jets’ return captured on film

Posted: 1:00 AM CDT Friday, Oct. 7, 2011

FRANTIC Films' Fuelled By Passion: The Return Of The Jets will air Friday night at 7 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. on CBC TV. The documentary follows the loss of the Jets in 1996 and their return 15 years later and includes interviews with current owner Mark Chipman, former owner Barry Shenkarow, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and several players.

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This article was published 07/10/2011 (5112 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FRANTIC Films’ Fuelled By Passion: The Return Of The Jets will air Friday night at 7 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. on CBC TV. The documentary follows the loss of the Jets in 1996 and their return 15 years later and includes interviews with current owner Mark Chipman, former owner Barry Shenkarow, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and several players.

HURRY UP AND WAIT: The NHL season launched Thursday, but the Jets don’t take to the ice for real action until Sunday.

“It’s a long nine days leading up to the season and it seems like you’re doing the same thing every day,” said captain Andrew Ladd. “You just want to start playing games and get into it.”

Canadian Press archives
Teemu Selanne as a Winnipeg Jet in 1993. — Canadian Press archives Teemu Selanne as a Winnipeg Jet in 1993.

“This nine days has seemed like forever,” added Blake Wheeler.

SELANNE DIDN’T PLAN ON STAYING: Teemu Selanne spent the last few summers pondering long and hard about whether to retire or return to the Anaheim Ducks.

Each time he’s decided to come back for another NHL season, but the doubts aren’t new for the sniper.

He recalls telling former Winnipeg Jets teammates Fredrik Olausson and Thomas Steen in the early 1990s that he planned on staying in North America for only three or four years before going back to Finland.

“The guys started laughing,” Selanne told the Orange County Register. “They said, ‘You’re stupid. You’re crazy.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ They said, ‘I guarantee you there’s no way. You can’t leave.’ “

Selanne will begin his 19th NHL season in Finland today when the Ducks play the Buffalo Sabres in Helsinki.

— Ed Tait and Postmedia News