On Furby Street in Winnipeg, a mural by Mandy van Leeuwen pays tribute to the city's hockey heritage, featuring all-stars like Jonathan Toews and Bobby Hull, and early logos of the Winnipeg Jets NHL team.Photography by Shannon VanRaes/The Globe and Mail
“Winnipeg Destiny!”
Five years before the NHL even existed, they were talking destiny at Portage and Main, Canada’s iconic intersection.
The year was 1912, and even the Chicago Tribune was conceding “All roads lead to Winnipeg” as Canada’s most central and youngest metropolitan was bustling with life and construction. “We Canadians all believe,” Dominion Magazine added, “that 1912 will be the greatest year so far, in the history of the City of Winnipeg, of Western Canada and of this Dominion.”
It didn’t quite turn out that way. The biggest political story out of Winnipeg was the province of Manitoba stretching north to the coast of Hudson Bay. The biggest Canadian sports story was George Goulding taking gold in the 10-kilometre race-walk at the Stockholm Olympics.
Jets, for what it’s worth, wouldn’t even take flight for another 27 years …
But this past week the Winnipeg Jets – an NHL franchise once lost to Phoenix, later retrieved from Atlanta – soared to the very top of the NHL standing. When the Jets defeated Chicago 2-1 on Thursday, it marked eight straight victories for the team. For a country that has not hoisted a Stanley Cup in 31 years – the 1992-93 Montreal Canadiens last to claim hockey’s greatest prize – this was a welcome and hopeful sign at the halfway mark of the 2023-24 season.
As a little icing to this surprising cake, the Vancouver Canucks were in second place overall midweek, with the Toronto Maple Leafs standing ninth in the 32-team league, the Edmonton Oilers 20th, Calgary Flames 24th, Montreal Canadiens 25th and Ottawa Senators a lowly 30th.
Nikolaj Ehlers of the Jets celebrates a third-period goal against Petr Mrazek of the Chicago Blackhawks on Jan. 11.John Woods/The Canadian Press
Winnipeg is an unusual and unique city, much disparaged by those who do not live there, much loved by those who do. Outsiders love to call it “Winter-peg,” yet as The Globe and Mail’s Shannon Proudfoot wrote recently, the city “punches above its weight in art and music and culture and restaurants.”
The city has one of the country’s most charming gathering spots at The Forks, where the Red and Assiniboine rivers join. It has Assiniboine Park Zoo. It has the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, a glorious art gallery with an Inuit art centre, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, a symphony orchestra, the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre and, most recently, the country’s first First Nations premier in Wab Kinew.
The city is also, to repeat, in first place in the NHL standing.
It is more than half a century since the original Jets of the World Hockey Association signed NHL superstar Bobby Hull to a million-dollar contract at the corner of Portage and Main. The WHA merged with the NHL in 1979 and the Jets, often struggling with attendance and with an aging arena, left town in 1996 to become the Phoenix Coyotes.
The franchise was reborn in 2011, when the Atlanta Thrashers decided hockey might be a better proposition in the northern country that invented the game. There was a new downtown rink, now known as the Canada Life Centre, and strong new ownership in True North Sports & Entertainment.
Over the many years, the team has had many stars – Hull and his Swedish teammates Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson, Dale Hawerchuk, Teemu Selanne and several others – but has often struggled for respect, and even for simple notice by the sports media that is mostly based elsewhere.
Tweets on the social-media platform known as X expressed this frustration regularly this past week:
- “The timing of [Toronto Maple Leafs star] William Nylander’s contract extension is great because it gives TSN the perfect excuse to continue ignoring the Jets being in 1st place overall.”
- “Not a word on @Sportsnet about first place @NHLJets.”
- “HNIC in Canada tomorrow night likely won’t even discuss the @NHLJets being in first place because [Toronto’s Auston] Matthews will probably have a new pair of socks.”
