Celebrating BC’s hockey history
By Jerrison Oracion, Senior Columnist
Hockey is a national sport in Canada, and as a result, there is a story that involves hockey in almost every Canadian city. Last month, the Hometown Hockey Festival took place in Queen’s Park in New Westminster and Abbotsford Exhibition Park in Abbotsford. A lot of hockey fans went to the festival to try some activities and watch Ron MacLean host Hometown Hockey live from the city.
Hometown Hockey is back for its second season after a successful run last year and it airs on Sportsnet. In the show, Ron Maclean talks about a city that is related to a hockey player or is nearby a city that has an NHL team in it as co-host Tara Slone gives updates from the festival and does activities in the city that they are in. Scattered throughout the show are interviews with famous hockey players and surprise guests before MacLean lets local hockey players choose the three stars of the game.
Unlike last year’s chilly but dry Burnaby affair, it was raining in both New Westminster and Abbotsford. In New Westminster, the show had the Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Rangers game while they showed the Calgary Flames and the Anaheim Ducks game and the Vancouver Canucks and the Colorado Avalanche in Abbotsford.
Kirk Mclean was in both cities, Cliff Ronning was in New Westminster, and Brendan Morrison was in Abbotsford. James Cybulski, Ernie Mclean, and Glenn Anderson were also special guests in New Westminster, and Caroline Cameron, Jake Virtanen, Mike Blais, and Chad Brownlee were special guests in Abbotsford.
Highlights of the two cities included Slone riding a tugboat, flying across the city in a plane, visiting the famous Birchwood Dairy Farm in Abbotsford.
The festival did a great job celebrating the history of hockey in BC and may be in Richmond next year.
