When you looked at the names on the banners that hang from the rafters at the old Northlands Coliseum, you couldn’t haggle with any of them. Great players all, a Hall of Fame manager, and a radio man that brought it all home to the people.
And the building? We’ve all wrung our share of sentiment out of the ol’ barn these past few days, but c’mon. Name a building in this fair country that has hosted more Stanley Cup Final games in the past 35 years than this one.
It isn’t even close. This place is Western Canada’s Montreal Forum. A temple.
But there’s a problem every time the Oilers pull the lid off another can of nostalgia and start spreading the syrup across the 780. It just drives it home how long it’s been since this building has seen a meaningful hockey game.
As they feted Rexall Place one last time on Wednesday night, the Oilers gave their patient fans an 80s-style 6-2 win over Vancouver. Connor McDavid had a goal and three points. So did Taylor Hall. Nail Yakupov scored the first goal, Leon Draisaitl sniped the last one ever in this barn, and for a rare visit by the Canucks No. 22 and 33 in white weren’t the best players on the ice.
This is how it was suppose to evolve here, with these kids vanquishing the Sedins then moving on to the state-of-the-art building downtown for round after round of playoff hockey. The book has been slow in the writing, but surely after yet another lottery season, the new rink will help to turn some pages.
“Look at different franchises around sports that have had new buildings, and it seems to revitalize the group and the fan base a little bit,” Hall said Wednesday. “Certainly, I think players are looking forward to a new place to come to work. I think that’s good for everyone with, honestly, the failures that we’ve had here in the past years.”
The kid’s honest. You’ve got to give him that.
It was good that the final game at Rexall Place was a finite occasion, so everyone could fly in and attend the wake. It was at the same time sad that this wasn’t a playoff game, even if the final game might have passed without anyone being sure of its finality.
But that, too, is fitting. These walls off of 118th ave. and Wayne Gretzky Drive have given Edmonton some of its defining sports moments. It’s also been a factory of sadness in recent years, only a few short days ago rendering a 5-0 loss to Calgary in the final Battle of Alberta ever staged here.
This Oilers performance was a relief, first and foremost. Hall admitted as much. Now we’ll ask, was it a portent?
“For (the fans) to be able to enjoy an evening, express more joy than disappointment, is really important to the guys. They had it in the back of their mind, and the energy in the building was incredible,” said head coach Todd McLellan. “It was emotional for me, so I can’t imagine a season ticket holder for 40 years, how they felt. It was a good way for our guys to thank them for the support. We haven’t given them enough wins, but we performed tonight.”
There will be further organizational changes this summer. With first-year GM Peter Chiarelli heading into his second summer, changes are expected on the scouting staff and in the front office.
Among the players, undoubtedly someone who has been considered a core player will be traded prior to the draft. The new GM has a firm grip on the needs, and no allegiance to all these bonus babies. He knows that size, strength and courage will rule the day out West, and that this current edition doesn’t have enough of any of them.
“When you start to build that mentality,” Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said, “whoever stays … it definitely builds on to the next season.”
So that’s a wrap. A few Light Rail Transit stops away, Rogers Place will open in August.
That simply can’t be the only thing that changes for these Edmonton Oilers.
