For those unable to attend here are some pictures from the hour long practice.  Enjoy.

Coach Noel gives fans at MTS Centre some info on how he plans on running practice:

Fans making some noise:

Flight staff giving away Andrew Ladd bobble head dolls:

Dave Wheeler interacted with fans giving away prizes for Jets trivia.

Coach Noel gets mic’d up:

Still have a practice to participate in.

Coach Noel running drills as fans watch on:

Final chat with his squad for the day:

Evander Kane signs some of the Jets gear to be thrown to the crowd:

Kane throwing the hats into the crowd:

A young fan happy to be on the receiving end of that toss:

Zach Bogosian gets in on the action:

Birthday boy Grant Clitsome takes his turn:

Captain Ladd signs some hats before sending them into the crowd:

Bogosian, taking his cue from Big Buff tosses a stick into the crowd:

Buff gets another stick to giveaway and hands it to this appreciative young man:

In addition to all these giveaways the Jets gave away an Alexander Burmistrov jersey and tickets to next Saturday’s game against the New York Islanders.

The Light show is about to start:

Coach Noel draws up a drill:

Jets salute the fans after practice ends:

Video of the Jets giving away signed hats to fans:

And following the practice we caught up with Blake Wheeler who had lots to say about being back on the ice.

Blake Wheeler

Day begins with the Illegal Curve Radio show, live in the atrium of the MTS Centre:

Member of the TSN 1290 broadcast team and Stanley Cup champ Shane Hnidy shows off his ring:

Whenever a Habs fan would walk past Moxie’s he or she would be booed by the crowd:

Not sure if he was really looking to buy or using the classic scalpers move:

The amount of media on the street was unbelievable:

Some of the guys attended the Mark Chipman and Gary Bettman press conferences:

I believe this couple changed their wedding time so they could still make the game:

The Queen was in the building:

Pre-Game Skate:

On-ice displays:

Rick Rypien’s mom before the ceremonial puck drop:

During a whistle in the action:

Lots of action around the Jets net all night:

Crowd shot:

These are just some of the images that we captured.  The Winnipeg Free Press, Winnipeg Sun and the Globe and Mail have produced similar summations that we suggest you check out.

Pre-Game Skate:

There was an energy in the MTS Centre even before fans had entered the building:

The players skated out in their white jerseys to the delight of the crowd:

Jets take first pre-game skate:

If we only knew the type of performance he’s about to put on:

Big Buff was gonna give the crowd a show as well:

Winnipeg’s own Kevin Clark would have a memorable night:

1st round pick Mark Scheifele shows off his puck skills:

Shoot around:

Game Shots:

Whenever this went off (which was often) the crowd went crazy:

Game play pauses for a tv timeout:

The intensity on the bench made it feel like anything but an exhibition game:

Alexander Burmistrov has the makings of a very dangerous player for the Jets:

Big Buff doesn’t just score, he also likes to mix it up, as he did at the end of the 1st:

Jets captain Andrew Ladd starts off the 2nd period with a faceoff win:

Big Buff starts in the sin bin:

The Jackets Cody Bass was looking to fight all night and here the Jets Patrice Cormier gives him a dance:

Winnipeg’s own Kevin Clark gets a congrats from Big Buff after scoring the goal of the night:

The 3rd period belonged to the Jets 1st round draft pick:

After all the excitement of last night’s 1st Winnipeg Jets exhibition game in ages, I can only imagine the explosion which is going to blow the roof off the MTS Centre when the Jets take to the ice against the Montreal Canadiens on October 9th.

Jets captain Andrew Ladd got the boys going with a light practice:

After the jump the Jets runs some drills, have a quick scrimmage and as per your requests we got some close ups of the goalie masks for the 3 Jets tenders.

Shooting drills:

5 on 5 scrimmage:

Chris Mason Mask:

Ondrej Pavelec Mask:

Peter Mannino Mask:

On the other ice, Peter Mannino was practicing as well:

3rd round pick Zach Yuen comes out to the practice rink:

Rookies stretch before the practice:

The rest of the pictures after the jump.

Edward Pasquale faces a shot:

Carl Klingberg checks out the action:

#1 draft pick Mark Scheifele and Carl Klingberg showed some good chemistry:

Jets #1 pick Scheifele wasn’t afraid to mix it up:

And then had no problems getting back defensively:

Jason Gregoire tries to sneak one past Chris Carrozzi:

Jets rookie practice is over:

We will have the audio up from today very soon.

There were 3 levels of security before we got to the air field:

Walking out of the Hanger and onto the tarmac.

The media presence was significant

More after the jump.

The True North brain trust waiting for the Jersey reveal to begin.

The show is about to begin.

The doors to the C-130 Hercules open with music blaring in the background.

And then the Jets (Ladd, Fehr, Stuart & Antropov) stepped out of the plane.

Then they went to the podium where Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff gave an in-depth analysis of the jersey.  Which colours (Polar Night Blue & Aviator blue) were chosen and then discussed the various patch’s to be worn this season, including one for Opening Night and another for remainder of the season.

