On This Date in Sports November 22, 2003: Taking it Outside
In collaboration with the Sportsecyclopedia.com
The NHL takes it outside for the time in the regular season as the Edmonton Oilers host the Montreal Canadiens in a game played at Commonwealth Stadium. The event started with a legends game featuring players from both teams past playing each other won by the Oilers 2-0. In the regular game played in front of 57,167 fans, the Canadiens would win 4-3.
The idea of an outside game was tried previously in the NHL as the Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers played an exhibition game outside of Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas on September 27, 1991. In 2001, outdoor hockey again was tried on the college level as Michigan State hosted rival Michigan with 74,544 fans on hand to see a game end in a 3-3 tie. The “Cold War” game between the Spartans and Wolverines got some NHL executives buzzing with the idea of playing regular season games being played outdoors. With the Edmonton Oilers celebrating their 25th NHL season, they seemed a natural choice to host the first outdoor game. Their opponent would be the NHL’s historic Montreal Canadiens who had won a record 24 Stanley Cups. With the theme of the game being playing on a frozen pond, the game was billed as the Canadian Heritage Classic.
The event started with the MegaStars Game featuring legends from both the Oilers and Canadiens. The Montreal Canadiens legend team featured players from the 1970’s dynasty as well as the Stanley Cup winning teams from 1986 and 1993. The Oilers legend team was made up mostly of players from the 1980’s dynasty including Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier. The inclusion of Messier was odd, since he was still an active player with the New York Rangers, and got permission to play in the game. The game featured two 15-minute halves, with the Oilers legends winning 2-0.
In the main event, temperatures dipped to -18 degrees Celsius. That was no problem to the hearty fans of Edmonton who showed up 57,167 strong at Commonwealth Stadium, which was usually home to the CFL’s Edmonton Eskimos. Several players wore wool hats, known as tuque in Canada, over their helmets, including Montreal Goalie Jose Theodore. The first period was one of adjustments for both teams as they tried to get used to the conditions, resulting in 20 minutes of scoreless hockey. It would not take long for the ice to be broken in the second period, as Richard Zednik gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead with a goal 39 seconds in. Montreal added a second goal ten minutes later, as Yanic Perreault scored on the power play. The Oilers would get on the scoreboard at the 13:45 mark as Eric Brewer scored his first goal of the season. In the third period, Montreal took a 3-1 lead as Perreault scored his second goal of the game at 2:22 mark. Edmonton cut the deficit to one again at 13:06 on a Jarret Stoll goal. Just over a minute later Zednik scored his second goal of the game to give the Canadiens a 4-2 lead. The Oilers took less than a minute to answer as Steve Staios made it 4-3 with 5:03 left. However, that was as close as they get as Jose Theodore did not allow another puck into the net, allowing the Canadiens to hold to a 4-3 win. Yanic Perreault was named the game’s first start, while Staios was the second star and Zednik the third star of the game.
The outdoor was a big hit, and a sign of things to come, though a lockout wiping out the entire 2004/05 season delayed a second outdoor game for four years. The next outdoor game would be the 2008 Winter Classic played in Buffalo between the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins, beginning a new New Year’s Day tradition.