It was a sea of red Hockey Day toques at Ship Point on Saturday.
Hockey jerseys were everywhere. Kids excitedly waved around mini hockey sticks of both the rink-ready and novelty variety and lined up for a chance for photos with and autographs from hockey royalty. Parents followed along, carrying duffel bags of gear and strollers filled with snacks. Food trucks, music, and plenty of hockey-related activities were on offer at the Inner Harbour during the 12.5-hour national broadcast of Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada, which featured segments from Victoria.
The day’s festivities drew hockey fans from all over the Island. Events included ball-hockey games, ice-hockey on a synthetic surface, seeing the Stanley Cup on display, skills clinics, target shooting with a puck, a wheelchair-hockey demonstration, and meeting hockey celebrities. The day was capped by a Victoria versus Kamloops WHL game at Memorial Centre.
Comox Valley recreational hockey players Chris Nowell and Adrian Luczenko, who play with Lordco Islanders, said they are glad that the hockey spotlight is being turned onto Vancouver Island.
Nowell, 52, who has been playing since he was a child, said hockey is part of who he is. “Hockey feels like home.”
Luczenko, 59, wasn’t allowed to play hockey as a child growing up in New Brunswick. But he finally got the chance to play at age 29 — though he did spend about three years largely falling down while learning how to ice skate and play hockey at the same time, he said.
Until recently, Luczenko played five or six times a week. “Hockey is to me, hard work and determination. … I’m not a great hockey player but I managed to always get myself into the A division,” he said, laughing.
Heidi Barlow-Lee, Hockey Day’s Victoria director of operations, said the event may have broken Ship Point’s winter events attendance record
“We were guessing 2,000 to 5,000. But at 1 p.m., we were at 11,000 [attendees]. You could barely move out there.”
Members of the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations paddled into Ship Point to welcome former Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers player Geoff Courtnall.
The Stanley Cup was supposed to arrive on the canoe but those plans were cancelled due to the sheer size of the crowd, Barlow-Lee said, adding that Stanley Cup escort Phil Pritchard transported it to the venue via car.
For Barlow-Lee, putting together Hockey Day in Victoria was a full circle moment. “I’m actually from this city because of hockey.”
Bob Barlow, her father, was a player on the Vancouver Canucks when it was in the Western Hockey League, and was on a Canucks team that won the Lester Patrick Cup.
That bonus he got from winning the cup netted him enough to buy a house in Victoria — and that’s where the family has been ever since, she said.
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