Here are some up close and personal shots with your Winnipeg Jets wearing the new Winnipeg Jets jersey.

Jets captain Andrew Ladd checks out his jersey.

We had a great interview with the Jets Mark Stuart.  He seems very happy to be in Winnipeg.  If you are looking for a player’s jersey to buy, we think Stuart is a worthwhile purchase.

IC’s Michael Remis with a 1 on 1 interview with Winkler, Manitoba’s Eric Fehr.  The conversation ran from Fehr’s impression of the jersey to his thoughts of the Toronto Blue Jays stealing Brett Lawrie from the Brewers.

Remis asks Nik Antropov his thoughts on the jersey.

Stuart and Fehr seemed reluctant to hand back the jerseys to the True North staff.

The True North flag, along with the Canadian flag flying high after an incredible morning reveal.

We’ve heard what the players think of the jersey, what is your first impression?

Just a final thought.  A special thanks to all the Air Force personal who were so friendly and happy to give us lay folks information (i.e.  what type of plane the Jets players came from) during our time at 17 Wing.

Take a drive around Winnipeg, it is easy to spot many businesses showing their support for the franchise. While the announcement was months ago, the feeling of an NHL franchise in the city is new and fresh.

Are these businesses simply showing their support for the team? Or is putting a “Go Jets Go” sign in front likely to attract new customers?

Whether for personal benefit, or for general excitement and gratitude, I have taken a few pictures of some signs I have seen around the city. I expect many more businesses to put up similar signs as October 9^th nears.

The goal of this post is to create an album with as many “Go Jets” or “Welcome Back Jets” signs as possible. I invite all of our readers to snap pictures of signs that they see around the city and tweet them to us @IllegalCurve or e-mail them to info[at]illegalcurve.com . Whenever I see a new sign I will be updating this album.

[album: http://illegalcurve.com/wp-content/plugins/dm-albums/dm-albums.php?currdir=/wp-content/uploads/dm-albums/Jets Signs Around Winnipeg/]

Here are some of the sights and sounds from the 2011 NHL Entry Draft:

Claude Noel takes podium as first head coach in Winnipeg Jets 2.0 history:

Post podium media scrum:

Listen to our interview with head coach Claude Noel here

Ez interviewing Assistant GM Craig Heisinger:

Listen to the audio of the interview with Assistant GM Craig Heisinger here

More interviews and pics after the jump.

Interviewing GM Kevin Cheveldayoff:

Listen to the interview with GM Kevin Cheveldayoff  here

Stay tuned to Illegal Curve as we are live from the NHL Entry Draft at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota!

While I continued to watch from afar, I didn’t see another significant (I’ve erased a Ducks/Flames game I saw in 98 at the Honda Center from my memory) live game until  Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals in Calgary, which goes down as one of the most exciting games I’ve seen.  Double Overtime and a possible Stanley Cup winning phantom goal aside, the best part were the chants of ‘Go Jets Go’ that were elicited by the Jets gear we wore in Calgary.

We’ve all spent months/years reading and writing all things ‘Relocation’ so let us fast forward to May 31st, 2011.  A day that will live on in the memories of people in Manitoba for years to come.  Just as we never forgot the day when the Jets left, this day too will be added to the lexicon of Winnipeg NHL lore.

I’d like to say it started like any other Tuesday, but it didn’t.  In fact it began with furious BBM’s from IC contributor Ezra messaging me “Geronimo” which was the IC codeword (in case the Russian signal breakers were reading our BBM chat) for ‘the press conference was a go’.

At that point we launched our Breaking News: NHL hockey returns to Winnipeg and Illegal Curve is your #1 source for hockey news in Winnipeg post.   As with any major announcement, most people remained glued to their television sets at home, or were online at the office or live at the Forks to watch the announcement.  In case you missed it, here is TSN’s recap (video).

The Radio show crew headed down to Tavern United beside the MTS Centre to prepare for a monumental and marathon day which would see them spend about 8 hours on Sports Radio 1290 with Hustler & Lawless as well as a number of other radio personalities.

Remis snapped some photo’s of the scene at Portage & Main from his office high above as a street hockey game broke out at Manitoba’s most famous intersection.

We also headed to the Forks to take in all the action.

Was able to catch a speech from #25 Thomas Steen which had the crowd revved up.

Saw Winnipeg’s version of the Green Men, the solo Red Man.  Wonder what Method Man thinks of Redman’s new unitard.

Click read more to see Conservative leader Hugh McFadyen make a Jet appear and the remainder of the days events.

Of course best trick may have gone to Provincial Conservative leader Hugh McFadyen who manged to call in the Jets (literally).

After hanging at the Forks we re-joined the guys at Tavern United to witness part of the day long radio show.

The party at Portage & Main was still on-going by the time we headed for home.

And that in a nutshell is how we spent the day witnessing and participating in the NHL’s return to Winnipeg 15 years after our Jets departed for the desert.

How will you remember one of the best days in recent Winnipeg history, and a day that will long be remembered not just in this province but across North America.  Feel free to let us know how you spent the day in our comments section.