Hockeyville Hub: Elliot Lake

Kraft Hockeyville, now in its 18th year, awards winning communities in Canada a once-in-a-lifetime experience for hockey fans. This year, Elliot Lake, Ontario, is hosting a preseason game with the Pittsburgh Penguins playing the Ottawa Senators at Sudbury Community Arena on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; SN, SN1, NHLN, SN-PIT). Centennial Arena received $250,000 in arena upgrades, and there will be festivities and player appearances prior to the games. NHL.com staff writer Jon Lane is in Elliot Lake to provide all the sights, sounds, highlights and news.

Thursday

Right place, right time

Picturesque surroundings and fortuitous timing ended Day One of the Stanley Cup tour. At Spruce Beach was a family from Leeds, England, traveling through Northern Ontario, sunbathing when the Cup was placed on the shore with blue skies, trees, lakes and "The Rock" as the background. Most who visit the beach swim out to The Rock, climb, stand on top of it and then dive off. It's like a rite of passage.

The family asked to have their photo taken, Stanley’s fame well-known abroad. Then at Fire Tower Lookout, the most amazing views in town, a young couple was leaving a gazebo when they saw the trophy. They too got their wish.

The final stop was Centennial Arena, where Ference played ball hockey in the parking lot with kids before their proud parents, local organizers and, of course, Stanley. One preteen snuck up from behind and lifted Ference's stick to force a turnover, a hockey play against a Stanley Cup-winning defenseman caught completely by surprise. Ference smiled, shrugged and rejoined the action, all while construction workers were on the roof of the community's beloved rink, minute by minute getting it closer to restoration.

Improvisational theatre

It's also known as improv: unplanned, unscripted and spontaneity in its purest form. Emcee Simon Gregory had full command of a captivated audience that filled Elliot Lake Secondary School to experience the Stanley Cup tour of Hockeyville '24. Gregory is a drama and fitness teacher. He deftly spoke from the hip, allowing the excitement to take control and using a moment to teach a lesson learned through hockey and Elliot Lake's winning bid: playing as a team and being something bigger than the individual.

There's a lot of community pride here this week. They know Elliot Lake is Kraft Hockeyville; they see the Cup visits to Esten Park Public School and Collins Hall as another sign of rebirth, just like how Centennial Arena will become whole again.

"For the kids to see that, it's inspirational for them and it's great," Esten Park Public School principal Angelo D'Amato said. "Look at how excited the kids are, the dancing and the singing and the smiles on their faces. Can't beat that. That's what it's all about.

"What young man or young boy from my generation, or this generation, doesn't want to see to the Stanley Cup? There's so many heroes on it, and so much time as a family sitting and watching those games and those events."

Andrew Ference, NHL director of social impact, growth and fan development and 2010-11 Stanley Cup champion with the Boston Bruins, made a grand entrance at every stop, allowing kids to touch it and get pictures taken in groups. Kids little, big and grown filtered in and out of school gyms and Collins Hall for their first and maybe only chance to see, be seen with and feel the prize. Even with some semblance of organization, it was chaotic. And why not? It's a lot more fun.

"The chaos is the beautiful part," Ference said. "That's the neat thing about the trophy, too. As I'm looking at it, it's up on the podium with the backdrop and people are getting pictures, but the Cup truly lives when it's being touched and felt and kissed. It's no different here. To be able to walk through the crowd, touch it, feel it, look at the name of your favorite player, put your hands underneath it and feel how heavy it is, that's what the Cup is. That's why it's special."

Welcome to Hockeyville

The rest of the week in Elliot Lake brings clear skies and bright sun with a high of 22 degrees Celsius (71 degrees Fahrenheit) after much of Northern Ontario on Wednesday was saturated with nearly one inch of rain.

The first of a two-day Stanley Cup tour starts at noon ET. About 1,330 students from public and private schools will have enjoyed time with the Cup by the time it leaves Collins Hall around 3:15 p.m. If it's anything like West Elgin Secondary School a year ago), expect pandemonium.

A visit to two popular attractions, Spruce Beach and Fire Tower Lookout, concludes the afternoon. I'm told the latter has stunning views of Manitoulin Island, the largest freshwater island in the world and known in Ojibwe as "Spirit Island."

