The Edmonton Oilers will bid farewell to Rexall Place Wednesday night as they play their final game at the rink the organization has called home since 1974.
The rink went through multiple name changes; originally it was called Northlands Coliseum, then Edmonton Coliseum, then the Skyreach Centre before finally adopting its current name in the middle of the 2003-04 NHL season. The rink is also affectionately known as The House Gretzky Built in reference to one of the greatest players to ever play for the Oilers (and in the NHL) in Wayne Gretzky.
The Oilers franchise began playing at what was then Northlands Coliseum as a World Hockey Association team before the organization joined the NHL in 1979. Rexall was home to the Oilers dynasty in the 1980s. It was the place where the Oilers enjoyed both good years and bad through the 1990s. The storybook 2006 playoff run happened at Rexall, and the bitterness of a seemingly never-ending rebuild in recent years played out on that same ice.
Next year, the Oilers will move to the brand new Rogers Place, but the memories made at Rexall will always hold a spot in Oilers history.
Here is a look at five of the best moments to play out on the Rexall Place ice.
The Oilers enjoyed a fairytale postseason run in 2006. The entered the playoffs as a No. 8 seed tasked with topping the heavily favored Detroit Red Wings, who won the Presidents' Trophy that year. But the Oilers pulled off an improbable upset in the Western Conference quarterfinals that year and continued to plow through the competition en route to Edmonton's first Stanley Cup Finals appearance since 1990. Edmonton faced the Carolina Hurricanes for the coveted Cup and pushed the series to seven games with a dominant performance in Game 6 at Rexall Place. The Oilers held the Hurricanes to just 16 shots on goal in a 4-0 Oilers win that night, giving Edmonton fans one last home win to enjoy before the Oilers lost to the Hurricanes in Game 7.
Ales Hemsky scores a goal in Game 6 of the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals.
It's hard for any Oiler to top anything Wayne Gretzky accomplished while wearing an Edmonton sweater, but Ryan Smyth was able to best the legendary Gretzky at one impressive feat. On Oct. 12, 2006, Smyth recorded the fastest hat trick in franchise history by notching three goals in just 2:01, 17 seconds faster than Gretzky's fastest hat trick with the Oilers. What made Smyth's trick even better for Edmonton was the fact that it came in the third period and turned what had been a 4-2 Oilers deficit to the San Jose Sharks to a 5-4 lead for the Oilers. Edmonton ended up winning the game, 6-4.
The 1988 Stanley Cup Finals took an odd twist when Game 4 between the Oilers and Boston Bruins had to be replayed due to a power outage at the Boston Garden. Instead of replaying the game in Boston, the series went back to Edmonton for the second attempt at Game 4, but the Oilers were technically listed as the road team.
Ryan Smyth beat out Wayne Gretzky in one scoring record.
But Edmonton looked plenty at home on the night of May 26, as the Oilers topped the Bruins, 6-3, to complete a sweep over the Bruins and win Edmonton's fourth Cup championship in five years. The game turned out to be Gretzky's last as an Oiler, and in what was perhaps a serendipitous moment by The Great One, Gretzky requested that the entire team â management, trainers, scouts and all â take a photo together at center ice. That request has turned into what is now a tradition throughout hockey of taking a team picture on the ice after winning a championship.
On Dec. 30, 1981, Gretzky recorded one of his most impressive scoring feats by notching five goals in a game to reach the 50-goal threshold just 39 games into his season. Gretzky â who was just 20 years old at the time â ended up scoring 92 goals that season (and 212 total points) in 80 games. It marked the highest goal total in a single season in his career.
By the start of the 1983-84 season, the Oilers were already one of the best teams in the NHL. Edmonton missed out on a Stanley Cup championship the year before when they were swept by the New York Islanders, but the Oilers got their revenge when they dismantled the Islanders, four games to one, in the 1984 Stanley Cup Finals.
The Cup marked the first championship of the Oilers' dynasty era, as Edmonton won five Stanley Cup championships between 1984-1990.
