Game more important than the score

Excitement’s mounting as NHL exhibition contest draws near

Although she identifies herself as an Ottawa Senators fan, Bridget Wallace says it really doesn’t matter to her who wins Monday’s NHL exhibition game in Summerside between the New Jersey Devils and her Senators.

Pressed, though, both the Grade 6 student and her classmate at O’Leary Elementary School Colby Smith said they would like to see the Sens emerge as victors.

What’s really special to Wallace and many of her schoolmates is they get to go.

Clutching a stuffed Ottawa Senators mascot she named Fluffy MacStuffin, she said it’s really special to be part of the experience.

“It’s a big deal for O’Leary because we won Kraft Hockeyville,” she said after participating in a school pep rally led by members of the O’Leary Hockeyville committee.

Smith is also attending Monday’s game as well as the morning practices. “I’m very excited to go,” he said, “just to be there, it’s just so exciting.”

The committee held pep rallies at both Bloomfield and O’Leary elementary schools Friday morning. Grades 4 to 6 students from those schools will be heading to Summerside bright and early Monday, to provide a red carpet welcome for players from the two NHL teams as they arrive for their respective morning practices.

The rest of their schoolmates, as well as students from all schools from Ellerslie west, will be arriving later in the morning to take in the practices. Some of the students will be staying right through for the 7 p.m. game.

The practices and game on Monday are not the only things that have the students excited. There’s a big Winning Weekend celebration happening in O’Leary all day today and Sunday, culminating in a community pep rally in O’Leary on Monday afternoon with the Stanley Cup in attendance. During the game the final piece of O’Leary’s prize, a $100,000 cheque for arena upgrades, will be presented.