Hockeyville (5) - He Shoots (il lance) ....

During 1st period action, Atlanta Thrashers Jesse Schultz (#46) tries to slip one past NY Islanders' goalie, Joey MacDonald (#35) but is denied!!

Kraft Hockeyville (4) - Game On

The game between the New York Islanders and the Atlanta Thrashers has begun.

Josef Vasicek #63 for the Isles takes the face-off against Bryan Little #44 for the Thrashers.

Kraft Hockeyville (3) - Chris Dawson hoisting Hockeyville Cup

More Hockeyville photos. I know some of you may be bored with viewing more hockey photos but seeing as that I'm Canadian, you either learn to love hockey or you go insane!! Or maybe it's the other way around, you go insane and then you learn to love all things hockey!!

Here we see Chris Dawson (one of the organizers of the local community group that was essential in North Bay being named Hockeyville 2007) hoisting the Hockeyville Cup while NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman looks on.

Kraft Hockeyville (Part 2) - Zamboni

The NHL (National Hockey League), the NHLPA (National Hockey League Players Association), CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) and Kraft through Hockeyville brought an exciting game of hockey to North Bay last evening.

The two teams who generously availed themselves to the community were the New York Islanders and the Atlanta Thrashers.

I will post over the next few days some photos from the arena (Memorial Gardens).

The fans were thrilled with the action on the ice. Plus it didn’t hurt that close to 70-80% of all seats were reserved for children. The kids and their parents & grandparents had a fantastic time. Tons and tons of noise from an hour prior to the game to well afterwards.

Oh and for those of you who don’t know. Hockey is one of two national sports for Canada, the other being lacrosse. Nothing beats going to a live game. But if you can’t watch a live game, you will want to watch a game that is being broadcasted by the CBC. Your best coverage is Hockey Night in Canada – the Saturday night doubleheaders are great. (I’ll have more on that later – with some photos of Grapes – people from Boston will know who I’m referring to).

The photo above shows the ice surface being flooded by 2 Zambonis.

Kraft Hockeyville @ Memorial Gardens

Kraft Hockeyville arrives in North Bay today. Actually it's been here for a few days. The Stanley Cup was on display yesterday in Thomson Park as well as a function up at the college. NHL alumni Peter Mahovlich, Bryan Trottier, Gary Leeman, Ken Morrow, Jeff Odgers and Troy Crowder were also on hand to sign autographs.

The New York Islanders (coached by Ted Nolan) will face off against the Atlanta Thrashers (coached by Bob Hartley) at Memorial Gardens. Should be lots of fun. Don Cherry and Ron Maclean will be there as well. CBC is supposed to be doing a webcast of the event.