Heritage Classic to showcase Jets vs. Oilers rivalry

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This article was published 06/03/2016 (3495 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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Manitoba hockey fans will get to watch legend Wayne Gretzky and rising star Connor McDavid play outdoor games in Winnipeg in October.

The NHL announced Sunday the Winnipeg Jets will play host to McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers in the 2016 Tim Hortons Heritage Classic, Oct. 23 at Investors Group Field. (The outdoor Heritage Classic returns to the regular-season schedule after games in 2014 in Vancouver, 2011 in Calgary and 2003 in Edmonton.)

On Oct. 22, an NHL legends game will feature Gretzky as the Oilers captain and Dale Hawerchuk as his counterpart for the original Jets team.

Both games will be afternoon affairs at the home stadium of the CFL’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers, which seats some 33,000 for a football game.

“I think the alumni game, it would be pretty cool to see the two historic franchises going together like that,” McDavid said prior to Edmonton’s 2-1 win over the Jets Sunday at the MTS Centre.

The Heritage Classic will mark the first time the Jets will play outdoors; the Oilers will head outside for a second time. (Edmonton played host to the initial NHL regular-season outdoor game in 2003 at Commonwealth Stadium.)

Edmonton and Winnipeg came into the NHL from the World Hockey Association as part of a four-team expansion in 1979.

The timing of the game — late October, rather than the depths of a Winnipeg winter — was a relief for the players.

“Luckily, it’s in October,” Jets forward Blake Wheeler said after his team’s morning meeting Sunday.

“I’m glad it’s in October,” said Winnipeg defenceman Tyler Myers. “Watching the outdoor games the past few years, and seeing the excitement and the hype around them, it’s going to be exciting to be a part of it.

“I’m sure both teams will be amped and bringing their best.”

In a video message from California, Gretzky said Sunday his lineup could include former Oilers stars Mark Messier, Paul Coffey, Dave Semenko and Jari Kurri.

“We’re not as good as we used to be, but it’ll be a lot of fun,” the 55-year-old Gretzky said with a smile.

Jets assistant coach Charlie Huddy is a former Oilers defenceman who won five Stanley Cups with the club between 1984 and 1990. But Winnipeg head coach Paul Maurice wasn’t sure if Huddy will play in the alumni game.

“That’s between Charlie and his agent,” Maurice quipped.

Edmonton coach Todd McLellan said it’ll be good for young players and alumni to rub shoulders during the Heritage Classic weekend, which begins with a gala dinner Oct. 21.

“The torch has to be passed down from one generation to the next,” McLellan said. “The Hawerchuks, the Gretzkys, those type of players, have done that to the (Jets’ Mark) Scheifeles, the (Oilers’ Ryan) Nugent-Hopkins.

“And years down the road, they’re going to have to do the same.”

Meantime, Jets fans will have a chance to cheer on Bobby Hull, Hawerchuk and Teemu Selanne in the alumni game featuring members of Jets 1.0, both the WHA and NHL versions.

Jets executive chairman Mark Chipman confirmed he has spoken with Hull and locked up the entire Hot Line — Swedes Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson rounded out the ground-breaking trio — to participate in the festivities.

Hawerchuk said he’s looking forward to potentially reuniting with his old linemates, Paul MacLean and Brian Mullen, as well as Selanne. Even though he never played with the Finnish Flash, they did attend one training camp together in Moncton, N.B., when Selanne was 18.

“Right away, he had the vision, the speed and the shot,” Hawerchuk said. “It was a fun training camp.”

Hawerchuk grew up in Toronto and remembers the Hot Line taking on the Toronto Toros in the WHA. He said it’s important the Jets from the “Rebel League” are recognized and are part of the October festivities.

“There were so many characters that came through (the Toros and the WHA). There was Tom (Shotgun) Simpson, Vaclav Nedomansky, Hull, Hedberg, Nilsson and Lars-Erik Sjoberg, Don (Smokey) McLeod. As a kid and a hockey fan, it was exciting. When I got to Winnipeg, I soon realized how big the Jets were from that era,” he said.

The NHL has drawn more than one million fans to 17 outdoor games since the Oilers played host to the Montreal Canadiens in 2003. Chipman said season-ticket and suite holders will have the first shot at buying some of the 33,000 tickets available for both games, followed by share partners and the 7,000 people on the waitlist.

“My hope is to accommodate everybody,” he said.

Hull’s knees won’t permit him to lace up his skates and the same goes for Nilsson, who has an artificial hip and knee, but Hedberg said it’s possible he could be in the lineup.

“We’ll see. It depends on who else plays. If there are some really old guys like me, I might join in for a little bit,” Hedberg said.

Hedberg said he regularly runs into many of his former European teammates, such as Thommie Bergman, Willy Lindstrom and Dan Labraaten — he and Nilsson had lunch with Kent Nilsson, who played two years with the WHA Jets, last week — but he’s looking forward to seeing guys such as Bill Lesuk, Joe Daley, Mike Ford and Duke Asmundson.

“We have a special bond that will never go away,” he said.

Even though Chipman has been so focused on getting Jets 2.0 ingrained in Winnipeg, it doesn’t take much to get him reminiscing about the hockey he watched as a teenager.

“I have vivid, vivid memories of Bobby Hull and those first years in the WHA and those (Avco Cup) championships and being a part of that at the Winnipeg Arena. I grew up playing defence, so I was a big fan of Lars-Erik Sjoberg. I really marvelled at the way he played the game. And Mike Ford, who is a friend of mine and a guy I’m still fortunate enough to play some hockey with today. I remember that heavy shot of his. He still has it and he’s still blocking shots on Wednesday nights,” Chipman said.

“I remember Ab McDonald scoring the first goal and my dad telling me how important it was that he was our first captain and what a great player he had been in the National Hockey League.”

Hawerchuk said the Heritage Classic alumni event won’t be his first outdoor game in Winnipeg — there were many nights during his tenure with the Jets when he and teammates would sneak out to an outside rink in Charleswood to play some shinny.

“Sometimes, I would strap on the (goalie) pads,” he said.

 

geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca

 

— with files from The Canadian Press

geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca