Good morning Toronto Maple Leafs fans!
Kraft Hockeyville has been a long running contest encouraging community work and togetherness in minor hockey for a long time. Minor hockey associations work to earn the prize of $250,000 for arena upgrades and a pre-season NHL game in your community.
This is a great chance for some fans to see what could be their only NHL game in person, and to see it on the same ice you play on? Amazing.
This year Elliot Lake, Ontario won. The small town is located north of Lake Superior, just east of Sault Ste. Marie.
They are thrilled to have the money to upgrade their arena but are unable to host the game, because of the badly needed arena upgrades, and insufficient hospital facilities.
The CBC has the story here.
With the chance to see Sidney Crosby in person on the line, the game was moved 90 minutes east to Sudbury where adequate on and off ice facilities can be found.
The question is, who gets the tickets? Residents put in a lot of hard work to earn this prize, and while a three hour round trip to get to the game has been added to the itinerary, no one has said how tickets will be sold, and whether or not Elliot Lake residents will be guaranteed access, and not locals from Sudbury.
Hopefully Kraft and the NHL have plans for the tickets and transportation. It's an expensive prize when you add on gas, hotels, food, and tickets. But for a lot of the kids who earned this game, it may be a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Make it right, NHL.
And in other news...
William Nylander is training on Stockholm, and here's the biggest Leaf highlight right now.
For Leafs fans out west, Miorslav Holinka is coming to the WHL this season with the Edmonton Oil Kings.
Evan Doerfler
But of course, Jonathan Toews was there.
Michael Liu
Coaches were named for Canadas team in the NHL's stupid whatever this is tournament.
Some bigger names may end up being forced to retire...or wait for a mid season deal.
The players on Parrot Island, just outside Montréal, have much higher hockey fees than their neighbours. Why?
iClic (www.iclic.com)
Who knew owning game-used gear from an 80s NHL team could get you in trouble?
Finally, the hockey world is mourning the loss of one of the people who fought to get women's hockey into the Olympics. Former NHLer and Team Canada player Murray Costello passed at age 90 in Ottawa.
NHLdotcom
He also worked to merge amateur leagues into Hockey Canada, helped make the World Juniors what they are today, and was a strong advocate of youth sports.
Thank you Murray.
