Morris Lukowich was working on a hockey stick at his home in Calgary when he picked up a call from Winnipeg.

He was preparing for a big game, he explained. A game in which he'll wear his old Jets sweater in front of some 33,000 fans.

And no, it wasn't a wooden stick from back in the day.

“A Sherwood,” Lukowich said. “Its called an EK15.”

Lukowich is part of the Jets alumni team that'll take on the Edmonton Oilers as part of the Heritage Classic, this weekend's set of outdoor games at the home of the Blue Bombers.

Equal parts celebration and reunion, with a small dose of competitiveness tossed in, the alumni tilt is can't-miss event for those who made the cut.

The roster spots, handed out by team captain Dale Hawerchuk over the summer, are almost as coveted now as spots were when it was a paying job — only for different reasons.

“As I said to Dale, now I know how the juniors feel at Christmas time, waiting for that phone call,” Lukowich said. “I was pretty thrilled. I haven't played in one of these.

“I've been able to stay in pretty good shape, so I'm hoping to get out there and zoom around a little bit.”

Lukowich these days does more teaching than zooming at his skills camps. He's put in some extra ice time, though, because, well, it's the Oilers: Gretzky, Messier, Coffey, Kurri — the whole Hall of Fame gang.

“Do we have a chance?” Lukowich said. “It's a little bit like when we played against them. It was rare that we ever beat them. When we did, I knew we'd really accomplished something. Because they were an amazing, amazing hockey team.”

On the other side of the country, Jim Kyte was getting ready to go into a meeting when he took the call from his old stomping grounds.

The towering and intimidating former defenceman today is the dean of Algonquin College, a school of Hospitality and Tourism, in Ottawa.

But he, along with fellow Ottawa resident Laurie Boschman, felt like students waiting for an exam mark over the summer, wondering if they'd get to pull on a Jets sweater in Winnipeg this week.

“When I heard about the game, I reached out to Dale,” Kyte said. “And I said, 'When are the tryouts? I want to play.' So Dale said to start training and he'll be in touch in the summer.

“And we kept asking each other: 'Have you heard from Dale? Have you heard from anybody — what's going on?' We were kind of sitting on pins and needles.”

The game has already changed Kyte's life.

“Saved my health,” is how he put it. “I've lost 45 pounds since April. When I went into management, you go into meetings all day and you get coffee and muffins in the morning. And during the last decade I've had three heart procedures (atrial fibrillation) which kind of slowed me down. Knock on wood, that's been taken care of.

“I started getting more active and it's really put me back on the path of good health and wellness.”

This week will be nourishment for the soul that can only come from catching up with old friends, some of whom haven't seen each other in decades.

Lukowich mentions Scott Campbell, Kim Clackson, Ron Wilson and Andrew McBain, recalling the pranks that still cause him to smile.

“Andrew used to hide my car keys all the time,” he said. “I'd have to search the entire arena to find them, hanging from the rafters -- it was quite the adventure sometimes.”

Kyte says the family atmosphere he experienced in Winnipeg was something he never felt playing in other NHL cities. Players spent all kinds of time together off the ice, having meals, ice-fishing and snowmobiling.

“Reconnecting with them – it's like going to a family reunion,” Kyte said. “It's going to be emotional. Even if we weren't playing Edmonton it would be a very, very special weekend. That's just the cherry on the top.”

It had to be the Oilers.

This Canadian rivalry might have been one-sided in the NHL, but it really goes back to the World Hockey Association, which Kyte calls the REAL Jets 1.0.

That's when Winnipeg and its high-flying Hot Line of Bobby Hull and Swedes Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson was turning North American hockey on its ear.

Lukowich came to Winnipeg for the final WHA season (1978-79) and left with an AVCO Cup championship.

He's glad to hear current Jets brass has finally recognized that era with new banners in the MTS Centre.

“Really? That's cool,” he said. “Wow. That's a good first step. There has been a bit of a resistance there. And I'm not sure how come. Those AVCO Cups were a big piece of the the hockey history in Winnipeg.”

Kyte is bringing his three sons, who never got to see him play here for real.

“I've always talked about Winnipeg and how it was very special to me, and they're going to get a chance to see that first-hand,” he said. “It's going to be awesome.”

As for the competitive aspect, don't be surprised to see some effort from these oldtimers.

“We're not getting paid to play hockey and many of us have to go back to the real world, our jobs, on Monday morning,” Kyte said. “So I don't know how intense it will come to putting your body on the line to block shots. But it'll be intense battling for the puck, and guys aren't going to give an inch.

“When you're in the third period the competitive juices come out. You don't want to lose the game. I don't care how old you are.”

To that end, Kyte has already formulated a strategy for Saturday's game.

“Give the puck to Teemu.”