It was a different hockey world when Mats Sundin made history.
His status as the first European ever selected No. 1 in the NHL draft back in 1989 was no small achievement, you should remember. Back then, Euros weren’t necessarily seen as players that could be trusted to be franchise players despite the success players like Jari Kurri had already experienced. The Iron Curtain had yet to fall, so players from Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union were all but unreachable.
Hockey players will soon be skating again at Maple Leaf Gardens. They’ll be figure skating, but there they’ll be, on the same ice that Toronto’s hockey legends once called home.
And the public will have the chance for one more peak inside the venerable, yellow-bricked hockey palace on Carlton St.
In a neat twist, the CBC announced yesterday that Battle of the Blades, a new show featuring former NHLers paired with world-class female champions in a figure skating competition, will air live from the Gardens beginning Oct. 4.
Old Leafs try ice dancing in reality TV show
Historic Maple Leaf Gardens will play host to the CBC reality television show Battle of the Blades, in which hockey legends pair up with figure skaters to dance for charity.
“We have had an enormous reaction to the show being at the Gardens. A lot of people are excited to get the chance to walk into the Gardens,” John Brunton, executive producer of the show said last night from Los Angeles.
“The building hasn’t been gutted and we will bring in our own ice surface. Some seats are still there and we can easily replace the ones that are gone,” he said.
“A lot of the charm of the building still exists.”
The last NHL game at the Gardens was played Feb. 13, 1999.
Hockey Hall of Famers Lanny McDonald and Glenn Anderson as well as former Maple Leafs fan favourite Tie Domi will team up with figure skating stars such as Jamie Sale, Shae-Lynn Bourne and Barbara Underhill to perform ice dancing routines in front of a live audience.
More participants in the show will be announced at a later date.
The show will be hosted by Ron MacLean of Hockey Night in Canada and former world figure skating champion Kurt Browning. Up to 5,000 spectators are expected at the Gardens show.
It will air in October.
Sun Media
Former Leafs star to attend official opening of ‘Friends of Tie Domi Rehabilitation Clinic’
Toronto, ON – Help us celebrate the official grand opening of the newly renovated ‘Friends of Tie Domi Rehabilitation Clinic’ at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) on Tuesday, May 26. The new space, which handles more than 35,000 patient visits each year, offers a bright and refreshing change to a clinic that has not been updated since it originally opened in the 1950s.
Former Leafs star to attend official opening of ‘Friends of Tie Domi Rehabilitation Clinic’
Help us celebrate the official grand opening of the newly renovated ‘Friends of Tie Domi Rehabilitation Clinic’ at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) on Tuesday, May 26. The new space, which handles more than 35,000 patient visits each year, offers a bright and refreshing change to a clinic that has not been updated since it originally opened in the 1950s.
