Kyle Connor’s hat trick made the game’s finish worthy of the tribute that started it. And the tribute that started it — as Teemu Selanne and Teppo Numminen were inducted into the Jets Hall of Fame on Thursday — reminded us how greatness is adored in Manitoba.
When Numminen was brought onto the ice with his family before the game, the crowd roared its approval and rose to its feet. It found extra decibels as Selanne was introduced — before he even made it onto the ice. The applause continued through the ceremonial faceoff, the banner raising — No. 27 for Teppo, No. 13 for Teemu — and Jets anthem alumnus Jennifer Hanson’s rendition of “O Canada.” The applause of tribute is different than a spontaneous, mid-game eruption, but the volume was reminiscent of the whiteouts of old.
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It was a reminder of what Jets fans are capable of in the presence of greatness and Connor, whose hat trick assured Winnipeg a 3-2 victory over Anaheim, understood the connection.
“It’s definitely worth celebrating,” Connor said when asked about “greatness” being celebrated by Jets fans. “I know we got to experience the whiteout in the playoffs and there’s nothing like it. It’s what our goal is: to be in the playoffs and to make a good run. It’s at the highest stage, highest level of hockey, and you just feel it in here and there’s just such a buzz in the city when you get to that moment.”
The Jets haven’t gotten to enjoy a full playoff atmosphere since 2019’s first-round loss to the Blues. The Jets fell short in 2020, losing to Calgary in the qualification round, but that was in the Edmonton bubble. They qualified for the playoffs in 2021, sweeping Edmonton in the first round, but fans weren’t allowed in the building in Winnipeg.
Remember the stunning three-goal comeback from down 4-1 to a 5-4 overtime win in Game 3 against Edmonton in those playoffs?
“It’s just too damn bad our fans weren’t in the building because that would have been something,” Blake Wheeler said at the time.
“I couldn’t even imagine what the arena would have been like with fans,” added Josh Morrissey.
“I can’t even imagine, if this building was full, how crazy that would have been,” said Mathieu Perreault. “The roof would have come off this building.”
If the pandemic robbed Winnipeg of that opportunity in 2021, the Jets’ own miserable season was to blame in 2022. The Jets want desperately to get back to the playoffs and have done themselves favours on that front so far this season. Thursday’s win means Winnipeg is off to a 10-4-1 start, good for second in the Central Division while carrying the NHL’s fourth-best points percentage.
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Yes, it took some early-season goaltending heroics. No, Winnipeg didn’t push Anaheim out of the rink the way you may have hoped.
But the Bownaissance is real and it is ongoing.
“One thing the coaches have done great this year is make adjustments during the game,” Mark Scheifele said of Winnipeg overcoming moments of poor puck management to assert its own game. “Obviously, teams pre-scout and each team is making adjustments as the game goes on and they’ve been great in between periods at showing us new things and helping us out. Guys have bought into that system. We’ve played fast. We know when we make mistakes and we try not to duplicate them. Tonight was a prime example of it. Obviously there were mistakes made but we have guys battling back and we just stuck with it.”
Scheifele’s reclaimed joy levels and his willingness to discuss mistakes aren’t the reason for Winnipeg’s resurgence but they’re certainly a symbol of it. His 10 goals and four assists in 15 games certainly don’t hurt, either.
Nor do Hellebuyck’s 13.3 goals saved above expected (as per Evolving Hockey), which are good for second in the league.
Or Morrissey’s team-leading 16 points in 15 games, Adam Lowry’s resurgence, improvements from Brenden Dillon and Nate Schmidt or Wheeler’s apparent ability to set his loss of captaincy aside and show himself to be a team first leader from the second line.
It’s important to acknowledge that Winnipeg has a tough stretch of schedule ahead of it, playing almost every other day from now through the All-Star break. The Jets have consecutive days off on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 and three days off at Christmas, but otherwise they play with stunning frequency. If they keep winning, fourth-best points percentage will turn into an actual fourth-best record in terms of standings points.
