Cold ones quite enjoyable

Long underwear, blankets, mittens, hats, sleeping bags, and shiny flasks of hockey hooch were the order of the day for the crowd of 57,167 at Commonwealth Stadium, and in the end, Wayne Gretzky's Oilers prevailed, 2-0, over Guy Lafleur's Canadiens in the Heritage Classic alumni game warmup act.

"We felt like 10-year-olds out there," said the famed Flower, who all weekend repeatedly made the point that hockey is a game best served cold and played outdoors. "Only we were on the legs of 50-year-olds."

Later in the day, pregame shots shattered frozen panes of glass above the boards, causing nearly a half-hour delay to the nightcap's opening faceoff. The 2003-04 Canadiens pinned a 4-3 loss on the Oilers in the history-making, freeze-dried nightcap.

"When I was 11 or 12 years old, I remember my mom always said, `Put a tuque on, you'll catch a cold,' " said Canadiens goalie Jose Theodore, who wore a ski cap over his goalie mask and stopped 34 shots. "I just wanted to make sure she's not going to say anything when I go back home, so I put a tuque on."

Streams of teeth-chattering fans, numbed to their puck-loving souls, filed from the stadium when Game 2 wrapped up at 7:56 p.m. Some of the spectators arrived around 1 p.m., when the temperature was about 2 degrees Fahrenheit, and left seven hours later, their north Albertan mettle chilled but not broken. As the arena lights dimmed, the mercury stood at about minus-2 degrees Fahrenheit.

"It was always, `Game On,' from the beginning," said Montreal general manager Bob Gainey, noting that the players in the evening game easily adapted to the playing conditions. "During the warmup, they realized they'd be comfortable -- they'd be able to play well and play safe."

Ex-Bruin Ken Linseman, a shaved head beneath his blue knit cap, paced the Oilers with a goal of his own (No. 257 lifetime), and the Rat also set up another ex-Bruin, Marty McSorley (No. 109 lifetime) for the other Oiler goal in the alumni game. Grant Fuhr and yet another ex-Bruin, Bill Ranford, combined for the shutout, making 25 saves across the two 15-minute halves.

"I know it's hard to believe, but we weren't cold out there at all," said Gretzky, who donned the Oiler blue-white-and-orange uniform for the first time since he was traded to LA in the summer of 1988. "It was very comfortable on the bench."

If not for the jet-propelled heaters that continuously flooded both benches with a steady current of man-made tropical air, the NHL likely would not have been able to stage its regular-season game here last night between the 2003-'04 Canadiens and Oilers. The intense cold made for brittle, chippy ice and rock-hard dead pucks, less than ideal playing conditions. But when players weren't on the ice, they were able to roost like hens on the heated benches, which Gretzky said felt as if they were 70 degrees (Fahrenheit).

"Because of the cold, the ice was bumpy and limited and we had to simplify our game," said Edmonton head coach Craig MacTavish, who broke into the league as a Bruin. "That impacted the strategy of the game a little bit, but everything else was fine."

In the stands, where the sun had all but disappeared by the 4 p.m. finish of the alumni game, tiny plumes of vapor rose from the mouths of the stouthearted fans. When they applauded -- loudest of all for the return of the Great One -- their applause was muffled by gloves and mittens.

Along the concourse of the stadium where the CFL's Edmonton Eskimoes play their home games, business understandably was somewhat slower than might be expected at the COLD BEER stand. However, the beer line was longer than the HOT SOUP line. The Fahrenheit reading hovered at plus-2 for the opening game, but still it was beer that was mmm-mmmm good.

Such was the landscape of the frozen fundra.

"I'm not sure how the fans do it," said Kevin Lowe, the Oilers GM. "I think they make a statement that, `Hey, it's where we live -- it's cold, but you have to go on and live your life.' They're making a statement that, `We embrace our team, our city, our province and our country.' "

In the early afternoon, the National Hockey League Players' Association contacted NHL officials, the union expressing its concerns over playing the regular-season game. The issue was the severe cold, and the injury risk it might present to the twenty- and thirtysomethings who suited up for the nightcap. Finally, the puck dropped at 5:28 p.m.

Once the "two-point" game got underway, it officially delivered the NHL its biggest crowd in league history, more than double the 28,183 who turned out April 23, 1996 in St. Petersburg, Fla., to see the Lightning and Flyers play inside the ThunderDome. It did not surpass the crowd of 72,027 that turned out to see Michigan and Michigan State play outdoors in East Lansing, Mich., on Oct. 6, 2001.

From an in-stand viewing standpoint, it worked, in part because NHL arenas today already have conditioned spectators to watch the game from a great distance. Long gone are Boston Garden, the Montreal Forum, Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens, and Chicago Stadium -- intimate arenas of yore that positioned the crowd virtually on top of the players. Modern arenas, like the FleetCenter in Boston, have taught fans to accept watching hockey at an arm's length, sight lines significantly less steep than the cozy old barns of yesterday.

The games here were played on a 200 x 85-foot sheet of ice that looked only marginally lost at sea in the middle of the snow-covered football field. All but a couple of the old-timers eschewed helmets for knit caps (the Oilers with Ford logos on the front). In the frosty nightcap (puck drop temp: minus-1.46 degrees Fahrenheit), everyone was decked out in regulation NHL gear, players sporting thin knit caps under their requisite helmets.

In the weeks leading up to the game, Gretzky said it would be the only old-timers affair that he would ever play. Postgame, after what he called a "magical few days," he left open some room for an encore.

"It would have to be a special situation like this," mused No. 99, holder of 61 NHL records. "Even then, I don't know if it would be enough."

Gretzky's 14-year-old daughter, Pauline, impressed the sellout crowd when she sang, "I Will Remember You" at rinkside, finishing just as the Oilers and Canadiens streamed from their locker rooms for the night game. Linseman, who prefers to spend most of his post-career recreational hours on a surfboard, was among the happiest of the alums.

"You hear about high school reunions and everything, but this is different," mused the Rat. "You see all the guys again, and let's face it, when you've won the Stanley Cup, the memories are all great."

Glen Sather, who directed the Oiler bench, on Friday reminisced about his boyhood in Wainwright, Alberta, not far from the Sutter family home in Viking. He was especially nostalgic when he talked about playing outdoors on a farm near the Sutter Bros. family spread. Mark Messier, who received special dispensation to leave active duty as a Ranger to be here, also dwelled on how great it was to grow up playing on the frozen patches here in his hometown.

But in nearly every conversation it was Lafleur, still young looking and trim, who repeatedly extolled the virtues of the outdoor game. During a break in the first game's action, he said he hoped kids would be inspired to pull on their skates and get outdoors.

"As a kid, I'd take my hockey equipment to bed with me," the Flower said when the day was done. "I wanted to be the first one on the ice."

One more time, it was Game On. It was cold, of course, but in the end hockey was more the topic than the thermometer. The final reading: success.