NHL teams
Joe McDonald, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Raucous Winnipeg fans stoked to bring back the 'Whiteout'

WINNIPEG -- Former Winnipeg Jets coach Tom McVie is a great storyteller.

He's been involved in professional hockey for 60 years. When you hear his scratchy, deep voice arrive at any rink, it immediately makes you smile because you know you're about to laugh.

McVie turns 80 in June, and he's ready to have a friendly argument with anyone who thinks they're happier than he is to have playoff hockey back in Winnipeg.

For the first time in 19 years, Stanley Cup playoff action returns to this hockey hotbed when the Winnipeg Jets host the Anaheim Ducks in Game 3 of the Western Conference first-round series Monday at MTS Centre. The Ducks lead the series, two games to none.

The atmosphere is expected to reach legendary status instantly, a reminder of how important hockey is to this city, to which McVie has a special connection. In 1978, McVie had been out of a job since being fired by the Washington Capitals. It was toward the end of the WHA regular season and the Jets weren't playing well. So, the general manager of the Jets, John Ferguson, called and offered McVie the coaching job in Winnipeg. McVie accepted.

"When I got to Winnipeg, I realized what a hockey city this is," McVie said.

The Jets turned things around, reached the finals and eventually defeated the Edmonton Oilers in six games to win the 1979 Avco Cup.

"The town just erupted," recalled McVie. "It just totally erupted. I remember driving in a convertible with Fergy and the Avco Cup and I said, 'Jesus, I should run for mayor right now.' Fergy and I could have been the 1 and 1A mayor.”

The following season, the NHL expanded, absorbing four WHA teams, including the Jets.

"The town went crazy," McVie recalled. "It was just amazing. I would walk down the street and people would slap you on the back. It was really tremendous, what happened."

In the Jets' first season in the NHL, the team -- minus many key players because of an expansion draft -- went 19-47-11 before McVie was fired.

“When we won that [Avco Cup] championship, there’s a bridge that they wanted to name after me. After 15 games in the National Hockey League, they wanted to throw me off the same bridge,” McVie said.

“I loved coaching in Winnipeg. It’s one of the great hockey cities in the world,” McVie said. “When they got their franchise back [in 2011], I don't know if anyone was happier than me. I love Winnipeg. Coaching that team was hockey -- Canadian hockey."

The last time Winnipeg hosted a Stanley Cup playoff game was on April 28, 1996. The Detroit Red Wings, coached by legendary Hall of Famer Scotty Bowman, defeated the Jets 4-1. After 17 seasons, it was the last game in Winnipeg and the organization moved to Arizona, where they became the Phoenix Coyotes.

Bowman remembers that last game well.

"The atmosphere was so noisy and the fans knew the team was leaving. It was crazy," Bowman told ESPN.com. "This will be the first time they’ve had playoffs in 19 years. The Whiteout (a tradition where fans wear white to create an intimidating atmosphere) started there and it is noisy. We were lucky that game. We jumped out to an early two- or three-goal lead and then we hung on. They’re always a tough team at home. They’re still a good team now. They’ve got a hell of a team. Their crowd is really going to be into it, oh boy. Anaheim will have to survive the beginning.”

Derek King, 41, has worked at the MTS Centre since it opened on Nov. 16, 2004, when it was the home of the AHL's Manitoba Moose. A lifelong native and Jets fan, King was first the building’s engineer. He’s now in charge of the ice duties and you can see him riding the Zamboni, too. He’s also well-known throughout the league and the NHL has him work many of its outdoor games.

King can’t wait for Monday.

“The building, the city, it’s just going to be crazy,” he told ESPN.com. “It’s been a lot of years since we’ve had a playoff game with the Jets. Just the whole rebirth of the Jets and the team coming back, the city’s really embraced it, so it’s definitely going to be crazy. The Whiteout is expected to be back and it’s going to be a rocking building come Monday.”

As a fan, King remembers the last playoff game he saw before the team moved to Arizona. There has been playoff hockey in Winnipeg since the Jets moved to the desert: The Manitoba Moose played in the Calder Cup playoffs and King worked those games.

“Now I’m looking forward to my first playoff game with the Jets and it’s definitely exciting,” he said. “I don’t think we’ve heard a crowd this loud that we’re expecting. There’s a bit of nerves and stuff like that too, but it’s definitely going to be an exciting moment on Monday.”

The legendary "Winnipeg Whiteout” will be back in full force for Games 3 and 4 on Monday and Wednesday. The fans are beyond passionate. It also helps that capacity at MTS Centre is only 15,015, which makes it the smallest building in the NHL.

“The Whiteout is going to be huge,” King said. “Every since the team made the playoffs, it’s been the talk of the Whiteout and that was something that was started back in the original Jet days. The city’s going crazy with it. White T-shirts, white sweatshirts are flying off the racks. It’s going to be pretty crazy come Monday.”

Andy Brickley played 11 seasons in the NHL. Now the color analyst for the Boston Bruins television broadcasts on NESN, he played for the Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, New Jersey Devils, Bruins and finished his NHL career with the Jets.

During the 1992-93 season, Brickley played 13 games for the Jets, including one playoff game. He was a “black ace” with the team during the postseason, but was inserted into the lineup on April 29 against the Vancouver Canucks at Winnipeg Arena.

“So, you’ve got to picture it, it’s ’93 and I’ve been a pro for over a decade," Brickley said. "I had played in a Stanley Cup final in ’90, so I thought I knew what playoff hockey, and that kind of experience, was like. But [Winnipeg] was totally different. The Whiteout that they talk about, it was an older building, it didn’t have the three decks, didn’t have all the luxury boxes and everybody was right on top of the ice, so it was close proximity by the fans and it was an absolute sea of white. It was incredible. Every person had white on and the volume, the decibel level was sickening, in a good way, deafening is the best way to put it.”

Brickley scored a goal and added an assist in a 4-3 loss.

“And the ice itself. When you played in Edmonton at that time, and Winnipeg, the ice was fabulous," Brickley said. "It was hard and fast. Then you have that energy and it’s a playoff game and what was at stake. It was an elimination game for the Jets, and for a guy that was a black ace to get into that lineup that night it was totally unexpected and totally thrilling. You felt like you were 20 years old again. That’s how I felt before the puck even dropped, and then to actually play the game in that environment with a really good rivalry between Winnipeg and Vancouver, it’s a memory for a lifetime.”

Because Winnipeg lost its NHL team and then got it back -- especially now with the way the team played down the stretch to earn a postseason berth -- Brickley doesn’t expect the atmosphere to be any different Monday night than it was when he played.

“Exactly the same,” Brickley said.

The old barn is gone. The love for hockey never left. Monday, it will be on hockey’s big stage once again.

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