A Memorable Night In Buffalo.

On one evening back in 1982, I was sitting less than a couple hundred feet away from two of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Even though I was sitting that close, I hardly paid any attention to either of them. But there were many of the sixteen thousand plus in attendance who were star struck and going a bit gaga. However, on this night someone else would be receiving the top billing and he would upstage both of them. Although, he would be making the sold out crowd wait that night in the old Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

Academy Award winner Goldie Hawn and the American iconic sex symbol Burt Reynolds were in Buffalo filming the movie Best Friends. I, along with a friend also made the trip to Buffalo and we too were also sitting inside the sold out Aud. The date was February 24, 1982; the Edmonton Oilers were in town for a Wednesday night tilt with the Buffalo Sabres.

The Oilers were the National Hockey League’s biggest draw during that season. Arenas around the league were sold out well in advance to witness hockey’s latest Phenom in person. The Oilers were a collection of youthful future Hall of Famers who were led by their soon to be Captain Wayne Gretzky. Even back in 1982 there was no doubt this team of talented superstars was destined to win multiple Stanley Cup championships.

The Toronto Sun frequently ran a little ad in the sports section for a company called Gamesaway Tours. The company organized very popular bus and train packages to many cities of various professional sports teams. The packages mostly catered to venues of teams along the eastern seaboard of the United States. The NFL’s Buffalo Bills were immensely popular in the Toronto area. Busloads of fans made the trip to Orchard Park for every Bills home game. Even the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts could not compete with its NFL rival just ninety minutes south on the QEW.

I myself had already gone to a few Bills games including one unforgettable Monday night game against the Miami Dolphins. The single game packages were a good hassle free deal and included transportation along with your ticket to the game. Weekend football packages would also include a hockey game plus hotel if schedules had the Bills and Sabres both playing in Buffalo on consecutive days.

The 1981-82 season would see Wayne Gretzky tearing up the National Hockey League record book. Not even two months earlier, Wayne had shattered the 50 goals in 50 games record. He scored number fifty in his 39th game at Edmonton against the Flyers.

Gretzky was on fire.

Watching Wayne play in Toronto at Maple Leaf Gardens was almost impossible as well as unaffordable for the average fan. The Oilers were the top ticket in Toronto that year. The only tickets available would be from scalpers on the street for the Saturday night game on Hockey Night in Canada. It would be Gretzky’s only visit to Toronto that season. I was lucky enough to have been in attendance on that frigid January night when Wayne scored the lone Oilers goal in a rare 7-1 thrashing by the Maple Leafs.

A few days later I saw the Gamesaway Tours ad in the Sun. They were now offering a bus package to the Oiler's first and only game that season in Buffalo. The cost was about fifty bucks and included a ticket in the lower bowl. I really wanted to go, but not by myself so I started asking some friends to see if anyone else was interested. Many of my friends wanted to go, but they could not afford the fifty bucks. Plus the fact it was a mid-week game on a Wednesday night also made some hesitant about going.

Steve was a section head at the Collegiate Sports store where I had worked. We had both moved on from the store the previous year, but we continued to play hockey together weekly. Steve was very keen to see Gretzky play in Buffalo and immediately committed by giving me fifty bucks in cash. I went the next day while I was downtown to the Gamesaway College Street offices and purchased our two bus packages.

As gameday got closer it became more apparent that Gretzky was on the verge of breaking one of the NHL’s premier scoring records. There was no doubt the most goals in a single season record was sure to be Gretzky's by season's end. Phil Esposito had held the record since the 1970-71 season when he scored 76 goals that year while playing for the Boston Bruins. Esposito set the record shattering Bobby Hull's season high of 58 goals set during the 1968-69 season.

Many hockey fans felt Phil’s record would be untouchable. Well, that was until Wayne Gretzky skated into the picture. The game in Buffalo would be just past the three quarter mark of the Oilers season. Game number sixty-four with sixteen games left to play. As great as Gretzky was, it was hard to imagine even for the most optimistic Gretzky fan that Wayne would be breaking Phil’s record so early.

It was becoming quite obvious that barring any injury, Gretzky would soon be the new owner of three NHL single season scoring records. Not just for goals, but assists and points also.

