FLAMES ALUMNI RECALL CHILL OF A LIFETIME
2011 Heritage Classic outdoor game brings cold, hot memories to those who took part
There were upwards of 40,000 people at Mcmahon Stadium that day, every single one of them grumbling about the temperature.
In that case, Calgary Flames defenceman Cory Sarich was just like everybody else.
Well, not exactly …
“I remember it was cold — cold for everybody except us players. We were nice and toasty on the bench,” Sarich said, reminiscing about the 2011 Heritage Classic, the first outdoor game in Flames’ club history. “We had these great heaters on the bench. Actually, and I feel guilty admitting this, but I had to ask them to turn it down a bit. It was that hot.”
Calgary’s current cast — including 2011 Heritage Classic holdovers Mark Giordano and Mikael Backlund — are taking it outside again for Saturday’s under-the-stars showdown with the Winnipeg Jets at Mosaic Stadium in Regina (8 p.m. MT, Cbc/sportsnet 960 The Fan), home of the CFL’S Saskatchewan Roughriders.
No pressure, gentlemen, but the Flames’ franchise is currently undefeated in open-air action — a perfect 1-0 thanks to that
4-0 victory over the Montreal Canadiens in teeth-chattering conditions on Feb. 20, 2011.
“They couldn’t even flood the ice, from what I remember, because it was too cold so they couldn’t use Zambonis,” reminded centre Matt Stajan, now back in Calgary — his home for nine seasons with the Flames — after skating last winter in Germany. “I remember during our intermissions, they just hosed it down and we’d go out and play and the ice had bumps all over it.”
Too cold for the Zamboni? Who would have thought that was even possible?
For puck-drop on that chilly day at Mcmahon Stadium, where the CFL’S Stampeders are the primary tenants, the thermometer was showing about -10 C.
Three periods later, as Miikka Kiprusoff put the finishing
touches on a 39-save shutout, it had dipped twice that far below zero. (Brrrr!)
“I ended up starting that game and we were waiting for the jets to fly overhead, and my hands were absolutely freezing,” recalled former Flames pivot Brendan Morrison. “I had to skate over to the bench, because we had an awesome heater system at the bench that was pumping hot air, and I remember I had to put my gloves over the heater just so I could feel my stick.
“Once you were back to the bench, you were almost too hot. But going out on the ice … I know there were some guys taking some short shifts that game, for sure, so they could get back to the bench and warm up.”
The crowd of 41,022 bundled-up fans, of course, didn’t have access to that wicked warmer-upper. They had to rely on more creative methods to stave off the shivers, and we’re not talking about hugs from Harvey the Hound.
“I remember my wife and friends sitting up in the stands, sucking back on a little whisky, I think, to keep warm,” chuckled Sarich, now a part-time analyst on Sportsnet’s telecasts from the Scotiabank Saddledome.
“And then they kept running into the Red & White Club, whenever they could and with whoever they could, to sneak in there and warm up. That was a popular spot.”
Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan & Co. need not fret, the forecast for their joust with the Jets at Mosaic Stadium is much more friendly, although the wind could howl.
With that wallop of wintry weather on the Family Day long weekend in 2011, it should hardly be a surprise that nobody embraced that particular edition of the Heritage Classic quite like Flames alternate captain Robyn Regehr, a proud prairie boy from Rosthern, Sask.
Regehr donned a Roughriders tuque — complete with fuzzy earflaps — for practice and, as a proud supporter of Gang Green, promised he would leave a surprise in the locker-stall that belonged to Stamps quarterbackof-the-day Henry Burris.
The rugged rearguard brought along a pair of custom-beaded snowmobile gloves, a gift from the northern community of Stanley Mission in his home province, and loaned those to head coach Brent Sutter.
Apparently not worried about the wind-chill, he walked to work one day.
“When they announced it, I was not very excited because I thought, ‘Well, it’s going to be miserable weather and very challenging that way.’ So I had a very negative view of it originally,” Regehr said. “But that completely changed as the event came closer, and why it changed was I had all these memories flooding back of playing outdoors as a kid in Saskatchewan and playing on natural-ice rinks around Rosthern.
“I remember, we had a practice on the Saturday and the game was on Sunday, and with where we live, I had a chance to walk to the rink. I hadn’t walked to the rink since being in minor hockey as a kid. So again, all those great memories of playing outdoors and walking to practice, all of that came flooding back and it was really, really exciting.
“So I did this complete 180 with the event and my thoughts on it, and I really enjoyed it. I know it was cold and I know for spectators it was a challenge because of the wind and the extreme temperature and all that … But I can tell you that having played in three of them, one in Dodgers Stadium (in Los Angeles), one in Levi’s Stadium (near San Jose) and one in Mcmahon, the one here in Calgary, with the snow and the weather, for me, it was the best. By far.”
Morrison drove to the stadium, but he too remembers a special stroll.
“One thing that stands out in my mind is walking out to the ice from the dressing room and just really getting to soak in the atmosphere as you’re walking,” he said. “With the setting, not having a roof over you, just having the open sky … There was something kind of magical about it.”
In those idyllic, sometimes-snowy conditions, Rene Bourque potted a pair for the Flames, decked out in splendid set of retro-inspired duds.
Fellow forward Alex Tanguay contributed a goal and assist in that frigid faceoff against the Canadiens, blue-liner Anton Babchuk buried a shortie, Morrison provided a pair of helpers and Kiprusoff became the first netminder to record a shutout in an outdoor affair.
“I remember scoring and when you score inside the arena, the sound is instant, right? The spectators and the crowd is right on top of you, so the noise comes instantly to you,” said Tanguay, now a rookie assistant coach for the AHL’S Iowa Wild.
“But when you’re in a football stadium, you score and by the time the sound travels from the stands, it almost feels like there’s a second and you’re on tape delay. Inside the arena, you’re not accustomed to those things.
“It was really spectacular. I had the opportunity to play in two outdoor games throughout my career and both of them, it’s sort of like a one-day playoff. You have so many days and so games throughout the course of the regular season and then having a chance to go outside, to have different kinds of media outlets, different kind of attention, the national exposure, more friends and family because it’s a different game and a different venue …
“It makes for a really cool atmosphere and a game that people will remember.”
Including the guys on the ice. To a man, all of the 2011 Heritage Classic alumni mentioned the opportunity to skate with their families on the outdoor sheet at Mcmahon Stadium.
They reminisced about testing out black and tinted eye-visors, about changing long underwear after every period so they wouldn’t be wearing sweaty stuff for the hoof from the Stampeders’ locker-room back to the ice.
Sarich, who hails from Saskatoon, had such a hoot that he was hoping there would be an alumni game this weekend, like there was in 2011. After all, he’s yet to set foot in Mosaic Stadium.
“I’m excited for them,” Regehr said during the countdown to the 2019 Heritage Classic. “I don’t know how many of them have played outdoors or grew up playing outdoors — that number, I would say in general, becomes less and less in the league.
“But for those guys that did, I hope they go through the same experiences I did and that it brings back some really great memories as a kid and being outdoors on the backyard rink or the community rink or whatever it is.
“All those great memories, for me, that was the best part.”
I know there were some guys taking some short shifts that game, for sure, so they could get back to the bench and warm up.