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And there are cracks that emerge from time to time. The in-game adjustments Scheifele spoke to Thursday were necessary because Winnipeg kept giving the puck away at or near the offensive blue line. Anaheim nearly stole the game when Trevor Zegras answered Connor’s second goal, tying the game 2-2 before Scheifele teed Connor up all over again for his third goal. On Saturday, Calgary was able to suffocate Winnipeg’s attempts to generate offence late in the Flames’ 3-2 win.
Being better is not the same thing as being great.
Let’s go back to that word, by the way. Great. There is a reason it’s so easy to attach “greatness” to Selanne and Numminen — and it’s not entirely the 76-goal rookie season, the stalwart defending or the over 3,000 regular season and playoff games the two of them combined for over the course of their careers.
It’s in how they carry themselves. More specifically, it’s the way they speak to Winnipeg about Winnipeg.
“I always said I’m very proud and thankful that I started here,” Selanne said Thursday. “Hockey means so much for this city and when you realize that, you just really appreciate what you do. I always said if you treat people well here, and you play well as a hockey player, you’re going to be a king here.”
Later, after joking about 2 a.m. hotdogs outside the old Palomino Club on Portage Avenue, Selanne doubled down on Winnipeg’s community.
“I always said there is a reason they call it friendly Manitoba. People really look after each other here and want to make sure everybody is doing well. When everyone pitches in, that’s Winnipeg. People can be very proud of what they’ve done here and how they live the life, and how they look after each other here,” he said.
The ability to see a person, a city — or, in this case, an entire hockey-loving province — the way it most wants to be seen is a true gift. Selanne spoke to a province in the way that the province would most ideally like to see itself, giving that gift right back to the people who adore him.
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That’s part of greatness. And, on that front, Numminen has no equal.
“The team spent a lot of time together off the ice as well, because it’s a smaller city and everybody lives close by,” Numminen said of connecting to Winnipeg as a city. “So it was easy to get together. When you do that, you get involved with the community and the people around you. Then you find out who you’re going to play for, and you have to have a reason who you play for. You get to know your city and your community and people around you. That really made the teams stronger and closer on the ice as well.”
Numminen has said many times, including here at the site, that the Jets are still his team, and that leaving Winnipeg was genuinely difficult for him.
“For me, it took me a while to — because you have a reason to play,” he told The Athletic in 2018. “You play for the fans, you play for your friends, you play for the city. For me, it took me half a season to figure it out again. I guess that was the first time I really thought about who you play for and why you play and for what. Before, it was just natural — you play for the team and you didn’t realize that yeah, you play for your neighbours, you play for your city, you play for your team. And then you go to a new place and, you know: ‘Who do I play here for?’ Before, it was so natural just to be in Winnipeg and to be (in Tampere) — of course, you play for your community.”
These values are remarkable in any era — they were so well appreciated by Winnipeg in the ‘90s — and are worth highlighting now. The times may have changed, often for the better, as Numminen joked about the improvements to the facilities at Canada Life Centre versus the Winnipeg Arena, but people still want to be treated like people. They still want to be seen, valued and celebrated as Selanne and Numminen celebrated Jets fans on Thursday. They want to feel connected.
I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a hockey player speak to the idea of playing for their neighbours, their city, their community, with as much passion and articulation as Numminen does every single time he speaks to Jets fans.
That is greatness, and it’s why Canada Life Centre serenaded Numminen and Selanne with the kind of applause that typically requires playoffs and a whiteout. It was a reminder of what Winnipeg is capable of as a crowd when it truly adores someone. Connor noticed it. Scheifele noticed it too.
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Rick Bowness certainly did — and he put greatness in perspective with tremendous class himself.
“The organization did a great job,” Bowness said. “It was first class. This organization does everything right, everything well. It’s a first-class operation and it showed tonight. I wish I had coached Teemu a little longer but we sent him back to Finland one year after training camp. I worked with Teppo here and in Phoenix. You couldn’t work with a finer gentleman and a better hockey player than Teppo. I was very happy for them, very proud of the way the organization handled it. It was first class tonight, as it should be with those two great individuals.”
(Photo: Terrence Lee / USA Today)