Nine members of the 1954-55 Edmonton Flyers hockey team are getting back together for a reunion.

The Flyers were Edmonton's hockey team long before the Oilers made their debut in the 1970s. The Flyers played from 1945-63, winning the Allan Cup in 1948.

They won three championships while playing for the Western Hockey League, were the No. 1 farm team for the Detroit Red Wings, and six of their members were inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Hockey greats like Glenn Hall, Al Arbour, Johnny Bucyk and Norm Ullman all played for the Flyers.

The team's all-time leader in points, Don Poile, said the game is different now than it was when his team played.

"I get a kick out of today when you hear hockey teams, even in the NHL, having a little drought of losing, even two or three, and they're having a players meeting," Poile said. "We never had one all year. It just seemed that we knew that if we lost a couple, we'd come back and we'd straighten it out ourselves."

"We didn't make much money. We would have played for nothing, for free. But just the closeness of the team — the players themselves — that was something special. That's something you don't see today," said defenceman Al Arbour, who went on to coach the New York Islanders to several Stanley Cups.

As part of the reunion, the surviving members of the Flyers skated with the Edmonton Oilers during practice Saturday morning. They will also receive special recognition at the Oilers game Saturday night.