Wednesday

Arrival

Elliot Lake is north of Lake Huron, equidistant by two hours between Sault Ste. Marie to the West and Sudbury to the East.

The locals call it "Our Jewel in the Wilderness," also the title of Joseph Brann's book sharing 100 pages of nature, landscapes and landmarks. This view from Miners' Memorial Park on Horne Lake is a jewel and there's hope that autumn foliage is in full bloom while the NHL is in town.

Getting here was an adventure with flights from New York to Toronto to Sudbury before a two-plus hour drive -- half of it in a rainstorm. Once settled I went to Centennial Arena, which remains closed yet under reconstruction thanks to the combined donations from Hockeyville and the Jamie and Jo-Ann Armstrong Centennial Arena Fundraising Challenge, hoping to reach its goal of $1 million.

Elliot Lake City Hall had a buzz and merchandise on display. Collins Hall was getting equipped for the community celebration and special guests former NHL players Bryan Trottier and Andrew Ference and the Stanley Cup. Since 1955, the town has attracted visitors with more than 4,000 lakes and rivers, hiking, camping and fishing, a lifeline to tourism and business after the uranium mines closed in the early 1990s. Many have remained thorough prosperity and the worst of times. Those who've left tend to find their way back.

"One thing about Elliot Lake, a lot of people who have moved away are still attached to the place," said Bryan MacKay, a minor hockey pillar for 50 years. "They come back in the summertime, they come back for Christmas or holidays. It goes to show you that people had a lot of respect and admiration for their home community and their arena."

West Lorne and Sydney, one year later

Elliot Lake is ready for Kraft Hockeyville one year after West Lorne, Ontario, and Sydney, Nova Scotia, each had theirs.

West Lorne was treated to Toronto Maple Leafs defeating the Buffalo Sabres 5-2 at Joe Thornton Community Centre in St. Thomas on Sept. 27, 2023, a night councillor and Hockeyville committee member Bill Denning said the municipalities of West Elgin "got to feel like kings of the castle in the big city."

West Lorne Arena, 53 1/2 kilometers (33.2 miles) from St. Thomas, was renamed the Bo Horvat Community Centre on Aug. 24 in honor of the New York Islanders center and London, Ontario native. Horvat played for the West Lorne Comets in the West Lorne Minor Hockey Association and is a two-time Ontario Hockey League champion with the London Knights.

Since Hockeyville, Denning said there's been an unprecedented spirit of cooperation throughout the community. CTV News in London reported Aug. 27 that final plans for the arena upgrades were being prepared that included locker room renovations and accessibility work.

"The trust, respect and friendship that came out of our Hockeyville journey together has created a bond that has helped us to move our arena renovation project forward," Denning said in an email. "The spirit of the Hockeyville win remains with us and will continue to inspire us to move forward together, united by a single moment in time that has forever changed our little community for the better."

Minutes from downtown West Lorne lives Mike Rivard, Horvat's coach who was surprised with a Stanley Cup visit and the front of his house decorated with balloons colored in Comets black and gold. The NHL and Kraft worked with Ryan Rivard, Mike's son and a retired forward who played professional hockey in the Central Hockey League, ECHL and SPHL.

"I think the event totally reenergized the entire town including my dad," Ryan said via text from his home in Atlanta. "It’s crazy what a year can bring."

Canada Games Complex in Sydney expects to have boards installed this week and is on track for a late December opening. It's scheduled to host what Cape Breton Blizzard Female Hockey Association president Christina Lamey said is the biggest girls' tournament ever held in town with 32 teams from Nova Scotia competing at Cape Breton University on April 5-7. The retrofitted arena will be Canada's first dedicated to girls' and women's hockey, a historic journey from when around 300 players were often relegated to the back of the line for ice time.

The ongoing growth of the girls' game is something Gord Ouimet, an Elliot Lake minor hockey coach for more than 40 years, would love to see in his community. One amenity lacking from Centennial Arena was larger locker rooms.

"This is something that can't be denied," Ouimet said. "I think girls' hockey is growing faster in North America than any other version of it."