Charron, Ferguson remember Classic

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
It was Nov. 22, 2003, when the visiting Montreal Canadiens and Edmonton Oilers met outdoors at Commonwealth Stadium.
“It was quite an experience,” says Guy Charron, now the head coach of the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers but then an assistant coach with the Canadiens. “I remember how cold it was.”
Blazers assistant coach Scott Ferguson was a defencemen with the Oilers in that game.
“Ohhh, it was freezing,” Ferguson says. “It might have been the coldest two or three days of the whole winter. It was ridiculous, and then shortly after that it warmed up.”
How cold was it? It was -18 C at game time and the wind chill was somewhere below -30 C.
“It was very cold,” Charron says, and he digs his hands deeper in his pockets at the thought. “They had those heaters you see on football fields. We tried to stand in that direction but we knew it was more important for the players. Ironically, if the players were right against them they were too hot, so they would give you enough room to get the proper heat.“
Ferguson, whose club dropped a 4-3 decision to the Canadiens, remembers the heaters causing breathing difficulties.
“They had heaters and stuff on the bench,” he says. “But for whatever reason the air was so warm you couldn’t breathe. When you were on the bench, you had to lean over the boards in order to catch your breath.
“It was quite an ordeal. Everyone had balaclavas on.”
Charron especially remembers then-Montreal head coach Claude Julien toughing it out.
“There he was wearing just an overcoat,” Charron remembers, with a chuckle. “(Assistant coach) Rick Green and I would look at each other . . . I guess with the head coach the flow of the blood is warmer, I don’t know. We had thermal underwear and all the things that we needed to stay warm, but it was cold.”
Despite the weather, Charron feels the Classic should be here to stay.
“The biggest thing,” Charron says, “is the interest of the fans and that’s why it’s good. It would be different if you did it and nobody showed up.”
Looking back to that day at Commonwealth Stadium, home to the CFL’s Edmonton Eskimos, Charron says: “Here we are on a small ice surface and you look around and it’s a capacity crowd in a football stadium. As long as the fans continue to support it . . . conditions aren’t always perfect but if you fill a stadium, why not?”
Ferguson said game day turned out to be a real circus, but, in the end, it all was worth it.
“It was a dog and pony show,” he says. “Just trying to get to the stadium . . . there were traffic jams. There were a lot of distractions for that one game. There was a lot going on.
“Looking back on it, I have a lot of good memories and am glad that I was a part of it. At the time, there were so many things, so many distractions, and you’re just trying to stay focused on the game.
“You look back at it now and it was a lot of fun to be part of it. The first outdoor game in the NHL . . .”
The game, as Ferguson remembers, was hardly a classic.
“The ice was terrible; it was really chippy,” he says. “It was snowy. It wasn’t a very good looking game. Guys would get the puck and you would chip it up the boards, chip it up the boards, try to get a shot on net. And the other team would do the same thing. There wasn’t a whole lot of passing going on. It was just like old-fashioned pond hockey.
“Still, it was a fun game to play in. I have good memories of it.”
Charron agrees.
“I have some very fond memories of it,” he says, “and, besides that, we won so that was even better.”
Ferguson, however, says the outcome easily could have been different.
“I scored . . . and they disallowed it,” he recalls. “I was choked. I scored and they disallowed the goal because they said there was goalie interference.
“I beg to differ.”

gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
gdrinnan.blogspot.com