Heading East

There's something rather fulfilling when you're invited out to an event. As you're probably aware, The Hockey Show on UMFM has visited a few places around the province where we've been lucky enough to broadcast our show and interact with the great people in those communities. We're always looking to make a trip somewhere and bring some publicity to various events, but the event may do that for us this time in our latest invitation. The Hockey Show on 101.5 UMFM will travel east in February to the town of Kenora in northwestern Ontario where we'll have a chance to do something we never thought would be possible.

As you may be aware, Kenora is the site for this year's Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada! On February 18, Ron MacLean and the crew from Rogers Sportsnet will be out in Kenora to bring to you a celebration of hockey as all seven Canadian NHL teams will play on that day. Along with the NHL action, Rogers Sportsnet will bring forth a number of grassroots stories, hockey memories, and hockey games at various levels among the broadcasts of the NHL games. Needless to say, the town of Kenora will be bustling on that day!

Events run from Thursday through to Saturday evening as the town of Kenora will welcome a number of NHL dignitaries, a pile of fans, and even more eyes via television to their community. As you're probably aware, The Hockey Show broadcasts on Thursday, and we have been granted permission from Rogers Media to join them in Kenora to broadcast our show!

Now you might be thinking, "Teebz, a one-hour radio show doesn't really provide the aura that television can." You're entirely correct in this aspect, so we're actually doing something else that night that has never been done on UMFM before. Our show is from 5:30-6:30pm CT as normal, but we have agreed to remain on the air on the UMFM Second Stream found exclusively on the UMFM website to broadcast the NHL-vs-Kenora & Thistles alumni game! We will broadcast the game in its entirety much like we do with University of Manitoba Bisons hockey games, and we'll work with the arena and its staff to bring you as many cool features as possible!

The Kenora Thistles hold a distinction as being the smallest city at any point in history to win the Stanley Cup as they did in 1907 when they defeated the Montreal Wanderers in a pair of games in Montreal. While I doubt that any of the alumni from that team will be playing, there were many iterations of Thistles teams that followed that may have players who will suit up. Among the names you may recognize, former NHLer and Kenora-born Mike Richards will play, Winnipeg Jets CEO Mark Chipman will play, and longtime NHL goaltending coach Rick St. Croix will don the equipment for the game.

There are still details to be worked out, and I am in contact with both Rogers and the organizing committee in Kenora to ensure we have a smooth broadcast on February 16. Hockey Blog In Canada will have photos that day from events and a write-up of everything we get involved with, so make sure you're tuned to the three places where all the action is happening on Thursday, February 16 in 101.5 UMFM, the UMFM Second Stream, and right here on Hockey Blog In Canada!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!