We interrupt this last, hot blast of summer to bring you -- a hockey game?
Sure enough, that's what they held at the downtown rink last night, and somehow 13,000-plus showed up to check it out, most wearing Winnipeg's unofficial home uniform, the Team Canada jersey.
The Canada-Russia Super Series, they dubbed it. Only problem is, it hadn't been that super through four games in Russia.
If there was anything this eight-game, junior exhibition needed to stir even a fraction of the passion of its inspiration, the 1972 Summit Series, it was an actual competition.
Four straight wins by the hosers kind of put the kibosh on that.
Not even a furious blitz by the local media -- is Hockey Canada that powerful here? -- resulted in the sellout organizers expected for Game 5. I say they were lucky to draw what they did, all things considered.
I don't care if you put a retro jersey on and bring in veterans from '72 or not. This wasn't much more than a glorified exhibition, with one team apparently taking it much more seriously than the other.
Last night's 8-1 laugher made official what became painfully apparent during the last two games in Siberia. And in the old Soviet Union, the outworked Russians might have found themselves back there faster than you can say Leonid Brezhnev.
This is what '72 was supposed to be like. We were going to walk all over them, hit them with so many Espositos they'd be begging for a Mahovlich.
It didn't happen back then, of course. The good guys had to dig deeper than they ever had to pull out a last-minute victory that became this country's defining hockey moment.
Almost exactly 35 years later, Team Canada barely had to break a sweat to win this set. Compared to the Summit Series, this was the Ho-Hum-it Series.
They may as well call off the last three games, let the people of Saskatoon, Red Deer and Vancouver enjoy the last days of summer. Either that or bring in the Czechs or Swedes.
Because this Russian team has about as much fight left in it as one of Michael Vick's dogs -- after being hooked up to Old Sparky.
Things actually looked kind of promising for a while, last night.
Russian goalie Vadim Zhelobnyuk made like Tretiak in the first period, robbing Brad Marchand with his toe, then Sam Gagner with a sprawling arm job.
The Russians were even throwing their weight around in that first session, highlighted by Ivan Vishnevsky's hard charge to the net, leaving Canuck goalie Jonathan Bernier in a heap.
Through 20 minutes, things were actually scoreless.
But it all came apart faster than you can say Alexander Vasyunov, who scored the lone Russian goal.
Claude Giroux got things going three minutes into the second by doing his best Pete Mahovlich impression, splitting the Russian defence and turning Zhelobnyuk into a pretzel. Three minutes later Giroux banked one in off the beleaguered goalie, and it was off to the races.
You'd think drawing to within one would have sparked the Russians. Instead, they began playing like they had a date at the Palomino, giving the puck away, missing checks and generally getting in each other's way.
By the end of the second it was 5-1, and not even a Russian version of Paul Henderson could have turned things around.
Of course, none of this stopped another raucous, flag-waving crowd from going nuts as the goals kept coming. The place hadn't been this loud since the last time the Maple Leaf showed up, at the World Women's Championship back in April.
That was a blowout, too.
But at least it meant something.
