Buffalo’s O’Reilly, Carolina’s Skinner visit Marquette middle school for Hockeyville

Photo by Michael Caples/MiHockey
Photo by Michael Caples/MiHockey

 

By @StefanKubus –

MARQUETTE – Students of Bothwell Middle School in Marquette received a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity Tuesday afternoon: a visit from NHL stars.

Buffalo’s Ryan O’Reilly and Carolina’s Jeff Skinner took time to answer student questions and play a little floor hockey with a handful of the kids as part of the Kraft Hockeyville festivities.

As the theme of the multi-day event went, it was like seeing a dream come to life.

“It’s something different, but it’s something that a lot of the kids have experience with, whether they played, parents played, friends, so it’s just something nice to see something that you normally see on TV,” Bothwell principal Dan Gannon said. “To see it in real life, to see those players in real life, there were a couple players that were legitimate players from their teams, not somebody in the minor leagues.”

The kids certainly weren’t the only ones enjoying themselves there.

“It was a great time,” O’Reilly said. “Obviously it’s a great town, you can tell they love hockey, and for us to be able to do this and be part of Hockeyville, it’s a great day for us and it was definitely fun out there with the kids. The kids had a great time it looked like.”

The students also all signed t-shirts to give to the players as a token of appreciation.

“That was cool,” O’Reilly said. “We didn’t really get anything like that, to have all of them sign it was pretty special, a little momento.”

Gannon said that the Hockeyville event has been amazing as a spectacle for the city, but has also helped rally and unify the community even further.

“Very special because it’s just not the fact that we won it and you have to have community support for that, you also had all the community support getting the town and ice rink ready,” Gannon said. “The money was nice so far, but the volunteer hours that people put in and the committee and the work, and I know quite a few people that took time off to work in this last week in getting it ready, so it’s kind of a unity point.

“Hockey is probably the biggest sport up here… Our gym teacher would prefer football. Fifty miles up the road in Negaunee and Ishpeming, big football towns, but here it’s hockey.”

Even upon walking into the rink Tuesday morning, the morning skate was heavily populated, much to the players’ pleasure.

“Obviously coming here we knew that it was gonna be a big event in the town and it’s proved to be just that,” Skinner said. “The energy even here was top-notch and I’m excited to see the game tonight and the turnout for that.”