from Keenan Sorokan of PostMedia,

Chatting with MacLean is as easy as sitting down and catching up with an old friend. He speaks with an ease that would relax the most anxious person and recounts past experiences like you were standing right beside him when it happened. With MacLean continuing his hosting duties of Roger’s Hometown Hockey in Spruce Grove last week, he was able to provide more of those timeless stories from the sport that binds this country.

Like a quick bit of trivia that hit him while watching a San Jose Sharks and Vancouver Canucks game a few weeks ago.

“The crazy six degrees of separation when we do this show,” he said of recent experiences on the show. “Every town we had just visited was represented in the game. The crazier story is that Joe Thornton is from St. Thomas (Ont.) and he’s known as Jumbo Joe. That’s a bit of homage to Jumbo The Elephant, who was killed on the train tracks in St. Thomas in 1885. Well, a week later we’re in Oakville, Ont. doing Hometown Hockey and the kid who picks the three stars for us, his great, great, great grandfather was the conductor on the train that killed Jumbo The Elephant. That’s just how it goes on that Hometown series.”

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