Hockey Night in Canada’s Play On! Redefining the Street Hockey Lifestyle
*dnt
There’s an age-old story in hockey that starts something like this, “When I was a kid, I lived for street hockey. I would eat, sleep and breathe it…” If you play hockey, you’ve heard it, you’ve lived it, and chances are you’ve told it.
Everyone’s version of the story is different, but as Led Zeppelin famously sang, ‘The Song Remains the Same’. Instead of playing in the Forum, street hockey is the forum where imagination and creativity rule the day. Everyone has a chance to be a hero. Millions of kids have spent, and continue to spend, countless hours on the streets playing the simplest form of the sport they love.
Despite how much we all revere the game, the sad reality is that as time passes, so too does the opportunity to gather friends together and ‘throw sticks’. The games have shifted from the streets to our minds, becoming nothing more than a collection of fond memories of when you were on your way to being the next Great One.
That is until now. Enter, Hockey Night in Canada’s Play On! – the Official Street Hockey Tournament.
Hockey Night in Canada’s Play On! is the largest organized series of street hockey tournaments in the world. Each tournament is all inclusive and consists of divisions for both genders of all ages and skill levels. The program is designed to celebrate hockey in its purest form by giving kids and adults alike a chance to take back the streets and test themselves against local competition.
Each tournament is a two-day event. Non-stop action Saturday as each team is guaranteed three round robin games. Then your team gets a chance to make some noise in a one day, lose and you’re out playoffs. It truly feels like a lifetime of street hockey in one incredible weekend.
Starting from a single tournament in Halifax, Nova Scotia back in 2003, Hockey Night in Canada’s Play On! has grown to 21 annual tournaments that take place from coast to coast across Canada. Now in it’s 10th season, over one million people have taken part in one of the 90+ events held to date.
Hockey Night in Canada’s Play On! boasts some big name competitors including Jordan Eberle, Adam Pardy, Ryan Spooner, Connor McDavid, Aaron Ekblad and Nathan MacKinnon to name a few. Some of whom compete in Elite, Hockey Night in Canada’s Play On!’s most competitive division.
What draws these hockey greats to the tournament? Most say it’s the opportunity to play the game with some close friends. I doesn’t hurt that they get a chance to try out some of the moves they might get benched for in an ice hockey game.
Some of the aforementioned top prospects even choose to play in Hockey Night in Canada’s Play On! for a weekend over playing in a competitive ice hockey tournament. Just ask Nathan MacKinnon, the projected #1 NHL draft pick in 2013 who has played in every Hockey Night in Canada’s Play On! Halifax event since the program’s inception.
Need some more motivation?
Each year, the top Elite, Grinders(u19) and Enforcers(u17) teams from across Canada qualify to compete in the National Championship where teams have the chance to hoist the Redwood Cup and earn the title ‘Greatest Street Hockey Players’. At four feet tall and sixty-three pounds, the Redwood Cup is taller and heavier than the holiest of grails – the Stanley Cup.
The Cup was displayed for over two years in a dedicated exhibit at the Hockey Hall of Fame and is made of real Canadian redwood with plated sterling silver. The Cup gets its name from Redwood Road in Kingsville, Ontario – the childhood home of the founder of the Play On! program. It serves as a tribute to all hockey players whose dreams were first cultivated on the streets or driveways of their homes. That’s what Play On! is all about.
So if you’re looking for a chance to relive your street hockey glory days, get the band together and give it a shot. Hockey Night in Canada’s Play On! is not only a street hockey lifestyle, it’s redefining the street hockey lifestyle. Play On!
Hockey Night in Canada’s Play On! Moncton is in its 4th year. This year Play On! will attempt the break the Guinness World Record for Largest Street Hockey Tournament. Follow us at @PlayMoncton and become a fan at facebook.com/hnicplayon. Hockey Night in Canada’s Play On! currently operates in every Canadian province. For more information, visit www.playon.ca.
