I'm an ex-Thrashers fan. Southerner by birth and descent. Went to many games a year. Was in the eighth row for Game 2 in 2007 against the Rangers, our second home playoff game and our last one ever. It was sold out and it was loud. When Kovalchuk tied it in the third period the guy next to me (a stranger) put his arm around my shoulder and we yelled together.
The Thrashers didn't move because "Southern hockey can't work." They moved because the ownership group (the Atlanta Spirit, one of the worst in the history of professional sports) was (and still is) incompetent and never wanted the team in the first place (they bought them as a package deal with the Hawks and Philips Arena). One playoff appearance in eleven seasons (swept in the opening round). The same GM for the first ten, who didn't get fired after that run. He got promoted. Years of bad drafting, losing the stars we picked up at the top of the draft or traded for (Kovalchuk, Hossa) because they didn't want to re-sign with a poorly run franchise, etc.
It's easy to be a little bitter this week seeing Winnipeg fans talking about "the Jets' first playoff appearance in twenty years." No, the current Winnipeg Jets are not the franchise that left in '96. That's the Arizona Coyotes, and they last made the playoffs in 2012. Your team used to be the Atlanta Thrashers, so the organization that is now the Jets last made it in 2007. I was there. The Jets didn't move back from Phoenix. You didn't get an expansion team. You got a relocated team with its own history. Don't forget that.
I admit to kind of hoping the Ducks sweep and Winnipeg misses the playoffs for the next six years while keeping the same management team so we can see if they're still selling out then. But, that's a guy who doesn't exist talking. A Southerner who loved his NHL team and supported it only to see it run into the ground and sold off cheap while reading Canadian fans say he never deserved it in the first place.
Ultimately, I'm indifferent. The Jets can win, they can lose. (Seems like a great fan base. Wish they'd gotten an expansion team or their old team had moved back instead.) I can't watch their games. Don't want to watch any NHL games now. (Feel the same way towards the league as I do the Atlanta Spirit, who are going to sell the Hawks this summer for close to a billion. At least I can support my NBA team again after that .. ) But, anyone who uses the Thrashers to argue why hockey supposedly "can't" work in the south doesn't know what they're talking about. They're relying on misinformation and a bias sat on from a thousand miles away.