Puck-happy Winnipeg wants more from Jets

WINNIPEG -- After this city went 15 years without an NHL team, it took only six games for the reborn Jets to be booed.

In a testament to this prairie city's passionate fan base, two nights after the Jets -- who were relocated here from Atlanta during the summer -- lost to the Ottawa Senators, 4-1, the jeers rang down at MTS Centre. Defenseman Johnny Oduya and forward Bryan Little were the targets of pregame boos before Saturday's home game against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Patience? In puck-happy Canada? Please.

"It's been a big transition for sure, going from a non-traditional hockey American city to a hockey-crazy Canadian city," said Jets captain Andrew Ladd, 27, who was born in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, and played for the Chicago Blackhawks and Atlanta Thrashers. "It's what they live for here. You see the support of the crowd, 15,000 people every night, and the effect of what it's had on the community.

"Not that we gave the fans in Atlanta something to come to games for. The team wasn't that successful, but having the excitement night in and night out has been a lot of fun. Any time you're in Canada, there's pressure."

The difference quickly became clear to Zach Bogosian, 21, who was born in Massena, N.Y., and played in Atlanta for three seasons.

"Yeah, it's pressure, but it's a good pressure,'' said Bogosian, who spoke Monday before the Jets hosted the Rangers, who ended a four-game trek through Western Canada. "We've been welcomed by the community. I live five minutes from here, and when you go out, people already know who you are."

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Some of that enthusiasm is a carry-over from the original Jets, who played here first as a WHA club and then an NHL club from 1972 until 1996, when the team relocated to Phoenix.

"I used to go watch a fair amount of games," said Jim Neilson, a Rangers defenseman from 1962 to 1974 who lives here. "They had good teams, great players like Dale Hawerchuk. They were just in the wrong division. It was awfully tough to be competitive with Edmonton and Calgary there."

Neilson said the city "lost a major-league club because of the money situation -- the Canadian dollar was lousy then -- and the old rink. They just couldn't compete there either."

Since the official announcement in June that the Jets were returning, Neilson said there has been a buzz here. "But in the last year or so, hopes started to skyrocket,'' he said. "I talk to people now who never talked hockey, would never go to a game. They've inherited a middle-of-the-road team; it looks like a team who will have to push every shift."

And the fans? "Oh, they're vocal, they'll be a seventh man. It's got to keep your morale up; not like Atlanta, where they came disguised as chairs."

Jets coach Claude Noel thinks the atmosphere at MTS and around town is quite unlike that of a furniture store. "It's been pretty much a frenzy, and it led right into Game 1 against Montreal,'' he said. "I think we were a little nervous, but I think our players have really embraced the passion. They're right into it, they're very knowledgeable. They'll cheer a good blocked shot."