Bursting Swivel Hips Bubble . . .
10/07/2008 07:02
Hi Swivel Hips,
I don’t mean to burst your bubble, but it actually was the Americans who had the original idea for the outdoor hockey game in a large stadium. I don’t recall the exact date place or time but it was a college game between Michigan State and someone else who I cannot remember.
There were well over 40,000 or perhaps even more at the game. I remember watching portions of it. So if anybody were the copycats it was Edmonton and the NHL. Albeit it was a college game so perhaps they figure it did not count.
Also the Edmonton game was played in 2003 not 2005, but I’m sure that was just a typo on your part.
Mark Fraser
St. Albert
SINC SAYS:
Interesting stuff Mark. Who knew?
SWIVEL HIPS RESPONDS:
To set the record straight, Mark, you are partially correct and SWIVEL HIPS is partially correct. SWIVEL HIPS apologizes for any inaccuracies in his comments.
The Heritage Classic was an outdoor ice hockey game played on November 22, 2003 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada between the Edmonton Oilers and the Montreal Canadiens. It was the second NHL outdoor game and the first regular season outdoor game in the history of the National Hockey League, and was modeled after the success of the "cold war" game between the University of Michigan and Michigan State University in 2001.
The game was given the tagline "A November to Remember". The very first NHL game to be played outdoors was in 1991 when the Los Angeles Kings played the New York Rangers in an exhibition game outside Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The event took place in Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium in front of a crowd of 57,167, despite temperatures of close to -18 °C, -30 °C (-22 °F) with wind chill. It was held to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Edmonton Oilers joining the NHL in 1979. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television broadcast also set the record for most viewers of a single NHL game with 2.747 million nationwide. This was the first NHL game broadcast in HD on CBC.