EDMONTON (CP) - Other NHL teams, envious at seeing the Edmonton Oilers do it so well, will inevitably consider staging their own outdoor game.
Trouble is, it would be anticlimactic compared to what the Oilers pulled off. Da Vinci painted only one Mona Lisa and this was a masterpiece that won't be easily copied.
Wayne Gretzky plays an oldtimers game for the one and only time, his 14-year-old daughter sings I Will Remember You as giant video screens show replays of the icon of the City of Champions playing shinny in a tuque, and an NHL-record 57,167 gladly endure minus-19 weather for seven hours to watch the Heritage Classic doubleheader in Commonwealth Stadium.
Try matching that.
"I don't know if you could every duplicate this again," said Gretzky. "Kind of like the '72 (Summit) series."
Did we mention the flyover by the jets, the streaker, the Edmonton alumni shutting out Guy Lafleur and Les Habitants of old, the snowball fight in the stands, the 50-50 draw that sent one lucky fan home $75,000 richer or the Oilers rally that sent the two-point game to its final minutes before being decided?
"It was surreal," Oilers forward Ryan Smyth said of the day.
Oh, Montreal won 4-3.
And the band played on. The hospitality hall rocked and everybody went home happy.
They should have had a trophy for the winner of the two-point game, although the Grey Cup showed up in so many places to be filled with party pop that it served the purpose.
Few left the stadium early despite the cold.
"Hats off to them for sticking around and making this a real success," Canadiens coach Claude Julien said.
Players in both games went home thrilled.
"It was a great experience seeing all those fans, hearing the roar of that crowd," Oilers rookie Jarret Stoll said.
The alumni game ended 2-0 for Gretzky and Co. and wasn't as high-scoring as expected but it was surprisingly fast-paced. Shutout sharers Grant Fuhr and Bill Ranford looked good enough to stop pucks in a real NHL game today. And how about that scoring machine, former Oiler Ken Linseman?
"If the NHL goes on strike, we'll come back," Lafleur kidded afterwards.
The deep freeze made the ice chip easily so players had difficulty stickhandling and passing, and some who played in the second game said their hands got cold in the early going.
"Oh my God, I was freezing," Montreal forward Richard Zednik said. "My hands were freezing,
"It was fun though. It was a great experience. Too bad it was minus 25 or something."
He was exaggerating the temperature, but nobody could exaggerate the uniqueness of playing pond hockey on a football field on Hockey Night In Canada.
"The day was awesome from start to finish," said Montreal defenceman Sheldon Souray. "This was something that's been on our calendars for a long time and to be here and be part of an event of this magnitude . . . I mean you see these people, five or six
hours sitting in the stands in minus 20 degree weather.
"It proves that hockey is Canada's game and that people, no matter what, will come out and support the game. It was awesome. This is one thing I'm going to look back on, and it's gonna be at the top of my list of memories."
Jose Theodore, who wore a red Habs tuque over his helmet during the game, was the difference in the two-point game. He made 34 saves despite wearing extra undergarments and having less feel for the puck.
"It was really like when you play for fun," he said. "You just throw yourself all over the place and hope for the puck to hit you."
Zednik and Yanic Perreault scored two goals each for the Canadiens in the first regular-season game played outdoors.
"If that's the last game that's played outside, we wanted to be part of history as being the team that won," said Joe Juneau.
Players' breath created mist clouds but the lack of wind and heaters at the benches made the conditions tolerable.
"It took us the first 10 minutes to warm up a little bit and after that we were fine," said Perreault. "The hardest thing was to stay focused because there were so many things going on, so many people around."
The only larger crowd figure recognized for a hockey game was nearly 75,000 for am outdoor college game in East Lansing, Mich., two years ago. The success of that game got others thinking.
The Oilers expected to net about $2 million from the mammoth undertaking that returned hockey to its roots, and other NHL teams might now ponder getting in on the action.
"It's going to be interesting to see if other cities are going to want to do it," said Juneau.
If there is a Heritage Classic 2, it also should be in Commonwealth Stadium. Nothing else would measure up.
