NHL...Outdoors?!

Edmonton, Montreal to Play First Outdoor Game Ever in the NHL

EDMONTON, Alberta (Ticker) - "The Great One" returns to the Great White North as the NHL takes to the great outdoors.

Wayne Gretzky vowed never to participate in an old-timers' game. But the Heritage Classic is no ordinary old-timers' game. So Gretzky will join other members of the Edmonton Oilers' dynasty of the 1980s on Saturday afternoon as they play a team of Montreal Canadiens' greats at a makeshift rink in Commonwealth Stadium.

"From a personal point of view, my family and my friends, a lot of people that I know, never saw me in an Oiler uniform. I just thought that it was only fitting that I play one more game and my kids had an opportunity to see me in an Oiler uniform," said Gretzky, who spent nine of his 21 seasons in Edmonton.

More than 800,000 people tried to get tickets for the events at 56,000-seat home of football's Edmonton Eskimos. As late as Friday, VIP tickets were selling for $1,000 apiece on Internet auction sites.

"We all kind of grew up outdoors," Gretzky said. "Kids who grew up in Saskatchewan and Manitoba and all the way to Ontario and Newfoundland, that was their sense of growing up - dreaming of one day playing in the National Hockey League. And now you have guys that played in Edmonton, guys that played in Montreal are actually going to be out on the ice outdoors."

On Saturday night, after the alumni game, the current Oilers and Canadiens face off with wind chills expected to dip near zero. But there's no snow in the forecast.

"I hope the trainers can find something warm so we're not going to freeze our butts at the game," Canadiens captain Saku Koivu said. "I'm not too concerned about me and the other players, but the goalies, that's going to be tough on them."

Montreal goaltender Jose Theodore plans to wear a couple of extra layers of clothing. Koivu said he might don a toque on the bench between shifts.

"Actually, I don't think the weather will be a factor," Oilers defenseman Scott Ferguson said. "We've got some different gear to wear under our equipment, the same stuff the football players wear. And once we get moving, I'm sure it'll be fine."

Edmonton carries a four-game winning streak into Saturday's game while Montreal is wallowing at the bottom of the Northeast Division with an 8-10-1-1 record.

Both teams are a long way from the lofty perches they occupied when most of the participants in the alumni game were active players. In fact, the 45 old-timers and coaches have combined for 129 Stanley Cup championships.

Gretzky is one of seven Hall of Famers who will play. The others are Grant Fuhr and Jari Kurri of the Oilers and Larry Robinson, Guy Lafleur and Steve Shutt of the Canadiens. New York Rangers coach Glen Sather, who will be behind the Edmonton bench on Saturday afternoon, also is enshrined in the Hall.

With the Rangers off until Sunday, Sather will be joined by New York center Mark Messier, who returns to Edmonton as the only active player in the alumni game.

"I think the people in Edmonton will just think it's icing on the cake," Gretzky said of Messier's participation. "It will be like that special person who comes to a 10 year old's birthday party. It will be something very, very special."

Not long after Messier's participation was announced, the Canadiens added to their roster Claude Lemieux, who was active through the end of last season.

While playing outdoors is new to the NHL, it is not a unique experience on this scale. In October 2001, Michigan State and Michigan battled to a 3-3 tie before a record 74,554 fans at Spartan Stadium.

NHL facility operations manager Dan Craig helped build the sheet of ice for that game and supervised the construction of the rink at Commonwealth Stadium.

"The best way to make a solid layer of ice is you layer it a little bit at a time and you don't rush it," Craig explained. "You don't go up there and dump 1,200 gallons (of water) and walk away and wait for it to freeze. We do it in small layers with a hose and a fine mist."

That process is just about the only thing about Saturday's activities that isn't being done on a grand scale.

"There's such hype about this Heritage Classic, and that's as it should be," Oilers left wing Ryan Smyth said.

Smyth figures to be all business once the puck drops just after 7 p.m. EST. But he'll be like hockey fans around the world world while greats like Gretzky and Lafleur return to the ice.

"Everyone knows how big an Oilers' fan I am, so we'll see how things go," Smyth said. "But if I don't get to see much of it live, I'm going to be sure and get a tape of that game."




Could this be the beginnning of many attempts to try to save this faltering league?

 

Motreal Wins!!!