Oilers leave the Jets depleted in Heritage Classic matchup

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There was barely a nip in the air Sunday as the sun shimmered off the beautiful ice surface fashioned inside Investors Group Field. It was hardly colder than any indoors rink, and hospitable for Winnipeg in the last week of October.

It wasn't the 10 C temperature but bright sunshine that caused a delay at the Heritage Classic. NHL officials believed glare posed a risk to the goalies, so the midafternoon start at one of the league's most high-profile games was pushed back nearly two hours.

Shadows crisscrossed the stadium by the time the Winnipeg Jets and Edmonton Oilers finally appeared, walking down a narrow corridor as they were enveloped in smoke and fireworks cascaded around them.

The gathering of more than 30,000 cheered the hometown Jets and jeered the Oilers, but it was all in fun. The house was full, copious amounts of poutine and perogies were consumed, and hockey was played beneath a turquoise sky on the prairies. What could possibly be better?

This was the 19th regular-season NHL game played outdoors and the first of four during the 2016-17 season. It was the first time the Jets participated in the Heritage Classic and only the second for Edmonton, which held the NHL's inaugural outdoors adventure at Commonwealth Stadium in -27 C temperatures in November, 2003.

The Oilers built a lead around three second-period goals and silenced the partisan crowd en route to a 3-0 victory. It was Edmonton's fifth triumph in six games, uncharted territory for a team whose playoff drought stands at 10 years. The Jets are 2-3.

The anticipated matchup between both franchises' great young players never materialized.

Connor McDavid, the Oilers' 19-year-old captain, registered an assist on their second goal by feeding a perfect pass to Darnell Nurse. Patrik Laine, Winnipeg's 18-year-old first-round pick, failed to add to the four goals he scored in his first four NHL games.

Result notwithstanding, spectators basked in the atmosphere of a weekend-long celebration. Former stars from both teams hooked up for fun and bragging rights before a crowd of more than 30,000 on Saturday; for the record, Teemu Selanne scored the game-winner on a penalty shot in the final seconds to secure the Jets' 6-5 conquest.

Mark Messier scored twice for the Oilers but his Hall-of-Fame teammate, Wayne Gretzky, saw only limited action. Gretzky, 55, put the team together as Edmonton's captain, but skates only rarely now and may never again.

"I stink," the self-Deprecating One said afterward. "I didn't have any expectations and didn't tell anybody I'd be the Wayne Gretzky of the Eighties. I am terrible.

"I'm not doing a road show. That might be my last game."

Dave Lumley, a winger who won two Stanley Cups in Edmonton in the 1980s, collected an assist, despite playing with two torn rotator cuffs and on the same skates he used in 1984, 1985 and 1986.

Craig MacTavish, the Oilers' current vice-president of hockey operations, chipped in a goal and an assist.

"It was good fun," MacTavish, 58, said. "The game had a little bit of everything but speed."

The Jets invited the Oilers to share in the celebration because of their enduring history. Both were original members of the World Hockey Association and entered the NHL in 1979 as part of a four-team expansion. The teams faced off in the Stanley Cup playoffs six times between 1983 and 1990, with the Oilers winning every series.

As such, fans began grumbling Saturday as the Oilers chipped away at the Jets' 4-1 lead.

"It's like every Oilers-Jets game in 86," one wag from Winnipeg said, watching from the press box. "And 85, 84, 83, …"

The last time Edmonton won the Stanley Cup was 1990. Faced with mounting financial challenges, Winnipeg lost the Jets in 1996, but heartbreak turned euphoria when True North Sports and Entertainment purchased the Atlanta Thrashers and moved them to Manitoba in 2011.

The Jets' fans rank among the most resilient in the NHL and whooped it up both days. The crowd roared on Saturday when a portrait of the Queen was shown on the jumbo screen. The five-metre by seven-metre painting was unveiled during the Jets' first season in the NHL and remained hanging in the old Winnipeg arena throughout their tenure.

Across generations, players for the Jets used the portrait, hung near the blueline at one end, for target practice.

The pace was light-speed faster on Sunday. Like major-league outfielders, players on both benches painted black strips beneath their eyes as a means to reduce the glare.

Oilers goalie Cam Talbot was a member of the Rangers when they had an outdoor game delayed at Yankee Stadium a few years ago, so he said it came as no surprise.

"I knew it wasn't out of the realm of possibility, so we were prepared for that," said Talbot, who had 31 saves and has now allowed only three goals in the past three games. "We waited longer than expected, but knew we had to be ready once the puck dropped."

The teams played a goalless first period before the wheels fell off for Winnipeg in the second. Mark Letestu put Edmonton ahead with a short-handed goal with 10 minutes 36 seconds left, pulling away for a breakaway after Dustin Byfuglien swung and missed at the blueline.

"The ice played a factor, with the puck bouncing a little bit," Letestu said. "It was bouncing like Bugs Bunny as I headed for the net but thankfully it settled down enough for me to put it in."

Less than two minutes later, Nurse buried a shot past Connor Hellebuyck after a nifty pass from McDavid. Zack Kassian finished the scoring with less than three minutes remaining, hitting the net after receiving a backhanded no-look pass from Benoît Pouliot.

The result was a downer for the Jets' rabid followers, but came at the end of an exciting week in Winnipeg. Gretzky and Dale Hawerchuk participated in the ceremonial pregame puck drop moments after fighter jets flew overhead, and fans cheered their lungs out no matter what. They did the wave, poured more than $400,000 into the 50-50 raffle and booed as stadium staff retrieved pucks and refused to hand them over after they flew high over the glass.

This weekend was a chance for Winnipeg to show itself off to the hockey world, and that was accomplished quite well.

"We would have liked to give fans reason to get out of their seats today, but it was still a spectacular week for us," said Paul Maurice, the Jets' coach. "It was great to have this here, and it was great for the city.

"We showed ourselves in a positive light."