Sport at Heart Forever! : Oilers: goodbye to the Rexall Place

They said goodbye on Wednesday to the giant concrete house that generations have grown up in. Tears flowed as a standing-room crowd watched the Edmonton Oilers play the last of more than 1,800 games at the only rink they have known since 1974.

In the four decades since then, there were more than 10,000 goals scored, 10,000 penalties served and four Stanley Cups won on home ice. Members of those great teams were among the 160 alumni who participated in postgame ceremonies that had been in the planning for a year. Invitations were extended to anyone that ever pulled on an orange and blue sweater.

“It’s like when I got married,” said Kevin Lowe, a team executive who won five Stanley Cups as a defenceman for the Oilers. “My mom asked who was invited and I said, ‘Anyone who wants to come.’”

Canada has had 10 prime ministers and Edmonton’s population has doubled to nearly 900,000 people since Northlands Coliseum opened 42 seasons ago. The former Canadiens goaltending legend Jacques Plante outduelled Gerry Cheevers to help the Oilers win their first home game as a member of the World Hockey Association, 3-2.

The Oilers’ last game was against the Vancouver Canucks and they won, 6-2.

Spectators began streaming in as soon as the doors opened at Rexall Place at 3:30 p.m. The start of the game – a sellout, for which tickets were being sold online at prices ranging from $300 for nosebleeds to $3,000 – was moved to 5 p.m. Mountain Time to accommodate closing festivities.

A few fans tailgated in the parking lot, others snapped photos in front of the bronze statue of Wayne Gretzky out front.

The Great One flew in from Los Angeles, to see the era of the 16,839-seat house he built, end. He won eight consecutive most valuable player awards with the Oilers, and was the NHL’s top scorer seven successive years at the beginning of his career. He holds records for the most records, and without him Edmonton would have been hard-pressed to win four Stanley Cups in five years.

“Glen Sather would tell us, ‘These are memories you’ll have the rest of your life,’” Gretzky said, talking about the architect and head coach of those great teams. “Until now, I didn’t realize how right on he was.

“I scored my first goal in the WHA in the building, and my first goal in the NHL was scored there, too. It was a very special time and a very special place.”

When he arrived at the arena on Wednesday, Gretzky made his wife, Janet, and kids pose for a picture with the bust of him that will soon be moved to Rogers Place. He said he felt emotional when he took a tour of the new downtown rink with his wife and Paul Coffey.

In the early afternoon Wednesday, thousands gathered downtown in a square outside city hall to pay tribute to the team. With the wind whipping around them, players spanning five decades stood on the steps in orange and blue jerseys.

“This is similar to 1984, when people came here to celebrate the Stanley Cup,” Mark Messier said, addressing the throng. As he spoke, construction continued a few blocks away on the rink the team will move into next season. “We used to say, if we win, the stage is big enough for everybody. Well, all of you deserve to be up here with us.”

Raised on the outskirts of Edmonton, Messier remembered that, as a kid, we took the bus to the old Edmonton Gardens to see Bobby Hull play. He saw the coliseum being built, and then had the good fortune to play there for 12 seasons, starting in 1979, the year the Oilers joined the NHL. During a Hall of Fame career, he won five Stanley Cups while playing in his hometown, and one another as captain of the New York Rangers.

“As a kid I had a dream to play in the NHL,” Messier told the crowd, many dressed in Oilers sweaters, some also carrying signs and holding flags. “Who would have ever thought I would get to not only play in the NHL, but at the Northlands?

“It was a building that put Edmonton on the map, and galvanized the city in so many ways.”

In the morning, as he drove to the arena for a reception with other former players, Messier was flooded with memories.

“I was here from the start,” the 55-year-old said. “It’s incredible how a building can take on a personality.

“If I described it as a hockey player, I’d say it has a lot of heart, a lot of passion, it was tough for opposing teams to play against, and has a lot of grit and dedication.

“This is going to be an incredibly emotional night for anyone that ever wore an Oilers sweater.”

