Maybe Ron MacLean needs gardening shears instead of a microphone, because he is practically living on the Island this year.
“I feel like an honourary citizen,” he chuckled.
The popular television hockey host and commentator will be signing copies of his new book, Hockey Towns, tonight at 7 at Bolen Books.
MacLean hosted the Kraft Hockeyville NHL pre-season game between the Canucks and Sharks at The Q Centre in Colwood in September, with bombastic sidekick Don Cherry in tow. And MacLean returns Feb. 28 to host a show from Victoria on his Rogers Hometown Hockey tour.
“I had my Victoria fling in 1994 with the Commonwealth Games [as CBC co-host with Brian Williams], came back for the Courtnall brothers [mental-health fundraiser] event in 2011 . . . and now a big year back on the Island,” he said.
The Courtnalls’ saga plays a prominent role in Hockey Towns, which is MacLean’s heartfelt tribute to how players are affected by their hometowns and how in turn hockey impacts Canadian communities.
“I was an Air Force brat and lived in many cities across the country, and always, the sense of belonging came through the hockey rink,” said MacLean.
“In many ways, this book is that wisdom quest.”
Through the players he profiles in Hockey Towns — from NHLers to minor-pros and juniors who didn’t make it to the big time — MacLean doesn’t shy from delving into the greatest trouble issues he sees in hockey.
“Concussions is the biggest and mental illness is second,” he said.
MacLean addresses the mental-health aspect through the Courtnalls going public about their father Archie’s suicide and the effect it had on the family.
“It was brave and beautiful,” said MacLean, about the Courtnall family’s decision.
Alcohol is a third theme running through the book.
“Some guys would like nothing better than to go back to their quiet room and watch TV after a game, but they do not fit in. It’s all about bonding,” said MacLean, about the pressures of hockey culture.
Even the Canadian players who make it to the NHL remain hometown kids at heart, and that is the theme at the very heart of Hockey Towns.
“It’s life in the fast lane. You run to a bar after the game and yet hide in the back . . . because the desire to get away from the glare, and just be that hometown kid again, is huge,” noted MacLean.
It all comes back to the game that seems to be ingrained in the Canadian character. Even on the Island and Lower Mainland, where skating on frozen ponds, lakes, canals and rivers is not a winter ritual as it is in the rest of the country.
“I recall there was a distinct culture shift when I would come across the Rockies back in the 1980s . . . people would talk soccer, rugby, field hockey, cricket and all kinds of Summer Olympic sports,” said MacLean.
But even we were not immune to the iron grip of the sport that defines this nation.
“Maybe it was the coming of Cliff Ronning or Joe Sakic, but now it [Lower Mainland and Island] is a Mecca for hockey. It always had a history on the Coast with the Patricks and now it is back in a very impressive way,” said MacLean.
Case in point is Jamie Benn from Central Saanich, the Sochi Winter Games gold-medallist and Art Ross Trophy holder as defending NHL scoring champion.
“The Benns, and what [late Peninsula Minor Hockey volunteer] Larry Orr meant to them growing up, sums it up about hockey and community in Canada,” said MacLean.
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