Hockey Night In Shaunavon – small dead animals

Saskatchewan owns the distinction of having produced more NHL players per capita than any other place in the world.
Here’s why;

All of these towns — Shaunavon, Eastend, Climax, Frontier and Cadillac — are clustered in a small, tight area south of the Trans-Canada Highway, north of the Montana border and west of Highway 13. [ed – strange error. Hwy 13 runs east-west from border to border]
Beyond Van Allen, Shaunavon also produced Braydon Coburn of the Portland Winter Hawks, the eighth player chosen in the 2003 entry draft and a player the Atlanta Thrashers believe will ultimately anchor their defence corps. Then there is Hayley Wickenheiser, considered by many to be the best female hockey player in the world.
Wickenheiser did grow up in Shaunavon, which she describes as “essentially, a grain-farming community of about 1,800 people right now. The oil fields are a big part of the economy as well. Farming and oil, I think, is it.
“There’s a hockey rink and a curling rink, two schools, Catholic and public, and a high school. Over all, it’s a pretty quiet community. On weekends, everything is based around the arena. You get the kids cruising up and down Main Street, flipping the half-turn at the end. That’s the cool thing to do when you get into high school.

I grew up on the farm, but schooled in the town of Arcola, at the opposite end of Hwy 13. About 3 years ago a fire razed the local rink complex to the ground – a devastating loss for a rural community where hockey, figure skating and curling are central to social and family life. The million dollars insurance on the building was only half the the sum required to rebuild.
14 months later a new structure was ready to open, and the building fund had a surplus of around $100,000. Today there are plans in motion to add an expansion for curling. All of it community raised, and much of it built through the work of volunteers. The NHL Players Association recognized their efforts by donating the plexiglass for the boards.
Arcola has a population of around 500.