The town of Lucan played host to a very unique NHL experience as part of being the 2018 Kraft Hockeyville winners Tuesday night.
But the festivities for the day began early in the morning, as the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators arrived to a red carpet welcoming party at the Lucan Community Memorial Arena. The Leafs arrived just after 8:30 am, with the players moving through the crowds to sign autographs and hand out some team merchandise. The Senators arrived just before 10 am, and had a simlar interaction with the raucous crowd before moving into the rink for morning skate.
The Leafs held their morning routine at 10:30, and finished up just after 11, at which point Leafs Head Coach Mike Babcock, newly signed superstar John Tavares and Leafs' veteran and London native Nazem Kadri held a short media scrum. The Senators took their morning skate at 11:30, with Head Coach Guy Boucher putting the young team through their paces before he also held a short media scrum, followed by star centre Matt Duchene, newly acquired defenseman and London native Dylan Demelo, and rookie forward Alex Formenton.
Following the morning skates, Leafs forwards Connor Brown and Nazem Kadri, and Ottawa forward Tom Pyatt with defenseman Thomas Chabot, held a Q and A with the local fans in the rink. Once the roughly 25 minute session concluded, the teams and throngs of fans left the rink to get ready for the big game in the evening.
Once game time was close, the whole town of Lucan came alive, and quickly filled the barn to capacity to take in the Leafs and Sens in preseason action. The game looked incredibly fast on the smaller ice rink in Lucan, and fans were treated to some great plays and goals. Ottawa opened the scoring just 21 seconds in after Ryan Dzingel finished off a great play from behind the Leafs net. But Leaf fans got what they were all hoping for just minutes later, as new superstar John Tavares put his first ever goal for the Leafs top shelf to tie it up. Andreas Borgman would score a few minutes later on a 2-on-1 rush, and the Leafs left the 1st period up 2-1.
There was no scoring in the second, and in the intermission, the Lucan Kraft Hockeyville Committee was officially awarded their $250,000 cheque from Kraft as their reward for being named 2018's Hockeyville. A unique painting commemorating Lucan's Hockeyville win, and painted by Canadian artist David Arrigo, was presented to the Lucan committee as well.
In the third period, John Tavares added his second goal of the night to put the Leafs up 3-1, and just a few shifts later Tavares set up Mitch Marner in the high slot, and Marner buried a gorgeous wrist shot to make it 4-1 Leafs, which ended up being the final score. Marner and Tavares each had 3 point games, sending the crowd of mostly Leaf fans home quite happy.
Overall, Lucan managed to host a once-in-a-lifetime event for their community, and seemingly the whole town came to celebrate in the rink and in the party tent set up behind the arena for a viewing party for those that couldn't get tickets to be in the arena. It was a night like no other for the town of Lucan, and for many of the players on the NHL squads, many of whom grew up playing in towns just like Lucan.
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