Hardy hockey fans came en masse to the Discovery North Bay Museum to pick up a stick and puck handle, listen to live music, go after autographs of hockey heroes, enter contests for a free toque or gloves or have a cup of hot chocolate in the warm up lounge.
Ten year old Alex Lockhart was dancing it up with friends in front of the main stage. Alex said he was having fun with his team, the Atom Major AA East Nipissing Vipers. “It is my first time; I’ve never been here before.”
Alex says he has been looking forward to Hometown Hockey. “I want to meet some NHL players. That will be cool. My friends and I had great fun in the different booths. We got a hockey card of one of the mascots.”
Asked how his team from the Callander/Astorville area is doing so far this season, Alex says, “We just won a game and we just lost one so we are doing pretty well.”
The Rogers Hometown Hockey Tour does celebrate all things hockey. You can explore being a broadcaster or go behind the scenes to get closer to the stars.
Rogers spokesperson Sabastian Gatica says Hometown Hockey is a travelling outdoor winter road show that tours nationwide during the NHL season. “Last year, we put on 31-thousand kilometres going to every province. This year we are also going to the Yukon, to Whitehorse. We have a core team of 20 for building and driving the sets. From a broadcast point of view, we have people who fly in every weekend to set up the technical end. We also have a team of volunteers working with the mayor and city and the local organizing committee.”
Gatica says hockey being at the core of Canadians is clearly seen in North Bay. “We were busy right away here today. We wanted to leverage the broadcast to go local and tell hockey stories. But it grew and grew to become a broadcast with a two day weekend hockey festival. It may seem aggressive to go somewhere every weekend for 25 weeks, but we knew that hockey touches everybody in this country. Communities like North Bay have great hockey stories just waiting to be put on the national stage.”
Sunday's fun starts at 2 p.m. and continues to the big event. Sportsnet's Ron McLean will announce an NHL game from a special mobile broadcast trailer at the Discovery North Bay Museum starting about 8 p.m. The game features Connor McDavid's Edmonton Oilers vs. the Vancouver Canucks.