Year One: Bill Of Materials
I love when tech blogs break down a new device’s bill of materials, so here the the BOM for my first year of playing hockey. If anyone would like a break down of brand/model just ask. I got mostly Reebok 3K series stuff though.
Helmet - $99.99 Visor - $39.99 Mouth Guard - $9.99 Shoulder Pads - $39.99 Elbow Pads - $29.99 Gloves - $69.99 Jock Shorts - $26.99 Pants - $59.99 Shin Pads - $44.99 Stick - $89.99 Skates - free from friend Jerseys/Socks - free from friend
Total: $511.90 before taxes
End result: one utterly unexperienced player. I won’t even be calling myself a hockey player for at least a season.
I have also set my aspirations for this season at 2 goals, 2 assits.
Jory
Embrace the Fuck-Ups
I didn’t want to write about the crowd, or the atmosphere. That has been hashed over for the last three months through numerous Gary fucking Lawless articles and TSN player interviews but I will humour one more post on the subject. Consider this a final report on the hype.
October Ninth felt like a real hockey game. Sure the crowd was insane, but that ended quickly. Not long into the first period Mike Cammalleri showed the city that we can’t just drink and yell our way to playoffs. It doesn’t matter how many Winnipeg Sun front pages are devoted to our team, we will lose if we play shitty, and on Sunday, we played shitty.
This was the second Jets game I got to see in person from section 317, and things felt a little different on the ice. We looked intimidated, and out of sync. After the first ten minutes the crowd began to realize that our hockey team is going to need more than fan support if they are going to get anywhere near the post-season.
The chants died down, and the chit-chat stopped as fifteen thousand people intently watched their team as they try and find a groove. This is more valuable, more exciting and certainly more realistic then drunkly shouting Go-Jets-Go for two-thirds of a period. This is when we get to intimately know our team, and be part of the kind of relationship only an National Hockey League city gets to have with its team. It’s like waking up and finding your girlfriend drunkenly passed out on the couch wearing the dress she wore the night before. Not the most attractive moment to be sure, but one that makes you feel special for getting to see it, and it makes you love her even more. We need to get used that feeling, and learn to love it as much as the big win, because that what makes relationships healthy: embracing the fuck-ups.
Speaking of fucking up, Montreal steam rolled us! Each and every break-away they had they showed us that finesse offence is going to be a major threat to us this season. Our defence (looking at you number thirty three) came up a little to far and left holes that were quickly filled by Montreal’s speed. On top of that Montreal had their two line passing down pat, something that I don’t recall seeing Winnipeg try more than twice. When we finally did get the puck into their end there were some creative moments from behind the net and out side the slot but far to many passes were missed and a lot of shots went high. Players must have been gripping a little too tightly on their sticks Sunday night, and I really can’t blame them. The pressure of performing well on hockey’s holiest day must have been suffocating, and I really hope with a loss under their belts they can relax a little bit. A few games on the road is going to be a good way for the guys to gel away from the some-what foreboding MTS centre.
And yes, I meant to call our crowd foreboding. It’s easier to relax, and make the simple plays when no-one is watching, or the pressure of regular season isn’t on. Look at our pre-season performance for an example. We didn’t win every game, but we certainly weren’t trounced. I think the mental game has begun, and for better of for worse there are fifteen thousand excited, drunk and somewhat emotional men (and ladies) with a lot hung on this season. As fans I think we need to all relax a bit now, and realize we have a real team, and it’s time to treat them like one.
Jory
Dancing Gabe
I sincerely hope Mr. Langoise gets the crowd going on Oct. 9th.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeIABVrWtDQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Zherdev goes to KHL
Via TSN
“Nikolai Zherdev’s return to the National Hockey League was a short one, as Russian sports website Sport Express reports that the winger has signed a contract with Atlant Mytishchi of the KHL.”
