© Jon Lane

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.

Wednesday

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.”

© Jon Lane

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.”