A significant contingent of the Winnipeg Jets are set to attend Morgan Wallen's One Night at a Time tour Thursday evening.
Hockey and country music go together like Bonnie and Clyde, Tim and Faith, and dare we say, Taylor and Travis?
For many core members of the Winnipeg Jets, the country music scene is nothing new.
Defenceman Brenden Dillon, for instance, was raised on it from the workings of his mother. Captain Adam Lowry? Well, let's just say he has a Garth Brooks story or two to share around the bonfire pit. Forward Mason Appleton? Yeah, he's a self-proclaimed Kenny Chesney guy.
So with Morgan Wallen - AKA the biggest name in country music - hitting the floor at Canada Life Centre on Thursday evening in a show that has been sold out since tickets went on sale, the majority of players making up the Jets' roster plan on setting foot in the team's private box for what is looking like a Dangerous evening filled with Cowgirls and quite possibly some Whiskey Glasses.
"You better believe I'll be there. I think the whole team is going," Appleton told The Hockey News.
"He’s one hell of a performer," the Green Bay, WI. product said. "Most of the team is going tomorrow night, so it should be a blast. We’ve got dinner before and then we’re all going to go to the concert after. We’re just all gonna be jammed in one of the press boxes. We’re a bit tucked away up there, but it should be good."
For the veteran Dillon, it's Wallen's newer pieces that really hit the right notes for the country music lifer.
"I could chat all day about country music," Dillon laughed.
"I’ve listened to Morgan Wallen for a while now. I think it’s great that he’s coming and it’s awesome that it sold out so quick. We’ve had it playing in the dressing room the last couple days here before the show, so the boys are all ready to go."
With his country roots tied heavily to his hockey career, the 32-year-old can think of two instances from his youth that really helped shape his current interests.
"My mom is a big country listener," he reflected. "So when I was growing up, if I was driving with my mom to hockey we would be listening to country music. Then, when I was 16, I vibed with a couple Calgary guys on my WHL team in Seattle, and next thing you know I’m going to the Calgary Stampede to visit them. I think all four years of junior I went out there and spent a couple weeks at their place and went to the Stampede. Country music is fantastic."
Speaking of the Calgary Stampede, both Josh Morrissey and Adam Lowry made their respective ways to the greatest outdoor show on earth once again this offseason. According to Lowry, the tradition started at a very young age.
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"I think the country music was even before we moved to Calgary," Lowry said. "That’s what my dad listened to, so sometimes you are just kind of drawn to the artists. Alan Jackson, Toby Keith, that’s where it all started for me. My old man is a big country music fan, a big Garth Brooks fan."
Lowry's father Dave - who played 19 seasons in the NHL and actually coached the Jets in 2021-22 - once even had Brooks don a sweater in his likeness on stage in a Florida show.
"One of the highlights for him is the time that Garth Brooks came out in one of his game-worn jerseys," the Jets captain said. "Like this thing was heavily worn; there was blood on it. He was playing the piano and opened the show with 'The Dance'. Garth had said at the time that he had never been given any game-worn stuff before. It's usually just a shirt or jersey with his name on the back, so he thought that was pretty cool."
As to whose jersey Wallen may be sporting at Thursday night's show is anyone's guess.
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The last time the now country music superstar rolled through Manitoba was in October of 2019, where he and Jameson Rodgers opened for Luke Combs in an absolutely star-studded spectacle.
Lowry - who wasn't able to attend that performance as his Jets were in Pittsburgh handling business against the Penguins - is grateful that Wallen arranged his tour around Winnipeg's preseason schedule, thus allowing him to see his fellow 30-year-old entertainer in person for the first time.
"Usually we miss all of the concerts," he lamented. "Sometimes we catch them in training camp or at the start of the year. I remember we lucked out once when Eric Church was here. But with the Moose schedule and our schedule, generally it’s tough. I know all the girls got to go to the Luke Combs show, so it’s always like, 'what concerts do you guys get to go to this year that we are missing?'"
One of the most experienced Morgan Wallen concert goers on the squad is forward Dominic Toninato.
"Oh, I wouldn't miss it," he said of Thursday's show. "I've seen him now three or four times, it's always a blast. There's no chance I demonstrate singing one of his songs for you now, but there will certainly be lots of singing tomorrow."
When asking around the room if there was anyone who didn't like country music, forward Jansen Harkins provided a rather simple explanation.
"Just don't ask any of the Europeans, the Finns maybe? They don't like it," Harkins laughed.
Sure enough, defenceman Ville Heinola made it clear that he did, in fact, know of Wallen's music, but just doesn't share the same appreciation that many of his North American counterparts have.
"I do know him, I know a couple of his songs. I mean, Last Night, right? There’s just not really country music in Finland. There's some EDM, Finnish rap and some pop," Heinola said.
"But it's nothing like Canada. Everything here is almost all country, especially Canada. Everything we listen to is country here."
Heinola did not share his Thursday evening plans with The Hockey News.
Favourite Morgan Wallen songs from Jets at Wednesday’s downtown skate:
Adam Lowry - Last Night
Jansen Harkins - Thought You Should Know
Brenden Dillon - You Proof, Last Night
Mason Appleton - Thought You Should Know
Dominic Toninato - The Way I Talk, Whiskey Glasses
Ville Heinola - Last Night
Jeff Malott - Everything I Love, Wine Into Water