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The wild whiteouts in Winnipeg have been one of the great stories of the NHL playoffs, proof of the pride and passion that the city holds for its beloved Jets — Jets, 2.0, if you will.

Glance at the people, those inside the rink and the others gathered outside the downtown Bell MTS Centre for the games against Nashville earlier this week, and it looks like a grand costume party is going on. The only thing louder than some of the outfits are the fans’ voices, now generally regarded as the noisiest in the NHL.

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It’s a fantastic comeback tale, complete with many questions.

How, for instance, did the deep thinkers in the NHL ever think, 22 years ago, that a franchise would have more success in an Arizona desert than in the prairies of Manitoba?

The Jets incredible success — we’ll get to the on-ice story in a moment — also makes us wonder if what is happening there could ever happen here in Ottawa.

Winnipeg has a metropolitan population of 800,000, smallest in the NHL. The Senators, meanwhile, draw from a base of approximately 1.2 million.