On the Sunday night before the Buffalo game the Oilers were in Detroit. The Oilers beat the Red Wings 7-3 with Gretzky adding to his assist total by four. But more importantly, Gretzky scored his 76th goal of the season late in the third period and he now shared the single season goal scoring record with Esposito. Every Oilers game from that point on would be Wayne’s opportunity to not only break the record, but literally shatter it. Even Phil was now following the Great One around on his quest to become hockey’s greatest single season goal scorer of all time.

Phil and the Oiler's next game would be in Buffalo where Goldie, Burt and I would all be there waiting, hoping to see history in the making.

The usual bus departure was from the Hockey Hall of Fame on the CNE grounds and if I recall our bus left a 5:30 pm for the 8 pm puck drop. It was imperative that everyone have some type of identification for getting across the border. The bus was completely full as we pulled out from the CNE grounds and made our way onto the QEW westbound. We had been traveling just over an hour when we arrived at the border where there were two possible options for our bus. The first would be that everyone gets off the bus and we all meet individually with a US Customs officer to answer questions. Once everyone had been cleared we would resume our journey. Thankfully, option number two applied to our group on that night.

A customs officer got on our bus and stood at the front. He said he would be walking to the back of the bus and he would be pointing at each one of us individually. When he pointed you had to tell him what country you were a citizen of and if you were bringing a firearm into the United States of America. We all had to hold up our ID so he could see it. Both me and Steve were sitting exactly halfway up the aisle and we both answered with the same two words, Canada / No.

One of the clowns sitting near the back answered Iran / Yes. The officer was not impressed and reprimanded him with a good scolding in front of all of us. Realizing that we were nothing more than a busload of hockey fans going to the Sabres game, he walked off the bus without delaying us further.

Within ten minutes we were at the Aud.

To put it bluntly, the Aud was a dump both inside and outside. The building looked like it was still stuck in the era from when it first opened back in 1940. The building was almost ten years newer than Maple Leaf Gardens. Although both arenas were ancient relics, the Gardens had character and oozed of history.

The Aud, not so much.

Before the game even started it seemed that everyone was preoccupied with the two famous celebrities sitting in the section beside us. I remember thinking to myself that Ms. Hawn was an attractive woman and Mr. Reynolds looked exactly like all the pictures I had seen of him. Once the game started I had forgotten all about the two movie stars and my focus was now on Wayne Gretzky and his quest to break Phil’s record.

The game was a rather dull affair for the first two periods. The Oilers were leading 3-2 and Wayne added two more assists to what seemed like his nightly tally. The Sabres tied the game early in the third period. All of the Oilers were constantly looking to feed the puck to Wayne who seemed to be double shifting during the final twenty minutes.

With just under seven minutes remaining, anticipation became reality when Gretzky slid the puck past Sabres goalie Don Edwards for his 77th and record breaking goal. The Oilers bench emptied to congratulate number ninety-nine. The sold out crowd cheered while saluting Wayne with a lengthy standing ovation. The game was even stopped for a few minutes while Phil Esposito made his way onto the ice to personally congratulate Wayne and present him with the goal puck.

The Oilers went on to defeat the Sabres 6-3 that night. Gretzky also scored his 78th and 79th goals in the final five minutes. After the game the post-game celebrations kicked into high gear. Wayne Gretzky had lived up to his top billing on that night. He had come to Buffalo and upstaged two of Hollywood’s biggest stars in the prime of their careers.

Gretzky went on to score 92 goals, a record that still stands forty plus years later. Gretzky also ended the 1981-82 season with a record 120 assists. A record that has been broken already five times by Wayne Gretzky himself. Although Wayne finished his record breaking season with an astonishing 212 points, he went on to finish the 1984-85 season with an even more astonishing 215 points.

It was well after 2 am when I finally got back home that night from Buffalo; I was back at work just four hours later. The excitement of watching Wayne Gretzky break the single season goal scoring record provided me the adrenalin to get me through that Thursday at work.

Wayne Gretzky is the greatest hockey player to ever play the game, bar none. Sure, there will always be arguments as to whether players from different eras were better, more dominant, more skilled, stronger and faster. Fine, I get that and everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

The reason I feel Gretzky is the greatest player of all time was because he is the smartest player of all time. Remember that famous Wayne Gretzky quote,

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

I sure was glad that Wayne didn’t miss taking that shot at 13:24 of the third period on that cold February night in Buffalo back in 1982.

Thanks Wayne, you made my first night at the Aud a very memorable one.