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Sunday, January 20, 2002

By Dejan Kovacevic, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

EDMONTON, Alberta -- Ask just about any hockey aficionado to identify the sport's Mecca and, faster than a Rocket Richard snap shot, he or she is certain to choose Montreal, home of 24 Stanley Cup champions. Anyone who doesn't surely will pick Toronto, home of the Hall of Fame.

My choice? Edmonton.

Please try to avoid a scoff as I explain.

The Canadiens' truly great teams came pretty much before my time. I didn't have a chance to see Richard, Jean Beliveau, Doug Harvey and Ken Dryden, other than in some scratchy, black-and-white footage.

And the Maple Leafs' great teams? They came before my grandfather's time, I think.

To me, while growing up, the Oilers were it. And because of that, visiting this city always represents a special stop on an NHL circuit that has grown increasingly mundane in recent years, if only because of all the homogenized new arenas and equally bland play.

It's not just that Edmonton is home to the league's best sheet of ice, a jewel of a surface so hard and fast a player can still see his reflection by period's end.

Nor is it the snow that always seems to cake the entire province of Alberta, with the Arctic Circle seemingly a stone's throw away.

Nor is it the five Stanley Cup banners and the retired Nos. 99 and 17 hanging at Skyreach Centre to commemorate the careers of Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri, side by side in the rafters just as they were on the ice.

Nor is it the vivid memories of the brilliant brand of hockey those teams played, the kind that inspired so many youngsters in the Pittsburgh area and across North America to learn the game, whether on ice or asphalt, while wearing the blue and orange.

Rather, it's about the attitude.

Since joining the NHL in 1979 as part of the WHA merger, the Oilers always have been about skating. The strategies they employ, the players they draft, the swagger they carry all are based on hockey's most fundamental skill.

As Dan LaCouture, a speedster who spent parts of three seasons in the Edmonton organization, put it: "Right from the farm system up, that's what they're all about. That's what they go out and look for. They like those crazy skaters, the guys who just skate and skate."

That approach has not wavered.

When the Devils were changing the face of the game by winning the Cup in 1995 on the strength of the neutral-zone trap system, the Oilers were still skating. When the Wild came along last season and put everyone to sleep with a zero-man forecheck, the Oilers answered by skating right around them to go 6-0-2 in their eight meetings so far.

Today, while the NHL sinks into a funk in which scoring is down to its lowest point since the 1950s, the Oilers continue to go hard to the net and dare the opponent to do likewise. Overall in the league, games average 5.16 goals per game. At Skyreach, they average 5.54, including six of eight or more.

Andrew Ference was born and raised in Edmonton, and he was fortunate enough to watch the franchise up close through its glory years. He remains an admirer.

"I don't think you could have picked a better city in the world to watch hockey than where I was," he said. "I got to see some of the best players ever, a real dynasty team. It's like I was totally spoiled. Me and my friends, that's how we learned to play hockey, how we expected the game to be played. It's meant to be hard and fast, the way fans love it, the way the game should be."

The way it still is here.

Dejan Kovacevic can be reached at dkovacevic@ post-gazette.com.