The next in a series of blogs reviewing some of my favourite moments from the just-completed 2010-11 National Hockey League season:
It's sometimes forgotten that the first-ever outdoor game in NHL history wasn't the 2008 Winter Classic at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo between the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins, but the 2003 Heritage Classic in Edmonton, Canada between the hometown Oilers and the Montreal Canadiens. This was the building block for the now-annual Winter's Classic game on (or close to) New Year's Day at a football or baseball venue in America.
For 2011, the League decided to reinstate the Heritage Classic, and chose McMahon Stadium, home of the Canadian Football League's Calgary Stampeders, as the venue. 41,022 fans packed into the stadium on a bitterly cold Sunday afternoon - is there any other sort of day during a Canadian winter? - to watch their Calgary Flames take on the Montreal Canadiens. How cold was it? A balmy -21 Celsius (-6F) with the wind chill factored in. So cold that fans weren't able to drink their beer before it froze. Typical Canadian weather, perfect for hockey.
The sun was out, though, gracing the city of Calgary on perhaps it's biggest ever hockey day. Bouncing pucks were as much of an issue as the cold, and there were times during the game when the ice surface had to be tended to, forcing lengthy delays. It was bad for both teams, of course, but the Flames seemed to adapt better, and dominated the contest - Canadiens defenceman James Wisniewski admitted after the game that the Canadiens struggled to adapt to the unusual conditions - out-shooting the Canadiens handily, and scored the opener, a five-on-three tally from Rene Bourque to begin things.
It was perhaps the short-handed goal in the second period that gave Calgary a 2-0 lead on a night better suited for playing from in front that ended the contest for the Canadiens, who, from my vantage point twelve thousand miles away watching the VERSUS feed, just didn't seem to get into the contest. Whether they were over-awed by the moment, or completely frozen out because of the cold weather, I don't know, but it was a thorough performance in difficult conditions for the Flames, who milked the home field/ice advantage for all it was worth.
If not for Montreal goalie Carey Price, whose creepy "face" helmet seemed to help his efforts between the pipes, the Canadiens might've left Calgary with a bigger loss than the 4-0 decision that was on the scoreboard when they left McMahon Stadium after sixty minutes of hockey. Like Eric Fehr in the Winter Classic, it was Bourque who had a day out, getting two goals and the 2nd star, behind Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff, who stopped all 39 shots to record an outdoor shut-out.
Above: Rene Bourque's two Heritage Classic goals.
A memorable day for Canadian hockey, with huge TV ratings on CBC and pretty reasonable numbers in America for VERSUS (especially considering it was a match-up featuring two Canadian teams) and a shame that, at least in 2012, the Heritage Classic will not be played. I definitely think there's room for two outdoor games each season - one in American and one in Canada - but obviously the League is very worried about diluting the product.
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