FAREWELL TO REXALL PLACE

Rink helped define a city

The Edmonton Oilers will play their final game at Rexall Place today, marking an end to the era of professional hockey at the old Coliseum on 118th Avenue and Wayne Gretzky Drive.

There will be excitement to come about the team’s relaunch in a new downtown arena next fall. And the imposing, concrete venue that has hosted thousands of hockey games and hundreds of concerts since its doors opened in 1974 isn’t going anywhere — for now. (The current vision offered by Northlands will see it reinvented as a community ice complex if the idea receives buy-in at city hall).

Still, the special events and shared memories of the last several days tied to the Oilers’ history with the old barn strike the same chord as a wake for a beloved family member.

The building may recover from its severed ties with the NHL, but it won’t be the same. That’s not a bad thing. Interesting, vibrant communities go through reinvention. But it is easy to get caught up in the wave of nostalgia as the Oilers part ways with the Coliseum.

For Oilers fans faced with a decade of no playoff hockey, the fond farewell is a welcome distraction from what would otherwise be another depressing season finale in the basement of the league’s standings and a brief respite from being the punchline of draft lottery jokes.

It makes sense that a young city like Edmonton, not so far removed from its centennial, would gravitate to the chance to look back.

Canadian studies scholars sometimes speak on the question of defining just when Canada became a truly independent nation. Edmonton, likewise, is a city that sometimes struggles to articulate its identity and defining moments.

There can be no question that the fantastic scene at the Coliseum in 1984 when the Oilers mobbed goalie Grant Fuhr after defeating the New York Islanders and Wayne Gretzky hoisted the Stanley Cup over his head in celebration is part of an essential chapter in Edmonton’s story. “This city will never be the same,” a CBC commentator said.

The hockey success that unfolded over decades at Rexall Place is one part of what allowed modest, mild-mannered Edmonton to embrace its identity as champions in all sorts of venues. It injected the city with some swagger. And every televised hockey game, with its aerial views of the arena and downtown skyline, helped put Edmonton on the map among hockey fans in two countries.

That history is worth cheering for right up until tonight’s final whistle.