The praise for the Winnipeg Whiteout continues: Jets get a mention from ESPN’s Pat McAfee
3 days ago
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Ah, the Winnipeg Whiteout… one of the best fan spectacles that you will see, especially come NHL playoff time. By now, the Whiteout has been heard and seen around the league for various Jets playoff runs, but this year it seems to be getting even more attention. Of course, you can’t forget to mention the rocking viewing party going on outside Canada Life Centre, but it’s inside the stadium where this unreal experience is taken to a whole other level. After game 1, the praise online poured in for the Winnipeg Whiteout, including from ESPN’s Pat McAfee on “The Pat McAfee Show”
That video was McAfee’s original reaction to the crowd at the Jets game 1 posted yesterday morning. McAfee opens this clip of this segment of his show by saying that
“My big takeaway was that Winnipeg barn was phenomenal, the game was incredible. Across the board, NBA, NHL, home teams are 14-0, so I think fans showed up everywhere, but this one will be talked about for years.”
Prior to this clip gaining attention from Jets fans, there was another moment from the show where McAfee mentioned how he would have absolutely no clue where Winnipeg was located if he was given a map of Canada. But that’s okay, you can’t really blame the guy, Canadians also generally struggle with the rather complicating American geography. McAfee continued his praise on their hockey team, which has come to be a big part of Winnipeg’s identity.
Joining McAfee on yesterday’s show was ESPN’s Steve Levy who went one step further in praising the Jets team, saying that the Jets have some great players and the best goalie in the NHL. He even mentioned that the Jets could be a sleeper team this year for winning the Stanley Cup. How’s that for some additional praise for a team that probably is very rarely even mentioned on ESPN in the regular season?
Fast forward to today, and it appears that Pat McAfee did some research on Winnipeg and the Jets, and it seems the Jets have gained themselves a new fan. After McAfee showed off his new custom Winnipeg Jets home jersey with McAfee #1 on the back, McAfee said this about the Jets:
“Couldn’t tell ya where Winnipeg was 48 hours ago on a map, but now it’s a place that I think everybody is going to want to watch tonight. Look at that arena, it was like that for the entirety of the game.”
I guess that after today, Pat McAfee is officially on team Winnipeg for the NHL playoffs. Can you blame him though after how the crowd showed up for game 1? It’s true that the attendance wasn’t always what the team would’ve liked to see in the regular season at times, but make no mistake that come playoff time the arena will be rocking each and every game.
McAfee’s praise for the Jets continued even more today, as he just seemed to love talking about how great the fans in Canada Life Centre were on Sunday night. Talking to Sportsnet’s Eliotte Friedman, McAfee reiterated that
“Their barn the other night stole the show for me. It was must watch, just in itself. If you don’t have a sport as great as hockey being played in the middle of this crowd, I’d still watch because of how awesome the barn was.”
Pretty great praise overall, would ya say? All of this coming from a guy who is known for being a part of ESPN’s college football game day show in the fall. Ok, he’s known for much more that as well, definitely check out “The Pat McAfee Show” if you’ve never seen it before. Jets fans will need to live up to the same expectations they set in game 1 if they want to prove to McAfee that the arena can be like that on any given playoff night. I guess we will see tonight if the Winnipeg Whiteout can help the Jets take a 2-0 series lead over the Colorado Avalanche.
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