Not our first (outdoor rink) rodeo
Ivor Wynne Stadium hosted high-profile hockey games in 2005 and 2012
They will be the first hockey games at Tim Hortons Field, but not the first hockey games on that plot of land.
Sunday afternoon’s Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic, which pits the Toronto Maple Leafs against the Buffalo Sabres, and Monday night’s Outdoor Showcase between the Hamilton Bulldogs and Oshawa Generals, come 10 years and three weeks after Bulldogs’ owner Michael Andlauer sponsored the extremely successful Outdoor Classic at old Ivor Wynne Stadium
That was an open-air doubleheader too, featuring a Friday night friendly between the Maple Leafs’ and Montreal Canadiens’ alumni, with some celebrity additions, followed only a few hours later by a regular-season AHL Saturday matinee between the Hamilton Bulldogs and Toronto Marlies, which were then the Canadiens’ and Leafs’ top farm clubs.
And seven years before that, Ken Hadall, Scott Sutherland and Brad Cumming brought together a large number of high-profile NHL players — then enduring a full-season lockout by the league — to play a fundraising outdoor game at Ivor Wynne, on a bitter, drizzly night in early April, 2005.
“That stadium wasn’t made for winter, unlike today’s,” Andlauer says of the 2012 NHL alumni and Bulldogs games, which kicked off the final year of Ivor Wynne before it was demolished to make way for the new stadium on the same site.
“There were no concourses, no boxes, even the dressing rooms weren’t really heated for winter. But it was quite the event and Mother Nature co-operated. It was perfect.”
Andlauer financially backed those games to highlight the Bulldogs, stimulate community spirit, and celebrate hockey in general, as he’s doing this year with the HamiltonOshawa game.
In 2012, just over 13,000 people paid to watch the Leafs alumni edge their Montreal counterparts 6-5, and a short sleep and quick breakfast later, a whopping 20,565 filed into the stadium for the Marlies’ 7-2 drubbing of the Bulldogs. Andlauer recalls that it was then an Ontario record for a hockey crowd, because it was more than the Air Canada Centre (now Scotiabank Arena) could accommodate and occurred before the Leafs drew 40,000 to BMO Field for the 2017 NHL Centennial Classic.
During the week, there were public skating sessions, a university women’s game, and some other pickup hockey and the weather was classic, capricious Canadiana. Wildly fluctuating temperatures brought torrential rain and miniblizzards within a span of two days. But by the time the alumni game started under the lights in crisp, cold air, there was a postcard vista of fresh snow covering the field around the rink. Saturday brought sun and long shadows, but the ice remained good.
“I can remember it started to snow during the alumni game,” says Maple Leafs’ legend Wendell Clark, who was on a marquee game-starting line with Doug Gilmour and Steve Thomas. “We had heaters on the benches and we sure needed them. It was, ‘OK coach, you can bench me now. I’ll just stand in front of the heater.’ ”
Sportsnet, which will also handle Sunday’s outdoor game here, carried a live broadcast of the AHL matinee and used a lot of intriguing camera angles and production procedures to enhance the show. It was a professionally staged event with icemakers from the NHL and Montreal Canadiens brought in to help ensure a high-quality playing surface.
Andlauer, who played goal for the Canadiens alumni, remembers an impromptu moment during the Friday night game when Kraig Nienhuis, in full Leafs alumni uniform and on skates, grabbed his 12string guitar. The game came to a stop while he sang the Neil Diamond stadium staple “Sweet Caroline,” with both teams, and the live audience, immediately loudly joining in. He repeated that the next afternoon and the crowd was even more into it.
“It was one of the best things I’ve ever seen in hockey,” said Hockey Hall of Famer, Guy Carbonneau, the former Canadiens star and coach who was playing for the Montreal alumni. “Especially when the snow started coming down just as we were singing.”
Andlauer says, “It was perfect. All of a sudden you had these big snowflakes and it felt like we were kids again.”
The “Our Game to Give” event seven years earlier was a little different, largely because it was held in April, which lived up to its reputation as the cruellest month. A cold rain soaked the grandstands and although 10,308 bought tickets, the
break-even point was 15,000, so no funds were raised for charity and, in fact, organizers later said they lost $100,000.
But, the game brought a lot of NHL stars and supporters to town and also helped maintain unity among the locked-out players. Gilmour, who would play at Ivor Wynne again seven years later, was the captain of one team and Hamilton native Steve Staios, led the other. Staios, who would help the Edmonton Oilers into the Stanley Cup final later that year, is heavily involved in next Monday’s game as president and general manger of the OHL Bulldogs.
“I remember that it was great for fans,” Staios said of the 2005 game. “For the guys, it was great to get out and skate around together. The conditions were OK. It was windy, and it was rainy for sure, but we could still play.”
Among the many other NHLers at “Our Game to Give” were Martin Brodeur, Gary Roberts, Darcy Tucker, Mike Gartner, Rob Blake, Curtis Joseph, Mike Peca, Hamilton’s Adam Mair, Ryan Smith and Jay McKee.
“It was a great experience,” says McKee who will be behind the bench as Bulldogs’ head coach Monday night. “It was my first time playing outdoors on a rink like that. There’s variables that make an outdoor game feel quite different. Just feeling the wind, for one. When you’re skating into it you feel a bit of a drag on your skating, and when you’re with it, you feel like you’re flying.”
Ah yes, the wind. Football players and coaches have repeatedly said that with Tim Hortons Field’s playing surface running north-south (Ivor Wynne’s ran east-west) it’s much more common to face a hearty wind in your face, usually coming from the south and especially when it’s cooler. Like in March.