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Rogers Hometown Hockey made its final stop of the season in Saskatoon this weekend.
The traveling road show shines a light on hockey communities across the country with a two-day festival each weekend of the National Hockey League season before broadcasting a Sunday game on Sportsnet.
After five seasons, and more than 120 stops, Hometown Hockey has picked up momentum after its originally mixed reception. The tour avoids place like Toronto and Montreal, instead favouring locations like Winkler, Man. or Okotoks, Alta.
Wendel Clark knows the impact of that all too well. After growing up in Kelvington, Sask., Clark began his career as a hockey icon with the Saskatoon Blades before playing 15 years in the National Hockey League.
“All the players play in major cities, but if you went through the rosters of pretty much every team, (players) come from a small community somewhere before they made the big leagues,” Clark said, taking a break from an autograph session on Saturday.
“They owe all the support from their communities to where they got because that’s where they grew up. We all have a starting point.”
Clark led the way of major names featured for Saskatoon’s stop. Carlyle’s Brenden Morrow was in attendance along with Colby Armstrong and the primary guest of the weekend: The Stanley Cup.
“This was kind of a second home growing up. I did a lot of my training here in my late teens and I know the city a little bit, so it’s good to be back,” Morrow said of being in Saskatchewan.
The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. pic.twitter.com/MiHDZENT9T
— Keenan Sorokan (@KeenanSorokan) March 30, 2019
With hundreds of kids and families enjoying the festival in downtown Saskatoon, the chance to meet a former NHLer is all it could take to inspire another generation, even if some youngsters are dragged along by their fathers.
“The one’s holding the hockey sticks wish they were still playing shinny, and their parents are bragging: ‘You got to know this old fat guy!’ It’s about families, it’s about bringing the kids and the grandfathers, and everybody together,” Clark said.
While Clark is loved as a fan favourite nearly everywhere he goes, his connection to Saskatoon vaults his celebrity status even higher, especially as old high school friends and hockey colleagues re-introduce themselves.
No matter where he goes in life, he knows a hockey rink is always nearby.
“I went from playing at the arena at the end of the road here downtown to playing at Maple Leafs Garden,” Clark said. “That’s the great thing about hockey, the familiarity is the rink. The towns may change, but the rinks stay the same.”
For every community that Hometown Hockey visits, those are the constants: the people, the smiles and the hockey.
As the show closes its fifth season, the stories remain similar but are somehow vastly distinct at the same time. At least it feels that way to Clark.
“All the communities, as much as they are different no matter where you’re at, they’re all kind of the same — it’s around the hockey rink.”