Hockey Day In Peterborough

Peterborough, Ontario is a great hockey town with a good OHL team. It's a blue-collar town just 78 miles northeast of Toronto, and is home to a few major operations for companies like Quaker Oats and General Electric. This Saturday, however, they will welcome a pile of CBC employees to the town as CBC's Scotiabank Hockey Day In Canada takes over in Peterborough for a day of hockey and fun. Get your snacks and beverages because CBC will have about three days of hockey crammed into ten hours on Saturday!

According to the CBC press release,

This year’s broadcast begins at 12 noon ET/9 a.m. PT with Ron MacLean live from Peterborough and the Under the Lock Hockey Tournament at the Peterborough Lift Lock National Historic Site on the Trent-Severn Waterway. Don Cherry joins MacLean later in the day as the scene shifts to an OHL game between the Peterborough Petes and Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. From there, MacLean and Cherry will be joined by NHL Alumni to bring Canadians a full day of exciting events.

So it sounds like this will be another fun event as a ton of NHL alumni, NHL games, and Peterborough-centric events are covered. Having been to a Hockey Day In Canada in my time, it's a great community event, and everyone in Peterborough who attends should have a good time.

Starting Thursday, the CBC personalities and NHL alumni will be hosting a pile of hockey-related events around the city of Peterborough. Wendel Clark, Lanny McDonald, Steve Larmer, Darcy Tucker and Mark Napier are the confirmed NHL alumni scheduled to be in Peterborough this weekend, so it looks like the Leafs will have a strong presence in a neighbouring city. Along with some of the CBC personalities, they will be hosting on-ice clinics for young players, receptions at Scotiabank branches, visits to local schools, and a special kickoff at the Peterborough YMCA on Thursday morning.

Not only does Peterborough get the CBC celebrities and the NHL alumni visiting, but the Stanley Cup will also make an appearance this weekend for photo opportunities for kids and adults. If you've ever dreamed of seeing the Stanley Cup up close, this would be the time to do so. While you can't hoist the Cup like the players do, it's still pretty cool to see and touch the Silver Chalice.

Not only will the CBC be bringing you highlights of all the fun from Peterborough, but from events across the country as well. Olympians Tessa Bonhomme and Sami Jo Small will be in St. John's, Newfoundland at the Scotiabank Girls' Hockeyfest where they will be instructing up-and-coming Olympians in a pile of drills. Out in Montreal, Mike Keenan and Olympian Ron Davidson will be teaching youngsters on- and off-ice hockey skills for Hyundai Hockey Nation at Sportplexe 4 Glaces. Out west, Banff, Alberta will be hosting a three-on-three ball tournament all day on Saturday on Banff Avenue. More than thirty teams have qualified for the tournament, and only one will stand as champions at the end of the day.

For those of us not in the vicinity of any of those events, there's a pile of hockey on TV that should keep your bum on the couch. Starting at 2PM ET/11AM PT, viewers in Alberta and BC will get the Detroit-Edmonton game while viewers in Saskatchewan and east of Saskatchewan will get the Ottawa-Winnipeg game. The 7PM ET/4PM PT game features the Toronto Maple Leafs in Montreal to play the Canadiens while the late game sees the Calgary Flames visiting the Vancouver Canucks in a Northwest Division battle. All of the additional segments - Scotiabank Hockey Tonight, After Hours, and the between-periods stuff - will be on the air as well.

Despite all of the corporate branding of every segment and event surrounding the day, I'm excited for Hockey Day In Canada. It's just a good day of hockey fun, and it should be experienced live if you have the ability to see it. With Scotiabank Girls' Hockeyfest coming to Winnipeg the following week, it's a great lead-in to a fantastic hockey event held in my hometown!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!