(Source: tsn.ca)
“The Jets were lousy anyways…”
It’s no surprise that the new Jets logo is all the rage right now. After all it’s one of a few things we can actually talk about regarding our new NHL team here in Winnipeg. We can’t talk about our teams success in the playoffs or how great that exhibition game was. All we have are trades, jersey rumours and our logo. I think this lack of content is creating, to some extent, an echo chamber on the topic that will quiet down once our hockey team actually starts to play hockey. The logo is drawing a lot of heat because of this I think. It’s giving right-wingers a chance to say how much they love the armed forces and the team and giving left-wingers a chance to show how wrong it is while still asserting the adoration for hockey. I think it’s all a little much but nevertheless I will humour John K. Sampson of the Weakerthans who recently wrote a elegant piece in the Winnipeg Review on the new team’s logo design. He feel passionately about the potential of our team. I suggest you head on over to The Winnipeg Review (http://www.thewinnipegreview.com/wp/2011/08/the-new-jets-logo-a-boardroom-and-a-bargain/) and read his piece.
His recounting of that Saturday morning when so many of us got season tickets while many more sat staring at a computer screen with tears in their eyes is sincere and worth a read. It’s when he voices his concerns over a new logo that draws so heavily from a military history that I think he falters.
The new logo is considerably less subtle and less interesting. Inspired by a CF-18 fighter jet, it attempts to tie our professional hockey team directly to the Canadian Forces base here in Winnipeg, a link that was invented in the boardroom of the new team owners, True North Sports and Entertainment.
To me this seems obvious. Yes John, a boardroom did decide to go with a specific logo. It wasn’t an accident. John knows this too and continues:
Sports teams, of course, often have military implications to their names and logos, and sport as war is an understandable if overly simple simile, but I can’t think of another team anywhere that has attempted to attach itself as blatantly and directly to an existing, contemporary arm of the military. “Bombers,” and “Raiders,” for example, are vaguely militaristic names with somewhat militaristic logos. The Jets new roundel is a recruiting device for a specific branch of the Canadian military. There is an obvious and massive difference there.
He is correct that our logo draws on military connection just the same a bomber and a raider do. His assertions that the Jets logo is even more closely connected because of it’s use of a specific visual element connected with the Royal Canadian Air Force is also an astute observation, however assuming that by sporting a sweater with said logo implies above all else a strong and unwavering parallel with the armed forces is a mistake.
To me, at a glance, the new logo will imply that whoever wears it supports both the actions of the Canadian military and the politicians who deploy them.
I agree that at this moment in time the roundel with the leaf in the centre certainly draws a strong connection but I can imagine the in 1936 when our football (then rugby?) team was named the Blue Bombers it also drew heavily on military presence. It was 1936 after all! That’s one violent bandwagon to jump aboard.
Let’s look at some other teams in our league. Do Ottawa Senators fans (there are a few!) support the actions of the Canadian Senate? Would anyone take that argument seriously? Does anyone even follow senate politics? If not Senators fans then who?! After all they are wearing the sweater!
What about the San Jose Sharks? Are you telling me that thousands of San Jose-ites (made that one up) support the sometimes violent actions of sharks world-wide? It’s Shark Week right now on Discovery Channel, are all Sharks fans calling in sick so they can stay up to date on the actions of their Selachimporhic overlords?!
Academically John may be correct, but on the street a jersey is a jersey. As a team creates a space for itself in the mindset of the city, country, league, that jet and that roundel won’t run parallels between our team and the armed forces. The logo will come to remind people of the team, of the game last week, of that perfect pass or of that bullshit tripping call.
Anyways this is that last piece on the logo I am going to write until some sweaters are released. One less voice in the echo chamber can’t be a bad thing.
Possible Jets Jersey Leaked From NHL 12
With the new logo design for the Winnipeg Jets released there is very little left for year rumor mills to speculate about save a jersey design. The design that we are waiting for patiently is supposed to be under wraps until September sometime according to TNSE, however, a leak may have come from an unlikely source. EA Sports has indicated the newly minted NHL team will be in NHL 12. Naturally the developers would need jersey designs of all teams in order to have to game ready for a September release date. This screen shot found on Game Rant (http://gamerant.com/nhl-12-developer-diary-ai-anticipation-dyce-97629/new-winnipeg-jets-jersey) may be a legit rendering of the new jersey. It may of course be a place holder meant to test the logo rendering. I for one find the design a little too modern in light of the retro design. I’m hoping this is little more than a test. Time will tell. 
