KENORA, Canada – When Kenora hosted the 2017 Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada festivities, it was surprisingly warm for mid-February in Ontario. But perhaps that was fitting.

You couldn’t have asked for a warmer reception for the 17th annual edition of the four-day event celebrating Canada’s national sport than this city on the Manitoba border provided.

On Saturday, 18th February it felt as if nearly all 15,000 citizens had flocked to the frozen Lake of the Woods on the Kenora harbourfront. It was a sea of red Hockey Day in Canada toques, scarves, and jerseys. Under the supervision of players like grizzled ex-Toronto Maple Leafs forward Darcy Tucker, kids practiced their hockey skills. A roving women’s choir performed everything from “Farewell to Nova Scotia” to “We Will Rock You” with acoustic guitar backing. Families joyfully lined up inside the Whitecap Pavilion to get their photo taken with the Stanley Cup and with retired NHL stars like Lanny McDonald and Mark Napier.

“Of all the Hockey Days in Canada I’ve been at, this is truly the most amazing,” said Scott Moore, the president of Sportsnet, which broadcast the event all day long. “Thank you for your support.”

Fans also queued to enter the NHL Centennial Truck, a touring exhibition of artifacts from the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. Highlights included Stan Mikita’s innovatively curved wooden Northland stick, with which he scored his 250th NHL goal with the 1968-69 Chicago Blackhawks, and the goalie skates worn by the legendary Georges Vezina with the Montreal Canadiens from 1910 to 1925.

Kenora itself holds a unique place in hockey history as the smallest city ever to win the Stanley Cup. In January 1907, the Kenora Thistles beat the Montreal Wanderers 4-2 and 8-6 to claim the silver chalice.

Tommy Phillips scored all four goals in the opener. The 1999 book Ultimate Hockey describes the diminutive forward: “This man had a vast repertoire of skills, each of them polished to a glimmer. He controlled the puck exceptionally well, possessed a deadly shot, and had a knack for defensive pursuits, especially the back-check.”

Six future Hockey Hall of Famers were on that Kenora squad, including the likes of Phillips and “Bad” Joe Hall. But the best-known name has a link to Wayne Gretzky, Jaromir Jagr, Peter Forsberg, and Alexander Ovechkin, among others. All of them won the Art Ross Trophy, which was donated to the NHL in 1947 by ‘07 Kenora star Art Ross.

Today, the city benefits from its proximity to Winnipeg, some 200 kilometres west. Jets fans famously abound here, including Len Kropioski, who died at age 98 in September. “Kroppy” regularly made the 2.5-hour drive to Winnipeg to see NHL games, and the World War II veteran always got noticed with his salute during “O Canada.” A video tribute to him during the Hockey Day in Canada gala banquet at the Seven Generations Educational Institute reaped a standing ovation, and the memorial pond hockey tournament was dubbed the “Kroppy Cup.”

So there was rejoicing locally when the Jets beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-1 in the first of four Saturday games involving all seven NHL teams. And the nostalgia metre went up with live appearances from the longtime Hockey Night in Canada broadcasting duo of Ron MacLean and Don Cherry. An NHL oldtimers’ game, sledge hockey games, junior hockey games, and women’s high school games were also on the menu. But lots of other things were happening around Kenora, socially and culturally.

At the Lake of the Woods Brewing Company, patrons could quaff a 1907 Scottish Cream Ale brewed for Hockey Day in Canada, devour a Blue Kayak Burger with blue cheese and bacon, and rock out to hockey arena tunes from Tom Cochrane’s “Big League” to Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger.”

A few blocks away, on 16th February, the Revampe Nightclub hosted “Music of Hockey Day” with hockey author and long-time rocker Dave Bidini’s band performing cheerful folk-country numbers. Six-time Stanley Cup champion Bryan Trottier joined in on lead vocals and guitar, beaming broadly. “We’ve played almost every Hockey Day in Canada since Whitehorse in 2011,” Bidini explained. The ex-Rheostatics member also invited local 14-year-old blues guitar whiz Jackson Klippenstein to get up on stage and showcase his skills.

This Hockey Day in Canada was special because of how Kenora embraced it. Fans who attended the 2014 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Minsk will recall how the Belarusian capital was festooned with posters and banners extolling hockey. Similarly, on a smaller scale, virtually every store or restaurant in Kenora had Hockey Day in Canada signage. It didn’t matter whether you were hunting for out-of-print hockey books like Jim Coleman’s Hockey Is Our Game and Jim Taylor’s Gretzky at Elizabeth Campbell Books, or gawking at a framed 1967 Gordie Howe letter in the window of clothing retailer McTaggarts, thanking the Ontario Land and Parks Department for his great fishing trip.

Fishing is one of Kenora’s prime preoccupations. For example, local boy Mike Richards, a two-time Stanley Cup champion with the Los Angeles Kings and winner of 2005 World Junior gold and 2010 Olympic gold, packs his Instagram with shots of huge muskellunge (better-known as “muskies”) he’s reeled in. 

Yet while it might be fun to come back in the summer and enjoy some fishing, hiking, and boating, not much sums up the spirit of Kenora better than non-stop hockey for four days. It was a true slice of Canadiana – served up a little warmer than usual.

LUCAS AYKROYD