Rod Phillips will call his first of 10 Classics games tonight at the Saddedome in his farewell tour of NHL rinks before he puts down his microphone for good after 37 years of Edmonton Oilers play-by-play. Jack Michaels was hired as the new Oilers caller and he will do 72 games.

Phillips will work tonight with Bob Stauffer as his colourman, but over the upcoming nine games against Oilers' playoff foes over the years, he will be joined by a number of former analysts, including: Ken Brown, who once played goal for the WHA Oilers when Jacques Plante was winding down his career; Oilers pro scout Dave Semenko; current Eskimos play-by-play man Morley Scott, who worked with Phillips the longest; and yours truly, who did colour with Phillips in the World Hockey Association and sat beside Phillips in the Oilers' first NHL game on Oct. 10, 1979.

Your friendly Oilers correspondent will do the colour commentary for two games at Rexall Place -- Nov. 5 when the Detroit Red Wings are in town, and March 29 when the Los Angeles Kings visit. That will be Phillips' final game.

Here's the rundown of games:

Oct. 16: Oilers at Calgary Flames

Nov. 5: Detroit at Oilers

Nov. 23: Oilers in Phoenix (a plug for the Winnipeg Jets who moved to the desert)

Dec. 1: Oilers at Montreal Canadiens

Jan. 6: New York Islanders at Oilers

Jan. 11: Oilers at Dallas Stars

Feb. 27: Boston Bruins at Oilers (Taylor Hall vs. Tyler Seguin)

Mar. 5: Oilers at Colorado Avalanche

Mar. 8: Oilers at Philadelphia

Mar 29: Los Angeles at Oilers

Who knows, maybe Wayne Gretzky, who was traded to the Kings in 1988, will be a special guest at Phillips' last game. The two used to sweat it out as seatmates on many Oilers flights in the early NHL days when both hated flying.

There has been talk that the Oilers might commemorate Phillips' last calls with a DVD.