** UPDATE** Thanks to detective work by friend and fellow Jets ticket holder Trevor Wideman (@trevorwideman) it’s has been made clear the jersey is just the Washington Capitals (see below) sweater with the new Jets logo on it. Good.
The (2nd) Most-Intense, Most-Uncontrolled Spontaneous Orgasm Ever
Retro, clean, mature, official, historic, CIRCLE!
These are all words that could describe the logo of the new Winnipeg Jets unveiled Friday by True North Sports and Entertainment but in all honesty my first thought was thats it?! In the world of team logos bearing a howling coyote, a vicious panther, and yes, a fucking penguin holding a hockey stick the new logo certainly seemed out of place. But maybe that is a good thing. There are indeed some less than satisfactory team crests out there, though many have been retired in favour of something a little more mature, however a few remain today (looking at you San Jose).
When viewed in the remnant teal-glow of 90’s logo concepts the new Jets emblem starts to seem a lot better. It could be worse, at least we don’t have a cartoon jet bending it’s wings forward to hold a stick while a recently slap-shotted puck fills the foreground with the words “jets” burned on the front of it. Oh and the jet is wearing shades, naturally.
Thankfully we have a tasteful design that pays homage to a really cool part of Canadian history, the Royal Canadian Air Force. Now, I am not one for militarism, and I will never say “support our troops” to win an argument, but our name is the the Winnipeg Jets. There was probably going to be a fighter plane on there somewhere. OK, so we have a jet, thats cool right? Of course it fucking is. Jets kill people, and we want our hockey team to kill people, but only certain people, and only on an ice rink. More on the RCAF in a moment.
So we have a jet and also a maple leaf. A MAPLE LEAF?! A few thousand Toronto fans must be yelling poseur from across Lake Superior. Let their voices go hoarse. Winnipeg’s strategy in assembling it’s new team has been very transparent: get guys with character and make sure they are Canadian. Toronto is going to be given a good run for it’s money in the coming seasons for who is Canada’s team (to all the Habs fans - I realize how much that sentence hurts you). We are a darling team. We always were, and now that we’re back that reputation is has increaed ten-fold. People like a comeback, an underdog. The Jets will resonant with a lot of Canadians, many of them living in city’s with local NHL teams. I think the leaf is there for a reason, and obviously TNSE and the Toronto Maple Leafs thought so too.*
Jet? Check. Leaf? Check. Ok so now we have the blue and white circles. Two thoughts, one, Mark Chipman is actually a mod at heart (fuck the rockers Mark!), or he thought of great way to gain support from Canadians across the country regardless of current loyalties. The Royal Canadian Air Force definitely has history, but even better it also has hockey history (the RCAF team won a gold medal in the 1949 Olympics) and Chipman saw a great way to latch onto that and carry it forward into a professional league. It might be hard to find an airman or pilot who isn’t rooting for a team sporting HIS logo. It’s fucking bad ass. Now if only we could get the funding the RCAF does we would be cup contenders every year. It’s also completely within the realm of possibility the RCAF-inspired background was an attempt to bait Don Cherry, Mr. Support-Our-Troops into breaking the world record for most-intense, most-uncontrolled spontaneous orgasm ever. And while upon having his assistant pull up winnipegjets.com friday morning Mr. Cherry did indeed ruin his goldenrod and flannel embroidered suit he failed to break Gary Bettman’s record the night Vancouver lost in the Stanley Cup final.
Jet, leaf, circle thing. And that’s about it. OH, the triangle cut out of the top of the circle points north…true north. Like a compass.
*The Toronto Maple Leafs granted permission to use the maple leaf symbol on their logo.
