The Canadiens in Roberval

Tonight the Canadiens are playing the Sabres in Roberval for a pre-season match.

Roberval is a small town of roughly 10 000 inhabitants, its not that small, but the fact that its so far from montreal (roughly 5h30 drive) and thus 5h30 from any large city makes it a small town.

Couple years ago, they decided to create some kind of ice town, which was basically a small village on ice, with small houses, ice paths to move around the town and some ice rinks to chill. the whole concept was just to have some cool place to go ice skating with friends and have a good time socializing and chilling, literally. Then there was a contest across canada to determine which city was Hockeyville, the winner would get the opporunity to host a nhl pre-season match. Roberval along with roughly 1100 other cities submited its application. The ice town charmed the judges cause of its unique concept. After a large vote on the internet to determine a winner, Roberval was crowned Hockeyville and is now getting to host a pre-season game.

Their arena has 1237 seats and is pretty far from being up to the standards of the NHL as far as being able to host medias and accomodate players. but the city has been working on that since april to try and do their best for tonight's game, which will be on TV.

This doenst seem like something all that major. but it is, for people that are located really far from most major cities, almost disconnected from the rest of the world(except for the internet and the television) its a unique opportunity to see, their hockey team, some of their idols, for the first time in person, to be part of a large special event that will probably never happen again. I'm really happy for the residents of Roberval who get the privilege to host a nhl pre-season game.