Others would cite Pink Floyd's The Wall tour or the Eagles' reunion concert as great moments in the old barn. When Northlands Coliseum opened on Nov. The Oilers played in the World Hockey Association, a short-lived rival league that folded in Four of its teams were absorbed into the NHL, including the Oilers.
It was time to replace the building," says Rod Phillips, the longtime play-by-play voice of the Oilers. As Phillips travelled with the team he could see times were changing.
You know there are new buildings all around the league. Edmonton's new Rogers Place will stand in stark contrast to its predecessor. It's a modern and stylish high-tech hockey hub in the heart of downtown, part of a hectare development called the Ice District, which includes new luxury hotels, a casino, nightclubs and restaurants.
When it opened, the capacity was slightly more than 15,, but it was increased to 17, after the Oilers joined the NHL by adding an extra tier of seating on the side opposite the pressbox. This was increased to 17, in The arena underwent an extensive renovation in and has 67 luxury suites. Ice Hockey Wiki Explore. Players Teams Leagues Seasons Arenas. Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? Rexall Place. Edit source History Talk 0.
History [ ] North face of Rexall Place. Program from opening night. Welcome to NHL. Vitajte na NHL. Willkommen auf NHL. Bienvenido a NHL. It's a very special place, I spent close to nine years here, the core of my career, and what I was built into as a player, on the ice, a lot of it was here and due to a lot of people from here.
The thick, steel door was not in a public area of the arena, but most in Edmonton knew it existed. Those with access to the dressing room often would inspect it closely. Badly dented because of countless butt ends from the sticks of players passing by on the way to the ice, it displayed stickers representing every playoff win in the history of the organization. Every time we won a game, we put a sticker up on the door.
We had to get 16 stickers to win the Stanley Cup and it became more of a ritual thing than anything. Then it became a good-luck thing, and one thing led to another, and then it was a superstitious thing around that door and it became part of the folklore.
The door is still in the Oilers dressing room, but following renovations in was moved into a hallway leading to the players' lounge, out of sight from visitors.
It is expected to accompany the Oilers to their new downtown arena, Rogers Place, next season. The statue of former Oilers legend Wayne Gretzky, which adorns the front steps of Rexall Place, also will be moved to Rogers Place, along with numerous other pieces of memorabilia.
Rogers Place will be the centerpiece of a new arena neighborhood, branded the "Ice District" in downtown Edmonton, and will seat 18, for hockey, an improvement from Rexall Place's capacity of 16, The state-of-the-art facility is scheduled to open in September, in time for the NHL season.
Moving into a new era with some unreal and great memories of Rexall Place, and now moving into [the] new arena, hopefully [the Oilers] can make some new and wonderful memories.
The Oilers will play their final game in the building on April 6 against the Vancouver Canucks. When you have a great team, it is always wonderful to go to the rink each and every day.
There's no question, we had a reputation of having the best ice in hockey and it was always good ice, which suited our team perfectly. The fans were always good to us. I think, in a lot of ways, our team played hard and was good to the fans, so it was a perfect marriage.
My first training camp was at the old Edmonton Gardens, which most people won't even remember. It's fun to see the old buildings, but it also sad to see them go. In their inaugural season, they were known as the Alberta Oilers. The arena replaced Edmonton Gardens, located across the street. At the time of its debut, the arena was considered one of the most modern indoor sporting facilities in North America.
It was the first arena in Canada with a scoreboard hanging above center ice with an electronic message board. This was a place to get to, it all gave us a place to aspire to. As an Edmonton kid, coming here and watching games, watching Gordie Howe in the WHA and then being able to come here and play in this building and play for the Oilers, it was unimaginable.
Edmonton swept the best-of-5 series with Moog, a relative unknown, starting in goal. The Oilers won the first two games in Montreal and returned to Northlands Coliseum for Game 3, where a raucous crowd greeted them. That was kind of cool. I was so naive that I didn't realize that wasn't normal. The Oilers lost to the New York Islanders in the next round, which became the opening chapter in a legendary rivalry.
The Islanders were defending Stanley Cup champions and went on to win three more in a row before being dethroned by the Oilers in But we were a very confident team, we had just come off our first Stanley Cup and that got us over the hump, sort of, in not worrying about our skill level, we pretty much proved to ourselves that we were a good hockey team and we were having another good season.
The quote I always remember is, Wayne Gretzky talking about realizing what it took to win the Stanley Cup when he walked by the Islanders locker room and to see what those guys gave up mentally and physically and how beat up they were. Something like that, from a player like that, resonates for a long time. Even for a guy that didn't get to see that, you hear about that today. That was pretty special hockey, so many great players and tremendous teams and two dynasties, one that followed the other.
Gretzky's tale of how the Oilers came to understand the sacrifices it took to win the Stanley Cup with a glimpse into the Islanders dressing room following Edmonton's Game 4 defeat in the Final reverberates.
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