Greg Adams quipped that with Lanny McDonald having to pull out of playing in the Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada Celebrity and Alumni Classic Game, he was suddenly the oldest player on the ice in front of 7,006 fans Friday night at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
“Time flies,” said Adams.
It was the first time on skates in six years for the 63-year-old WHL Victoria Cougars graduate and 10-season NHLer from Duncan. Adams was part of the game that featured former NHLers Andrew Ference, Kevin Bieksa, Wendel Clark, Kirk McLean, Bill Ranford, Nathan LaFayette, Darcy Tucker along with Hockey Night in Canada commentators Ron MacLean, Evanka Osmak, David Amber, Ken Reid and Jennifer Botterill.
For the record, Team Tucker beat Team McDonald 7-5.
Behind the bench for Team Tucker were coaches Kelly Hrudey, Brian Burke, Elliotte Friedman and Cassie Campbell-Pascall. Coaching for Team Lanny McDonald were former Island NHLers Geoff Courtnall and Robin Bawa and another former B.C. NHLer in Danny Gare.
“Victoria is close to me from playing all those years in the WHL [for the Kamloops Blazers against the Cougars],” said Tucker.
That didn’t stop McDonald from challenging Tucker to a $100 bet, saying: “You’re going down.” Not quite. It turned out to be a losing bet for McDonald. But it mattered little.
It was a celebration of Canadian hockey with a panoply of jerseys dotting the crowd from Sidney Crosby’s and Roberto Luongo’s 2010 Olympics No. 87 and No. 1, respectively, to Guy Lafleur’s Habs No. 10 to Trevor Linden’s Canucks No. 16 and plenty in-between. The Stanley Cup and Canucks mascot Fin, meanwhile, got more pictures taken with fans than the players. Less popular, in true B.C. fashion, was Toronto Maple Leafs mascot Carlton the Bear.
A highlight of the game for true local hockey fans was seeing former NHLers from the Island such as Adams, Matt Pettinger, Doug Bodger, Clayton Stoner, Steve Lingren, Tom ‘Bussy’ Martin, Mike Hamilton, Bruce Courtnall and Matt Ellison skating again on Blanshard Street. For the likes of Adams, it used to be in the old Memorial Arena, when he came out of Fuller Lake and the BCHL Nanaimo Clippers to star two seasons with the WHL Cougars, recording 62 goals and 110 points in 1979-80. That led to the NHL and 545 regular-season and 43 playoff games with the Vancouver Canucks, Washington Capitals, Philadelphia Flyers, Hartford Whalers, Edmonton Oilers, Detroit Red Wings and Quebec Nordiques.
“When all of us Island guys got together this week for the Hockey Day in Canada activities, we asked ourselves why don’t we do this more often?” said Adams, now the owner and showrunner of the big-time summer concerts at Laketown Ranch in the Cowichan Valley.
It’s all inter-related, Adams said: “I looked up to the 1970s Cougars players like Mel Bridgman, Rick Lapointe and Al Hill and the generation that came after myself, Barry Pederson, Brad Palmer and Bob Jansch looked up to us at the old Memorial Arena and they became NHLers like the Courtnalls and Matt Pettinger. And guys like the Benns, Matt Irwin and Tyson Barrie looked up to them.”
If Adams was the oldest player on the ice, the youngest was Morgan Jackson, the 18-year-old Shawnigan Lake School forward from Courtenay who won gold with Canada in the women’s 2023 IIHF world U-18 championship and bronze this year. Jackson’s play earned a shout-out from three-time Olympic gold-medallist Botterill. “Morgan is amazing with a great future.”
Friday’s alumni/celebrity game was a prelude to the full Hockey Night in Canada panel — including Friedman, MacLean, Osmak, Amber, Hrudey climbing atop Milestones Restaurant — with its sweeping views of the Inner Harbour — for the annual 12.5-hour Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada broadcast today featuring all seven Canadian NHL teams in action. Interspersed will be features on Island hockey, including cutting to the WHL game at the Memorial Centre between the Victoria Royals and Kamloops Blazers. The broadcast will begin with Victoria singer Nelly Furtado reflecting on her hometown.
A free Wilson’s Group shuttle bus service from 8:30 a.m. to 6:45 p.m. will be running every 15 minutes today from the Memorial Centre parking lot to Ship Point in the Inner Harbour, where many activities will be taking place around the $100,000 synthetic-ice rink that has been installed for the occasion.
ICE CHIPS: The Victoria-based Courtnall Society for Mental Health, the official charity of the event, has received a $50,000 contribution from this year’s Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada.
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