ST. LOUIS — Brent Sopel has played alongside Mark Messier. He’s played against Jaromir Jagr. He’s played in 71 playoff games and has raised the Stanley Cup over his head. But when he stepped onto the ice at Busch Stadium on Saturday and saw a certain No. 99 warming up just feet away from him, he was reduced to a gushing fan, a little kid.
“You’re in awe,” Sopel said. “At least, I was. It’s a childhood dream. To finally be on the same ice surface as Wayne Gretzky, to get a stick from him — I got a picture with him during warmups. That was it. I was done. Ready to go home. I was like a 10-year-old kid today.”
On paper, Saturday’s alumni game between the Blackhawks and the Blues was comically lopsided. Leading the way for St. Louis were Gretzky (who played just 31 games for the Blues), Brett Hull, Adam Oates, Pierre Turgeon, Al MacInnis, Chris Pronger, and Martin Brodeur (who played just seven games for the Blues). Headlining the Hawks were the likes of Eric Daze, Kyle Calder, Adam Burish, Ben Eager and Darren Pang.
The Hawks held their own against the legends in a spirited 8-7 loss. And yes, it actually got a little competitive down the stretch, with Brodeur and current Hawks goalie coach Jimmy Waite going toe-to-toe in the third period. These are ex-professional athletes, after all. But it’s the experience that mattered. And the experience blew the Hawks away.
For one thing, just being on the ice with so many Hall of Famers was worth the inevitable soreness the next day.
“I took pictures with them all,” Burish said. “Before the game, after the game. During one of the timeouts, I said, “Hully, can I take a picture with you?’ He was like, ‘Yeah, man!’ I’m as big a fan of those guys as anyone. It was incredible. During the national anthem and the starting lineups, I’m standing next to [Pang] and I’m going, ‘Are you kidding me? This is one of the coolest hockey experiences I’ve had. And I’ve played in an outdoor game before. This was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my life.”
That had as much to do with the people off the ice as it did with the people on. St. Louis packed Busch Stadium, some 40,000 strong, to watch guys in their late 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s play.
“I thought it would be about 5-6,000 people, maybe,” Burish said. “Friends and family and that’s it. They said we got 40,000 tickets sold. We got as many as the big game. It was incredible. Blew me away.”
Nobody was blowing anybody away with their speed out there, but there several standout performances. Turgeon was the best player on the ice, and scored twice for the Blues. Calder potted a couple for the Hawks, who also got goals from Jim Cummins, Brian Noonan, Reid Simpson, Ben Eager, and Daniel Carcillo.
For Gretzky, the novelty of the outdoor games hasn’t worn off.
“I would say most of the guys who played today kind of grew up in that era where we grew up in outdoor rinks and ponds and frozen lakes and backyards,” Gretzky said. “You know, guys like Adam Burish and Brett Hull and myself and [Keith] Tkachuk. That’s how we started playing the game of hockey. We weren’t thrown into beautiful, warm, artificial-ice arenas when we were kids; we were thrown out to the 30-below-zero and wearing a toque and a scarf and freezing and our hands numb and our feet numb when we came in. That’s what’s wonderful and what makes the game great. And each and every person to a tee was the exact way. We all love it.”
In the postgame locker room, as the lactic acid built up in their muscles, the players limped around while downing Coronas and Molsons, not protein shakes and Gatorade.
“It’s fun and you think you’re doing OK,” Hull said. “You’re out and you’re skating with the guys and you feel good, and then you get out there and it was just — every stride was agony.”
Burish, only two years removed from the NHL and a year removed from the Swedish league, acknowledged that the pace was a little slower than he’s used to.
“But it was faster than I thought it would be,” he said. “That was the fastest pickup game that I’ve ever played in, by far. Pierre Turgeon was awesome out there. He was really good. We’re all competitive. It might start slow but once it gets going, it’s a lot faster and tighter than you expect. That made it fun.”
Email: mlazerus@suntimes.com
Twitter: @marklazerus
