NHL HERITAGE CLASSIC
Outdoor game is cause for Sask. to celebrate
For a change, a Winnipeg touchdown in Regina was welcomed by denizens of the Queen City.
The arrival of two big-league hockey teams — the Winnipeg Jets and Calgary Flames — at Regina International Airport on Friday represented a landmark for the Saskatchewan capital, which is playing host to Saturday’s NHL Heritage Classic.
This, too, qualifies as a novelty: Gary Bettman received a warm ovation.
“You can keep doing that, because I’m not used to it,” the NHL’S commissioner told the crowd Friday after being introduced at the NHL Heritage Classic Legacy Luncheon, held at the International Trade Centre.
In a subsequent yak session with the media, a convivial Bettman was asked about the unconventionality of not being booed.
“Don’t think the cheering wasn’t tongue-in-cheek,” he quipped.
Bettman, in his 26th year as the NHL’S supremo, richly deserves the applause — as rare as it may be — for his role in having brought big-league hockey to Regina.
On Saturday, a once-unimaginable game between the Jets and Flames is to be held at a facility that, like the looming outdoor contest, was also once beyond comprehension.
There was a time when dear old Taylor Field was viewed as being irreplaceable. As recently as 2004, power brokers with the Saskatchewan Roughriders outlined an elaborate, ambitious plan for a stadium upgrade — the focus being on the traditional facility.
But everything began to change when Kerry Joseph, Eric Tillman, Kent Austin and associates delivered a championship season in which the demand for tickets suddenly became voracious.
When a home playoff game — the first in 19 years — was held in 2007, a fortnight before the Roughriders captured their third championship in franchise history, Taylor Field’s deficiencies became all too apparent. So began a broadening of the discussion about a venue.
Eventually, and not without some controversy and considerable deliberation, plans were made and confirmed for a new Mosaic Stadium. The $278-million facility opened in 2017, attracting attention in quaint burgs such as New York City, where Bettman, et al, are headquartered.
“We came here anticipating that this was going to be a great event,” Bettman said, “and everything that we’re seeing and feeling leads us to believe that our judgment was right.”
The presence of a big-league hockey game in Regina also validates the judgment of visionaries who pushed for a new facility, as opposed to renovations of a beloved, yet crumbling, Taylor Field.
“You come here to this city and you see what this city has done, and the vision they’ve (shown), by building Mosaic Stadium,” Saskatoon-born Flames president-ceo John Bean said. “It’s a world-class facility and we couldn’t be happier to play a game of hockey in that.
“You just get the sense of community and pride out of Regina, and it oozes through.”
Just look around and appreciate the transformation, albeit brief, of Regina into the host of a game involving teams from one of North America’s major professional sporting organizations.
Jets, Flames and NHL logos are everywhere.
Luminaries such as Bettman and Hockey Hall of Famer Lanny Mcdonald are in our city.
And, on Saturday night, the eyes of the hockey world will be focused on Regina. Jets versus Flames will be the late game on Hockey Night in Canada.
It all looks so new. Yet, in many ways, it seems so familiar.
“It’s pretty funny,” Jets governor Mark Chipman said. “When you fly from Winnipeg to Regina, even at whatever altitude we were at, it’s like driving down the Trans-canada Highway.
“I’ve got the map opened up and you can follow along. You feel like you’re just driving down the Trans-canada, except it takes 45 minutes instead of five hours. The topography is identical. You feel like you’ve never left home. You land and it looks just the same.
“We touched down here and my wife said, ‘It feels like we’re in Winnipeg.’ I said, ‘Well, we pretty much are.’”
Technically, the Heritage Classic is a Jets home game.
But, come Saturday night, who will emerge as the favourite of 33,000-plus spectators?
“It’ll probably be a third, a third, a third,” Bettman predicted. “We’ll see Jets colours, we’ll see Flames colours, and we’ll see green.”