In the end, the true impact of last night’s game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Buffalo Sabres in Roberval — the winning community in the annual Hockeyville contest — wasn’t the actual game played before 1,200 fans: it was the reaffirming of hockey as Canada’s sport.
In the end, the true impact of last night’s game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Buffalo Sabres in Roberval — the winning community in the annual Hockeyville contest — wasn’t the actual game played before 1,200 fans: it was the reaffirming of hockey as Canada’s sport.
There’s not a Canadian player in the NHL who didn’t start playing in a place like Centre Benoit-Levesque in Roberval, Quebec: the small-town arena hosting hundreds of youth games annually. True, thousands were outside the arena watching on big screen, and hundreds of thousands more watching on television. Don Cherry made the obligatory appearance, and enough regulars from the Canadiens showed up to make the game feel real, even though it was only the second preseason match for both teams.
No, what made the game so special was its reaffirmation of hockey as Canada’s community sport. No matter how expensive the seats are at Bell Centre or Air Canada Center, hockey is a community game — and the good fans of Roberval showed it last night.
