Tony Wedzinga wasn't disguising his excitement about catching a healthy dose of Cougars fever again, after a four-year absence.
It was written all over his face Friday night at CN Centre. Sporting an eight-inch mohawk wig with his face done up in red, white and black grease paint, Wedzinga and his girlfriend Lona Fleury are back as diehard fans of their beloved Cougars.
They came early to the arena to lap up the festivities of a pre-game barbecue in front of the rink, lured in by the music of a rooftop serenade from Celtic folkies Out of Alba. Like the rest of the city, Wedzinga has caught the hockey buzz again and it's a feeling he thinks is going to last all season long.
"It's been a four-year hiatus and I'm glad to be back," said Wedzinga.
"It's been a long time since the Cougars had a good season, the last one I remember was 2006-07 when they went to the conference finals against the Vancouver Giants and they haven't recovered since. Hopefully with new ownership and having Dan Hamhuis and Eric Brewer part of it, that's going to boost the players a lot.
"I haven't seen this many fans since 2007. The new ownership is building confidence back into the city that they want a better team for us fans and they want to let the fans actually be fans. It's nice to have people back making noise again."
The Cat-crazy couple drove to the rink in Wedzinga's red Chevy, which sports big Cougar logos on either side and the rear windows. They became instant celebrities when people walked over to get their pictures taken with them.
"I have a good feeling the team will do really well this year and I'm here to root them on," said Fleury.
"I hope they play hard, but no matter what, we'll be there cheering them on."
Pat Keough, a Cougars season-ticket holder since moving to the city from Victoria in 1994, said Friday's revival party was a long time coming and he hopes the festive atmosphere becomes an everyday occurrence on game days.
"It's great to see the people coming back to the rink again," said Keough. "We've got to give them a little bit of time here and just go and enjoy the hockey. They've got a little bit of talent but it's still a building process for Greg [owner Pocock] and his group and it's going to take a couple years but hopefully this year will be a good year. Some of these kids are next year's pros and it's good to see that talent coming in here."
The near-sellout crowd packed like cattle in the concourse and old acquaintances were rekindled among longtime hockey fans, many of whom hadn't seen each other since the glory days of the franchise, when chock-a-block crowds were the norm. The laser light system the team bought this summer made its debut, flashing the Cats logo and dancing beams of light with sharp clarity on the ice in the pre-game show.
Almost 6,000 fans were given
T-shirts which read, We Are the Fifth Line, which brought back memories of the sea of white pandemonium that Cougar playoff crowds made famous. Before the players got on the ice, their faces - huddled together in a pre-game trance in their new dressing room - were beamed by remote camera onto the huge scoreboard screen.
Former Cougar captain Tyler Bouck made his first visit back to Prince George for the ceremonial puck drop and the dawn of the New Ice Age began.
Myles Thrift, whose rapid enthusiasm and wild arm-waving Shout-song antics earned him the nickname Superfan, was back in the rink with friends from Manitoba after a four-year absence.
Thrift, who recently moved back to the city from Fort St. John, is back aboard the Cats bandwagon and he couldn't be happier.
"This is exciting, I'm just hoping we can get to the point where visiting teams are afraid to come here," said Thrift.
"I've talked to players and they were literally afraid to come out on the ice, especially at playoff time. The stomping of the feet, the roar of the crowd, they thought people were going to jump on the ice and beat them up. I'm stoked and I'm sure the rest of the fans are stoked."
