I want to tell you a story. Not a fairy tale, but a true story about hockey in the west.
There was a time, a long time ago, when hockey was king… Oh no, not the Kings, but the king of sports, particularly in Western Canada.
The reason I bring it up is we just might be seeing it again. For a time in the 1980s, the three best teams in the NHL all lived on the prairies: Wayne Gretzky’s Oilers, Lanny McDonald’s Flames and Dale Hawerchuk’s Jets.
They were, by far, the best teams in the whole NHL. It was an amazing story for seven or eight years. The Oilers went to the Stanley Cup Final six times, the Flames twice… and unfortunately, the Jets could never get out of their own division, because of those two teams.
To a man, both the Flames and Oilers players talked of how good those Jets teams were. They were just a victim of geography.
I bring it up today, because again we have three of the best teams in the NHL this season in western Canada. Connor McDavid’s Oilers have won 16 in a row, and the Vancouver Canucks — not the Flames — have been atop the Western Conference for much of the season. Only Vancouver has been a better story than the Jets.
The Jets, their depth, their tenacity and their goaltending have been one of the best stories of the season. And here we are at the all-star break, when the focus changes from regular season to post-season, wondering if we are going to see history repeat itself in the west? Or are we going to see a team — a true team — these Winnipeg Jets change the destiny of the NHL in this city and make a dent deep into May and June.
This team has that talent. Now, only time will tell.
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