On Frozen Blog

OFB reader Chris Meza helpfully reminded me this morning of cooler times, and specifically of November 22, 2003 — date of the Heritage Classic outdoor hockey game between Montreal and Edmonton. Chris is a good person to talk to about that event, seeing as he traveled from Washington all the way to Alberta that weekend to take in the game in the upper deck of Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium. I vividly remember him ringing me on his cell phone from those frozen environs. I asked Chris to share with me his recollections of that remarkable Saturday night.

The league of course selected the late November date seeking optimally chilly and dry conditions for the game. It got chilly all right. That Saturday afternoon, temps were in the single digits. Before the evening was done, the Habs and Oilers were skating in air that reached -28 Fahrenheit.

“The night before, it snowed in Edmonton,” Chris recalled. “It snowed enough and it was cold enough that one of the Zambonis needed for the game froze up.”

There were two games for the early winter hearty to take in that day, an Old Timers one featuring ’70s and ’80s Oilers and Canadians greats and then a standing’s counting one between the contemporary teams afterward. Players for both games were able to skate out onto the makeshift ice surface from their locker rooms.

I asked Chris how he outfitted himself for his perch a hundred feet high in the frosty Alberta night. “I was in winter socks, longjohns, Levis, two shirts, a heavy duty ski coat, gloves, a scarf, and a wool cap,” he said. “The thing I remember most about the fashion that night were the locals, men and women, and even their children, armored in winter coveralls that you commonly see construction workers in when they’re working outdoors in extreme winter.”

He had another vivid recollection from his frozen stadium experience. “I didn’t purchase refreshments from the concessions, because trips to restrooms required . . . well, in all those layers all of us were in, it just took too long,” he laughed.

It wasn’t just spectators lavishly layered — Montreal netminder Jose Theodore famously added a touque to the top of his goalie mask to try and ward off the tundra chill, and many of the skaters appeared to pull turtlenecks up to their ears.

The league set up two large viewing screens at both ends of Commonwealth for spectators. Chris said that the screens were important for those like him seated up high to follow the play. “So much of the stadium seemed to follow the play on those screens,” Chris said. “Their enthusiasm, with every rush, seemed identical to the passion you associate with a Canadian crowd in a typical arena.”

I asked Chris to identify a lasting image of that November’s frozen feast. “Even in the upper deck where I was, you could see the joy on the faces of the Old-Timer All Stars, their delight in taking shovels and pushing snow off of the playing surface. It just reminded you of hockey’s roots and that the game’s biggest names seemed to relish a return to them.”