Edmonton Gardens

By: Ryan Krawchuk

As the NHL is about to start up again for the 2021 season, I thought it might be fun to look at how professional hockey started in our fair city.

With the Edmonton Eskimos hockey team playing for the Stanley Cup in both 1908 and 1910, the Thistle Rink was in desperate need of an upgrade.

Even though the Eskimos were defeated in each of their runs, they created enough excitement in the city that rumours of a professional league would soon come to Alberta, as reported by both the Edmonton Journal and the Edmonton Bulletin. Plans were made to build a much larger arena with significantly more seats on the city’s fairground site.

In 1913, the old Thistle Rink burnt to the ground, the same year that the new indoor arena opened. The Gardens boasted a rink that was significantly larger than the old one at the Thistle Rink. It was 66 metres long, longer than a standard NHL rink by 6 metres.

Christmas Day, 1913, 19-years after the first hockey game in Edmonton, the new indoor arena opened its doors for the first time for an exhibition game between the two-time Stanley Cup finalist Eskimos and the Dominion Furriers (better known as the Edmonton Dominions). Despite it being a holiday, over 2,000 fans arrived to watch the inaugural game, the biggest turnout the city had ever seen. The Dominions won the game 4 to 2.

The initial season saw the Dominions win the Alberta Senior Amateur Championship with an 11 to 5 win over Medicine Hat. Forward Russel “Barney” Stanley, later a Hockey Hall of Famer, and goaltender Court May, the best goalie the province had ever seen, led the Dominion to replace the Eskimos as the talk of the town and the first game in the new arena ushered in the new era.

In 1928, only 5-years after the first-ever radio broadcast for a hockey game, a former Navy radio operator, Dick Rice, would bring the excitement of hockey to radios across Edmonton. The Gardens would host the Alberta senior championship Edmonton Flyers, Memorial Cups, and the Edmonton Oil Kings. It was even home to the WHA’s Edmonton Oilers from 1972 to 1974. The gardens played host to events such as hockey, basketball, boxing, car shows, circuses, conventions, curling, figure skating, rodeos, livestock shows and sales, even bingo nights.

The Gardens was nicknamed “The Cow Barn” by its fans due to the numerous agricultural exhibitions and livestock shows. The girders blocked sightlines, dropped water onto the ice surface creating dangerous mounds during gameplay. By the 1960s it was thought of as a fire hazard and in serious need of replacement.

In 1974, Northlands Coliseum opened. The Edmonton Gardens' meagre 5,200-seat facility, in major need of repair, was simply no longer needed. Demolition began on the Gardens on January 20, 1982.

The Edmonton Journal, February 22, 1982, reported “First they stuffed it with 50-kilograms of dynamite, then they used a bulldozer, but still the grand old lady of Edmonton sports wouldn't budge,” describing the two days of drilling holes into the walls and supports, and then using in 320 sticks of dynamite. An Edmonton Journal article on February 25, 1982, read “Gardens 2 TNT 0”. When they tried to demolish it a second time, again they failed to rounds of laughter. It was decided to finish the demolition with a wrecking ball.

The Edmonton Gardens stood where Hall-D of the Edmonton EXPO Centre is currently.