SLAM! Sports
SLAM! Hockey
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
COLUMNS
NHL
The Teams
Full Schedule
Monthly Schedule
Standings
Statistics
Rosters
Injury list
Movement
Trades
Hits Gallery
INTERACTIVE
JUNIOR
MORE HOCKEY
ALSO ON SLAM!
Wednesday, February 17, 1999
Leafs play first game in new arena Saturday
Camera operators who normally work Hockey Night in Canada games are members of the union that has gone on strike. But plans are proceding to air a doubleheader -- Montreal at Toronto followed by Anaheim at Vancouver.
"The CBC is doing its very best to provide hockey games for our hockey fans across the country Saturday night," CBC spokesman Chuck Thomson said Wednesday. "Given the labour disruption, it's a day-to-day planning process we're going through."
Pre-game entertainment starts one hour before the 7 p.m. EST start time. Thomson said the CBC will not provide pre-game coverage from the Air Canada Centre.
The players aren't worrying about the television wars. They are concentrating on winning the first game in the new arena.
"It's almost like a dream come true to play an Original Six team, our biggest rivalry, on the night they open this new building," says backup Leafs goalie Glenn Healy. "The only negative is that it's going to be near impossible now to get tickets.
"If Anaheim was in, some of us might have a crack at a few extra, but with Montreal it's typically the toughest ticket to get in town. With inaugural night, it'll be even tougher."
The 48th Highlanders will perform first. The regimental pipe and drum band was a staple at Maple Leaf Gardens openers over the years, and took part in the closing Gardens ceremonies last Saturday night.
A gigantic four-sided video centre above centre ice will display clips of memorable hockey games and players, then banners marking Stanley Cup championships and retired player numbers will be unfurled from the rafters.
Leafs and Canadiens alumni will not participate in on-ice festivities but will be seated in the crowd. Former Leafs will have their own lounge in the Air Canada Centre and the hockey club will set aside 20 tickets for alumni for each home game.
Paul Henderson, who missed the Gardens' last NHL game because he was vacationing in Florida with his family, has confirmed he'll be on hand for the first game in the new arena, which is the only one in Canada with its own microbrewery.
There are 18,800 seats, although a tarpaulin will hide 120 in an upper corner that have an obstructed view of the ice surface.
Two children from minor-league hockey teams will drop the puck during the ceremonial faceoff.
"We really wanted to have a youth connection and element in the ceremony," Doug Grover, who is organizing the opening ceremonies, told the Toronto Star. "We want to support minor hockey as well."
Construction crews continue to apply finishing touches. The Leafs' Hall of Fame area will be open but incomplete. The Hot Stove Club, the private club which is being transplanted from the Gardens, won't be finished until June.
Large lettering across the front of the press box and broadcast facilities identify the Foster Hewitt Media Gondola.
TSN has contracted with the $265-million Air Canada Centre to present a customized 90-second Sportsdesk update of NHL and NBA action elsewhere on the video screens after the second intermission of Leafs games and at halftime of Raptors games.
Meanwhile, the last NHL game in the Gardens and the pre-game show both produced the highest ratings of the season for HNIC, and the closing ceremonies gave the CBC its best hockey audiences in almost three years.
The game's rating of 1.9 million viewers was about 800,000 above the season average.
The pre-game show attracted 993,000 viewers, which was almost 500,000 above the season average.
The post-game ceremonies drew an average audience of 2,614,000, which was the highest hockey rating since the sixth game of the 1996 Toronto-St. Louis conference quarter-final which drew 2.6 million.
The Toronto Raptors make their debut at the Air Canada Centre on Sunday against the Vancouver Grizzlies.
