Kraft Hockeyville will include the Detroit Red Wings in the “UP”

The Detroit Red Wings will take on former Western Conference foes the St. Louis Blues in Calumet, Michigan as a part of the NHL’s Kraft Hockeyville.

Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha, Tyler Bertuzzi and Andreas Athanasiou coming to a rink near you, well if you are in the U.P.  Although it will only be a preseason game, it is exhilarating for the folks living in the “U.P” Upper Peninsula.  It will serve as a home game for the Detroit Red Wings when they take on the St. Louis Blues as a part of the Kraft Hockeyville sweepstakes.

Kraft puts on this incredible competition each year throughout the United States and a separate competition in Canada.  The sponsor Kraft Foods, the NHL and it’s players association blend together to provide a community with a cash prize to update or upgrade their local arena.  The main prize is being able to host a preseason NHL game.

Although it’s a preseason game, it is a beautiful scene seeing these professional players play in the type of rinks they did growing up.  The NHLers will turn back the clock to when they were just kids dreaming of one day walking from a spacious NHL locker room down a tunnel leading to an NHL ice surface.

A walk that intensifies as the distance between player and ice close, the heart starts to thump forcing a player to trot towards the open gate dividing the players’ bench from the rink and many times stepping onto the ice at a full sprint.  Now they will probably need two dressing rooms to fit everyone, their mothers and fathers likely won’t be in attendance to tie their skates and everyone taking in the game will feel like they’ve bought a front row seat.

It’s much of the same at these Kraft Hockeyville rinks, but instead of housing twenty-thousand rambunctious fans, it could be three thousand.  Not only do the NHL players show up to the event so does a big league camera crew.  The game will be shown on NBCSN on Thursday, September 26th at 7 pm just prior to the start of the new NHL season.

In an article published by Mlive.com, written by Brandon Champion Ken Holland ponders on the event;

“The Red Wings are very excited to have the unique opportunity to take part in Kraft Hockeyville USA,” said Red Wings executive vice president and general manager Ken Holland in a statement.“There are many Red Wings fans throughout northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula, so we’re excited to share in this special day to celebrate our great game playing against an old rival in the St. Louis Blues.”

Kraft Hockeyville started in Canada in 2006, since then Kraft has donated more than 4-million dollars in rink upgrades across the United States and Canada.

As described in the same article linked above, the Calumet Colosseum is the oldest in-use indoor ice arena in the world.  The Calumet Colosseum has been in use since 1913, and it will house the Detroit Red Wings for an exciting evening.