Hockey fans young and old ready to cheer on locals against NHL legends in Roddickton-Bide Arm

Hockey fans of all ages are getting ready to cheer on their local hockey stars in a clash against NHL legends on Saturday.

"I think it'll be amazing to see all these people from the NHL play against local hockey players.... I never expected to see anything like it," Jacob Bush, a 10-year-old student at Cloud River Academy in Roddickton-Bide Arm, told CBC News Friday.

Jacob and other students got to spend time with former players like Rich and Ron Sutter as part of a virtual book reading at the school. He can't wait to meet Rich Sutter, he said, given the time he spent playing for his favourite Toronto Maple Leafs.

"I'm really excited for this game," he said. "It'll allow [us] to bring the community together."

Those former players will take to the ice against the hometown Lumberjacks on Saturday night as part of the NHL Legends Hockey Tour. The Lumberjacks are made up of local hockey players from the Roddickton-Bide Arm area and beyond, and its name ties to hockey history and the region's once prosperous logging industry.

That includes Kiley Rowsell, who plays hockey at university in Antigonish. She flew in from Halifax earlier this week to lace up her skates.

Although she grew up in Ontario, she has familial connections to hockey in the region. Her father played for the Lumberjacks in the past, and her grandfather was instrumental in its inception in the 1960s.

"I think coming back here, and my parents being such a big influence on everything, I guess, is super cool," Rowsell, 20, said. "It's kind of cool to have that … family connection."

And it's not just the young people that are excited.

The event came together in just over a month, and that means everyone in the town of less than 1,000 people got involved.

Ray Norman is making his coaching debut for the Lumberjacks at age 74, and says he's ready to give the NHL legends a run for their money.

"I'd like to be able to tune our team in like the old Boston Bruins team, and of course the Brad Marchand style. I got strategy, and I'm hoping that they're going to play the way that I want them to play," Norman said.

"I'm going to be tough on these guys. I'm the old Boston Bruins style. Don Cherry style."

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