The Winnipeg Jets Playoff Berth Is A Triumph For All Hockey Fans Outside Of Los Angeles

This looks like the most fun, I have ever seen, in my entire life.

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Well, Jets fans are crowdsurfing at Portage & Main now #cbcmb pic.twitter.com/lHYua8SMvG

— Tim Fontaine (@anishinaboy) April 10, 2015

Jets fans singing O Canada pic.twitter.com/M9bZHdRUeo

— Tim Fontaine (@anishinaboy) April 10, 2015

How many American cities are there where you could successfully crowd surf after a hockey game and not hit a soft spot and plummet to a concussion? I honestly don't know what the answer is to that, but this celebration after the Winnipeg Jets clinched a playoff spot is what makes hockey in Canada great. Is there still any question as to whether or not Quebec City needs a team to call it's own? I can promise their won't be any city wide celebrations when the Las Vegas TBD's win a Stanley Cup, never mind simply make the postseason. 

As a fan of a Devils' team that fell victim to the LA Kings in the 2012 Stanley Cup finals, I should probably hate them more than I do. For whatever reason, I just don't feel that strongly either way about them. However, if you aren't a Kings fan, their absence from the playoffs is to be celebrated, especially when it benefits a fan base as proud as the Winnipeg Jets. I give credit to Southern California. It has become a much more hockey conscious region. Mostly because success breeds attendance, and two of the best teams in the NHL over the last 5 years call SoCal home. With that said, they didn't deserve a playoff berth. The team clearly didn't deserve to make the playoffs, and the fans certainly don't deserve another playoff run. 

You see those above videos? With a bunch of drunken Canucks marching around the True North? That's what being a hockey fan is about. Not jumping on a bandwagon when your team sneaks in as an 8th seed and not getting off until they are raising the cup. It's good for hockey to expand the Los Angeles region. It's good for the sport's growth, popularity, and viewership. However, another Canadian team in the playoffs just feels like poetic justice, no matter how small a victory it is. The NHL playoffs with a lack of Canadian teams is like a college football playoff with no SEC teams. It's like a baseball postseason without a Northeast representative. It just doesn't feel right. Give me all the Ottawa's, all the Winnipeg's, all the Canadians. If not for more entertaining playoff hockey than for the riots that ensue after their exodus. The atmosphere of playoff hockey is part of what makes it so special, and no one brings that intensity like the 51st state.