Landing Strip: Jets Down Coyotes in Winnipeg

How’s Phoenix? You guys doing all right? (Photo “courtesy” of AP/John Woods)

A special congratulations to the Winnipeg Jets, who closed out the Phoenix Coyotes last night with a 1-0 win at the MTS Centre. A 1-0 win doesn’t normally need to be celebrated… but, the Coyotes are actually the same franchise that left Winnipeg in 1996. The Coyotes are Jets 1 and, last night, Jets 1 lost to Jets 2. Or, New Jets. Or, just the Jets.

Then, again maybe the congratulations should go to the City of Winnipeg, who finally got their revenge on a Coyotes team that still symbolizes one of the saddest days in that city of the past 150 years (it’s up there with the death of Izzy Asper in 2003 and the construction of the Panama Canal in 1914).

To compare it to something American, last night would have been like the Baltimore Ravens beating the Indianapolis Colts, the Cleveland Browns beating the Cleveland Browns, some Vancouver basketball team beating the Memphis Grizzlies, some Seattle basketball team beating the Oklahoma City Thunder, and like an Atlanta hockey team defeating the Winnipeg Jets (aka Jets 1/New Jets/Just Jets).

(*On that note, we could probably write something up about the California Golden Seals and Cleveland Barons here, too… that whole NHL experiment in the 1970′s is exactly like everything else in that decade – it was fun when it was just acid and Woodstock, but then people got serious with cocaine and heroine and screwed everything up. It was kind of like seeing kids who party all night at somebody else’s parents house and then stay until 5 p.m. the next day.)

1-0 wins, in that case, are even better. They’re always tough games that are normally not nearly as sleep-inducing as the score suggests.

*NOTE: We are also happy to see Shane Doan (the only player on Phoenix remaining from the 1996 Jets team) get a standing ovation prior to last night’s game… it just got us even more excited for when Teemu Selanne comes home on December 17…