Organizers estimate about 9,000 people will pack Barrie's Memorial Square this weekend for the Rogers Hometown Hockey Festival.
A caravan of transport trucks featuring giant photos of hosts Ron MacLean and Tara Slone are part of a mini city at the waterfront for the big hockey celebration.
The event will put Barrie in the national spotlight and MacLean and Slone are looking forward to telling Barrie's 'rich' story.
"Barrie is not just a hockey town," said MacLean. "It's a great skating town and has produced some of the finest skaters in the National Hockey League but it's also produced the greatest skaters in figure skating in the world. So that's unique."
Slone's 'My Hometown Must' feature has her working out with some of the Barrie Colts and she joked she was "still feeling it" days later.
"It's just remarkable what has happened from the hockey perspective in Barrie," said Slone. "The legacy of the Colts, yes. Dale Hawerchuk being there, absolutely. The fact that four former Colts are the Winnipeg Jets. On the broadcast there's going to be so many Barrie tie-ins in the hockey world. I find it really fascinating when a city generates so much talent."
The NHL broadcast starting at 6:30 p.m. Sunday of the Winnipeg Jets and Chicago Blackhawks game will feature the bulk of the community story-telling, according to MacLean, both the cultural and sports history of Barrie.
"Dale Hawerchuk will be a special guest. We've got a nice feature on Matt Beleskey," he said. "There's an award given out in Barrie to the amateur athlete of the year. It's been presented for 34 years but only three times have hockey players won that award and Matt Beleskey is one of them. Really nice guy. Really glad we're going to profile him on our telecast Sunday evening."
Socitabank is the presenting sponsor of Rogers Hometown Hockey and has been supporting minor teams since 2007 through the Scotiabank Community Hockey Sponsorship Program.
"Each year Scotiabank supports over 8,000 teams in communities across Canada including 51 teams here in Barrie and the surrounding area," said Rory Quinn, manager of the Bayfield north branch.
In addition to all the hockey stars, the Stanley Cup is going to be at Scotiabank Tent downtown for fans to see and get their picture taken.
"It really becomes real for Barrie and our community," said Quinn. "We've watched this on TV. We've watched other communities have a whole lot of fun with it. But to see it right here in Memorial Square downtown Barrie, really means we're no longer viewers and can actually participate in this."
It's a hockey celebration but not just for hockey fans.
Along with NHL alumni signing autographs, MacLean and Slone, there will be live music and lots of interactive activities and contests.
"It's definitely a family outing," said MacLean. "It's almost like Ringling Brothers coming to town. There's PAZ the hockey circus, juggling fire. Lots of other things for children to enjoy but it's centred around hockey and why shouldn't it be."
Both hosts aim to check out local restaurants in Barrie as they do in every town they visit for Hometown Hockey, although Slone is an admitted 'poutine junkie.'
They say every city has it's own character and the show profiles the 'smaller stories.'
"They are the heartbeat of the whole thing. It's so much more about the grass roots and how people grew up and people that helped the game flourish," said Slone.
"I take great joy in sharing that with the rest of the country. Barrie should be awfully proud."
MacLean says he's probably Hometown Hockey's biggest booster and refused to give it up even after returning to the main chair of Hockey Night in Canada following two years of George Stroumboulopoulos as host.
MacLean has an encyclopedic knowledge of the game and is beloved by millions of fans who demanded he come back to the role he held for nearly 30 years.
"It's of course humbling. It's a bit terrifying because it's a responsibility," he said. "You feel indebted but you have to be careful not to lose yourself in all that."
The Rogers Hometown Hockey Festival gets underway at noon today at Memorial Square on Dunlop Street.