“We’re used to getting beat up,” says 80-year-old Joe Daley, a goaltender with the original Jets of the 1970s and today owner of Joe Daley’s Sports and Framing on St. Mary’s Rd.
“If it isn’t mosquitoes it’s 30-below weather. We’re always going to get beat up but it’s nice to be sitting in the standings where we are. It’s nice to see Vancouver up there, as well. The scribes now have to talk about Canadian teams doing well – not just about whether Canada will ever get another Cup.”
Patrons listen to sports commentary at the Yellow Dog Tavern on the night of the Jets-Blackhawks game.
There remain weeks and even months to go before the Stanley Cup playoffs begin, but “Canada Destiny” is at least a possibility in 2024. That the Jets are within that realm is a surprise, particularly to those who only months back saw a team on the verge of yet another rebuild.
A year ago, the team had no captain and a new coach in Rick Bowness, who had both played for and coached the first edition of the Jets. Now, nearly 40 years after he left the ice for coaching, Bowness has stood behind the bench for more NHL games than anyone in history. Next month, he’ll surpass 2,700 games behind the bench in several capacities.
That number would be even higher had Bowness not taken a month’s leave in late October after his wife, Judy, suffered a seizure, fell and injured her shoulder. Judy Bowness has fully recovered and next week will undergo surgery in Winnipeg to repair the damaged shoulder. (Bowness was ably replaced by associate coach Scott Arniel, who has since returned to his regular role.)
Bowness has been head coach, associate coach or assistant coach for the Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, New York Islanders, Phoenix Coyotes, Vancouver Canucks, Tampa Bay Lightning, Dallas Stars and, of course, the Jets.
For the very first time as a head coach, Bowness finds his team in first place overall.
“Everyone is so excited,” he says. “It’s such a passionate fan base. We had good teams in the ‘80s and ‘90s, as well – everyone gets on board when you’re winning. It’s just fantastic to see. I love it.”
Jets coach Rick Bowness looks on in the third period of a game against Colorado last month.James Carey Lauder-USA TODAY Sports
Bowness had stripped veteran Blake Wheeler, now a New York Ranger, of the captaincy and this season gave the ‘C’ to Adam Lowry. Early in October, general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff signed two key players, forward Mark Scheifele and goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, to similar seven-year US$59.5-million deals. Both would have been unrestricted free agents at the end of this season and many believed would be lost to the Jets. Scheifele is now the team’s leading scorer and Hellebuyck has returned to the form with which he won the Vezina Trophy in 2020. The Jets hope to get even stronger next week with the return of high-scoring Kyle Connor, who damaged his knee mid-December during a game against the Anaheim Ducks. Connor scored 47 goals in 2021-22, 31 last year and has 17 this season while missing the past month.
When the Jets defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-0 on Tuesday, it marked seven successive victories for the team, with Hellebuyck winning his fifth in a row. Incredibly, the Jets were at that point undefeated in regulation while playing teams from the Eastern Conference.
“The attitude right now is as good as it’s ever been,” Joe Daley says. “Everyone has bought into Rick Bowness’s program. This is the way we have to play.
“Heck! – I get excited watching the fourth line of the Winnipeg Jets. I don’t think there’s many who can say that. But they give it all they’ve got, every single one of them.”
“Being in first place is a challenge to any team,” Bowness says. “You are going to get everyone else’s ‘A’ team when you’re at the top. Teams don’t want to get embarrassed, so you get their best.
“I love it whenever a Canadian market does well. Vancouver … Edmonton on a roll. In Canada, the vibe of the city revolves around the team. It’s always better when the Canadian teams do well.”
“I’m ready to be a Jet for life,” Hellebuyck said when he signed his long-term contract extension, “and bring a Cup to this city – because I truly believe we can get it done here.”
Sounds like “Winnipeg Destiny.”
In the mural on Furby Street, backyard players skate toward their city's pantheon of hockey legends.
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