Built at a cost of $16.6-million, the arena carried four different monikers over the years. It began as the Northlands and subsequently was known as the Edmonton Coliseum, the Skyreach Centre and, since 2003, as Rexall Place. It will be used for concerts for the rest of this year, and will play host to the men’s world curling championship in April of 2017 before it closes down. Future plans are being discussed, but the most popular option is to turn it into a multiplex with a half-dozen ice surfaces.

“We look forward to turning the page into Rogers Place, making more memories, winning more Stanley Cups and restoring the pride we all had,’ Messier told the crowd.

At the arena a few hours later, fans sang O Canada louder than ever before the final game. Participants in a ceremonial puck drop included Mark Lewis, the arena’s retiring announcer of 35 years, Miles Poliak, an usher since 1974, and Val Fonteyne, the first player chosen by the Alberta Oilers in the 1972 WHA draft.

In the morning, Fonteyne had chatted over coffee with former teammates at Rexall Place. From there, they were bused downtown for the rally.

A Hall of Famer who excelled on the wing next to Gretzky, Jari Kurri recalled arriving in Edmonton from Finland in 1980. He was 20, spoke little English, and was met at the airport by a limousine.

“I was a young guy and didn’t know what to expect,” Kurri said. “There was so much going on in my mind. Was I going to make it? Would I only be here for one year?

“There are a lot of stories, and I feel a lot of different emotions. I am sure tonight, when I look around the building, there will be a lot of flashbacks.”

The current Oilers are struggling to stay out of last place. This is the 10th successive year they have missed the playoffs.

“When guys like this come back, you just want to sit there, soak it all in and learn,” Jordan Eberle said. “I still love playing here. I am not going to have bad memories. I just hope we have more success in the new building.”

In his childhood days, Mark Messier dreamed about what an honour it would be to play in Northlands Coliseum.
By the end of his career, after helping transform the building into a shrine, it was the other way around — fans considered themselves lucky they ever got to see him play.
But the kid in Messier, who was never far from the surface, still considers himself blessed that he ever set foot on that ice.
“Being from Edmonton and seeing the arena being built, seeing Gordie Howe here and Bobby Hull, all the great players back in the WHA, then being able to fulfill a dream to play in the NHL here in my hometown, I would have never thought that was a possibility when I was growing up,” said the former captain.
“For me personally, I was here from the start, and for fans and every one of these guys who have put the sweater on and people who have worked for the organization in one form or another, it’s a powerful night.
“It’s incredible how a building can take on a personality. It’s a building, but it’s taken on so much personality because of the great moments that have happened.”
Asked to describe that personality, Messier compared it to someone who could have easily been a Boys on the Bus teammate.
“If I described the building as a hockey player, the scouting report would be: It has a lot of heart, plays with a lot of passion, tough to play against at home and has a lot of grit and determination.”
It’s long past its prime, but Messier remembers when it was the envy of the league.
“It was state of the art in North America,” he said. “Somebody mentioned that it was one of the first buildings that had a hanging score clock. It was really state of the art. All of us felt a sense of pride that we had this amazing building right here in Edmonton.”
BOOKEND GAMES
About the only game that could top Jordan Eberle’s last at Rexall Place would be his first.
When it comes to NHL debuts, few have been more spectacular than Eberle’s debut as an Edmonton Oiler on opening night in 2010.
“Every kid remembers their first NHL game,” said the 25-year-old winger. “But I had all my family and friends here and scored my first goal.”
Eberle’s shorthanded beauty, which stood up as the NHL’s goal of the year, might still rank as the nicest goal he’s ever scored. He toe-dragged past a diving defenceman and scored backhand deke on Mikka Kiprusoff.
“I look back on it now, and if you’re on a two-on-one and you try to beat the guy one-on-one, you probably won’t do that again,” he laughed.
“But it was a special moment for me. A lot of times I look back on that and wonder how it happened. I would have been just as happy to chip one in or get one banked off me. It was a fond memory for me.”