DubyaStep
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Tampa Has resigned Brewer to a 4 year deal and i must say, i didnt see that comming but im not surprised with Mr. Yzerman in the front office and the way Vinik runs thing. You guys must know that we are all standing back and expecting that Brad Richards will be signed at the first chance they get. i have heard on a few occasions just this week from fans "i love what they have done this year but i want to see Richy or ill be very disappointed". No, we wont riot for sports though, we will just be pouty for a while. Brad has even said "i want to be there, i never wanted to leave", you HAVE to sign guys like that, he WANTS to be here. he still live next to Vinny and he still spend most of the year in Tampa. anyways
A very neat story about what a name can mean and how people in the city of Winnipeg view the Jets. Im glad that Hockey has worked so well in Tampa, I hope i never have to feel like they do and i dont think i ever will.
I highlighted my fav part
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A very neat story about what a name can mean and how people in the city of Winnipeg view the Jets. Im glad that Hockey has worked so well in Tampa, I hope i never have to feel like they do and i dont think i ever will.
WINNIPEG?Almost officially now, the Winnipeg Jets are back.
The name of the NHL?s Winnipeg franchise will be announced Friday night at the NHL draft in Minneapolis, where the team will select its first new player seventh overall.
Thousands of fans will pack the MTS Centre in downtown Winnipeg to celebrate the occasion.
The return of the Jets name is a move that nostalgic fans have pushed for over the past month. But the idea of a Jets return brought mixed emotions from fans still grapping with what the last 15 years meant to the city.
On Friday afternoon, George Cloutier sat in the 4 Play sports bar across the street from the MTS Centre, sporting a Tampa Bay Lightning T-shirt.
?My favourite player is Stamkos,? he says, defensively. ?I had this shirt before they announced the team.?
Like many in Winnipeg, Cloutier had to find a new hockey allegiance when the team left for Phoenix 15 years ago.
It?s kind of like the movie Castaway, when Fed Ex employee Tom Hanks returns from a stranded island to find that his family has held a funeral and his wife has remarried. She still loves him, of course, deep down ? but it?s complicated.
Winnipeg is Tom Hanks? wife. The broken city moved on when the Jets left, but there was a void.
?There was a big hole in the city,? says Jason Oltrob, having lunch with Cloutier. ?It didn?t feel like an official city anymore.?
The friends agree that it will take time for the city to get back what it lost in 1996.
?I know the Jets will be back in a couple months,? Cloutier says, ?It?s going to take time to say this is our team. It?s still going to be the Atlanta team. I had to look in the paper to see who all these players are.?
Then there are those who are still reeling from the great departure. Across the street from the MTS Centre, a hotdog vender who goes by the name of Yewche, was still holding out hope that the reports, confirmed by The Canadian Press and CBC, were wrong.
?The Jets left us. Why would we want to call them that?? he says at the corner of Portage and Donald. ?There?s a lot of nostalgia ? but there?s a certain bitterness. They left us.?
But as a hotdog vendor Yewche has special insight into the general feeling of the street. Portage Ave. has been aglow with optimism since True North announced the return of the NHL, he says.
?It?s had a huge impact,? Yweche says, noting the CFL?s Winnipeg Blue Bombers recently sold out their season tickets, riding a wave of sports enthusiasm.
?We were all diehard hockey fans. This is Manitoba. We?re all totally pumped about it. There?s a different atmosphere.?
And then there are those who argued for a more provincially inclusive name.
?I think it should be the Manitoba Jets,? says Mike Baker, a Manitoba Hydro worker. ?It just makes sense. You get all that rural support. Everybody loves it, and it?s just not a city team.?
The 31-year-old is from Thompson, Man., six hours north of Winnipeg.
Jason Kressock, 23, has a different perspective.
?Everyone?s talking about how it?s going to be Jets, Jets, Jets,? he says, sporting a blue Jets toque. ?The debate now is if it?s going to be Manitoba or Winnipeg. I?m from Winnipeg, so obviously I have a bias.?
Either way, Kressock is happy. His lost love has returned.
?I?ve been a Canucks fan for the past 15 years,? he says. ?Now I can come back home.?
I highlighted my fav part
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