“When the game spread across Canada it was because of the railroad, but in the case of Newfoundland, it was the Great Fire of 1892”.

That, from Rogers Hometown Hockey Host, Ron MacLean.

MacLean was in St. John’s on Sunday for Hometown Hockey and doesn’t hold back when sharing his love and knowledge of the province. He says it was a fascinating reversal of fortunes that brought the game of hockey to Newfoundland.

He says after the Great Fire, a lot of people were brought in to re-build St. John’s, and those people said “we should have hockey”.

MacLean says they ended up building Prince of Wales arena, and that helped spread the game.

He says normally there is the story of the Newfoundlander who left the province to find the bright lights – but, the bright lights of hockey came to Newfoundland from the rest of Canada, in a peculiar way.