2003 NHL Heritage Classic
Six years ago, on November 22, 2003, Edmonton Alberta hosted the second outdoor NHL game and the first regular season outdoor game in the history of NHL, which was given the name the 2003 Heritage Classic. The Cold War game in 2001 against the University of Michigan and Michigan State University was the basic outline of how this event was constructed. The game was meant to memorialize the 25th anniversary of the Edmonton Oilers joining the National Hockey League back in 1979, giving it the tagline "A November to Remember".
Although many people mistaken the 2003 Heritage Classic as the very first outdoor NHL game, it's not. The very first outdoor NHL game was hosted in the parking lot of Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, and was played by the Los Angeles Kings and the New York Rangers back in 1991. However, this game between the Kings and the Rangers was merely an exhibition game, making the 2003 Heritage Classic the first outdoor NHL game to count. The game in 1991 came nowhere near as close of a turnout as the 2003 Heritage Games. Despite the cold temperatures reaching around -30 degrees Celsius (with wind chill), 57,167 cheering fans sat out front of Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium to watch with hopeful eyes the exciting game between Edmonton Oilers and Montreal Canadiens
It was said that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's TV broadcast of this event set a record for the most viewers to watch a single NHL game with a number of 2.747 million viewers nationwide. As if this wasn't enough excitement, this was also the first hockey game to ever premiere in HD on CBC.
The 2003 Heritage Classic was said to be the biggest event in the history of sports. People from all over the nation were trying to buy tickets. The season pass holders were guaranteed a ticket, as well as the privilege to purchase other tickets before they even went on sale to the public. After this, only seven thousand tickets were available, so they sought it best to hold a lottery to determine who gets the remaining seats. Each entry selected was allowed to buy four tickets. However, 750,000 entries for this lottery were received by the Edmonton Oilers, which would have demanded 3 million tickets. The Oilers only chose 1,750 winners, sadly leaving 748, 250 hopeful fans with nothing.
Two games were played the night of the 2003 Heritage Classic. The first was called the Mega-Stars game, played by some of the best former players from each team. Led by Wayne Gretzky, the representatives for the Edmonton Oilers consisted of their top players from their 1980s dynasty. For the Montreal Canadiens, Guy Lafleur led their top players from their 1970s dynasty, which included a few members of the 1986 and 1993 championship squads.
This first game consisted of two fifteen minute halves rather then the usual three twenty minute periods. Oilers won 2-0. In a reference to the many high-scoring games of the Oilers' heyday in the 1980s, Mark Messier referred to the low-scoring contest as a "typical Oilers win".
The second game played between the Edmonton Oilers and the Montreal Canadiens was the real game that counted towards their teams. Montreal won 4-3, having Richard Zednik to score the first and winning goal of the game.
The success of the Heritage Classic brought on the initiative for more outdoor NHL games, one in which occurred January 1, 2008 at the Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, New York, and one in which will occur January 1, 2009 at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois (weather permitting). The memorial November which staged the 2003 Heritage Classic is an event sports fans everywhere will remember forever.
The Detroit Red Wings has proven it again to the world that they could play in any element against the Chicago Blackhawks and win in this year's 2009 Winter Classic!
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