EDMONTON, Alberta -- Hockey great Wayne Gretzky received a thunderous standing ovation Wednesday night when he returned to Northlands Coliseum for the first time since being traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings.
His homecoming brought a sellout crowd of 17,503, a record with one extra seat added for the occasion.
Gretzky was not part of the Kings' starting lineup, but that did not stop the fans. He received a five-minute standing ovation and boisterous chants of 'Gretzky, Gretzky, Gretzky'.
Gretzky, who led the Oilers to four Stanley Cups in the last five years, acknowledged the cheers with a wave of the hands as he sat on the bench. The cheers stopped only when the public-address system persisted in announcing the start of the national anthem, ironically sung by Edmonton native Tim Feehan, now living in Los Angeles.
The crowd resumed it calls for Gretzky on his first shift. However, the fans switched their allegiance Edmonton's Glenn Anderson opened the scoring at 3:25.
Mark Messier of the Oilers was penalized for holding Gretzky at 6:14, and Edmonton killed the penalty.