"It was magical out there," said Gretzky.
http://canada.com
Trouble is, it would be anticlimactic compared to what the Oilers pulled off. Da Vinci painted only one Mona Lisa and this was a masterpiece that won't be easily copied.
Wayne Gretzky plays an oldtimers game for the one and only time, his 14-year-old daughter sings I Will Remember You as giant video screens show replays of the icon of the City of Champions playing shinny in a tuque, and an NHL-record 57,167 gladly endure minus-19 weather for seven hours to watch the Heritage Classic doubleheader in Commonwealth Stadium.
Try matching that.
"I don't know if you could every duplicate this again," said Gretzky. "Kind of like the '72 (Summit) series."
Did we mention the flyover by the jets, the streaker, the Edmonton alumni shutting out Guy Lafleur and Les Habitants of old, the snowball fight in the stands, the 50-50 draw that sent one lucky fan home $75,000 richer or the Oilers rally that sent the two-point game to its final minutes before being decided?
"It was surreal," Oilers forward Ryan Smyth said of the day.
Oh, Montreal won 4-3.
And the band played on. The hospitality hall rocked and everybody went home happy.
They should have had a trophy for the winner of the two-point game, although the Grey Cup showed up in so many places to be filled with party pop that it served the purpose.
Few left the stadium early despite the cold.
"Hats off to them for sticking around and making this a real success," Canadiens coach Claude Julien said.
Players in both games went home thrilled.
"It was a great experience seeing all those fans, hearing the roar of that crowd," Oilers rookie Jarret Stoll said.
The alumni game ended 2-0 for Gretzky and Co. and wasn't as high-scoring as expected but it was surprisingly fast-paced. Shutout sharers Grant Fuhr and Bill Ranford looked good enough to stop pucks in a real NHL game today. And how about that scoring machine, former Oiler Ken Linseman?
"If the NHL goes on strike, we'll come back," Lafleur kidded afterwards.
The deep freeze made the ice chip easily so players had difficulty stickhandling and passing, and some who played in the second game said their hands got cold in the early going.
"Oh my God, I was freezing," Montreal forward Richard Zednik said. "My hands were freezing,
"It was fun though. It was a great experience. Too bad it was minus 25 or something."
He was exaggerating the temperature, but nobody could exaggerate the uniqueness of playing pond hockey on a football field on Hockey Night In Canada.
"The day was awesome from start to finish," said Montreal defenceman Sheldon Souray. "This was something that's been on our calendars for a long time and to be here and be part of an event of this magnitude . . . I mean you see these people, five or six
hours sitting in the stands in minus 20 degree weather.
"It proves that hockey is Canada's game and that people, no matter what, will come out and support the game. It was awesome. This is one thing I'm going to look back on, and it's gonna be at the top of my list of memories."
Jose Theodore, who wore a red Habs tuque over his helmet during the game, was the difference in the two-point game. He made 34 saves despite wearing extra undergarments and having less feel for the puck.
"It was really like when you play for fun," he said. "You just throw yourself all over the place and hope for the puck to hit you."
Zednik and Yanic Perreault scored two goals each for the Canadiens in the first regular-season game played outdoors.
"If that's the last game that's played outside, we wanted to be part of history as being the team that won," said Joe Juneau.
Players' breath created mist clouds but the lack of wind and heaters at the benches made the conditions tolerable.
"It took us the first 10 minutes to warm up a little bit and after that we were fine," said Perreault. "The hardest thing was to stay focused because there were so many things going on, so many people around."
The only larger crowd figure recognized for a hockey game was nearly 75,000 for am outdoor college game in East Lansing, Mich., two years ago. The success of that game got others thinking.
The Oilers expected to net about $2 million from the mammoth undertaking that returned hockey to its roots, and other NHL teams might now ponder getting in on the action.
"It's going to be interesting to see if other cities are going to want to do it," said Juneau.
If there is a Heritage Classic 2, it also should be in Commonwealth Stadium. Nothing else would measure up.
"It was magical out there," said Gretzky.
http://canada.com
