Benn glad ‘Hockey Day in Canada’ to spotlight Victoria, British Columbia

PHILADELPHIA — Jamie Benn will be focused on helping his Dallas Stars in their game at the New Jersey Devils on Saturday, but the forward also will be keeping an eye on the happenings on the other side of the continent.

Benn’s hometown of Victoria, British Columbia, will be the host city for Sportsnet’s annual “Hockey Day in Canada” broadcast, which celebrates the game at a grassroots level.

“It’s pretty cool,” Benn said. “We get to show off what’s great about our city. It was a wonderful place to grow up and play hockey, and I’m just glad Canada is going to be able to see how beautiful it is.”

Sportsnet will broadcast from a studio built at Ship Point at Victoria Harbor, and the day will include all seven Canada-based NHL teams playing, plus features highlighting some of the best parts of Victoria. The Winnipeg Jets visit the Ottawa Senators (3 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN), the Montreal Canadiens play at the Boston Bruins (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, NESN, CITY, TVAS, CBC), the Toronto Maple Leafs travel to face the Vancouver Canucks (7 p.m. ET; SN), and the Edmonton Oilers will be at the Calgary Flames (10 p.m. ET; CBC, SN, CITY, TVAS2).

Benn, 34, and his brother, former NHL defenseman Jordie Benn, 36, grew up playing for Peninsula Minor Hockey Association in the city.

“The big part of the island was hockey and it had some good players to look up to,” Jamie Benn said. “The Courtnall brothers (Russ and Geoff), we had Matt Pettinger, Ryan O’Byrne at the time, a couple guys overseas. Now we’re fortunate, we’ve had more than a few roll through the NHL since then, and I think those guys paved the way for us.

“Growing up playing hockey there, it was awesome. Small-town hockey vibes, you kind of stay within your districts and on the island.”

Defenseman Tyson Barrie of the Nashville Predators also hails from Victoria.

Jamie Benn said the rivalries between teams on the island would get passionate because of how often the same teams would skate against each other, but the real fun would come when they would make the three-hour trip across the bay to play teams in Vancouver.

“There’s usually certain kids on certain teams that always got talked about and we were kind of the underdogs, which we were totally fine with,” he said. “We had a lot of fun going to Vancouver and up and down British Columbia playing different teams and showing them how good we were.”