To kick off the 2019 Viking Energy Allan Cup, two former NHL stars packed the LMC for a luncheon on Friday, April 5th.

Former Edmonton Oiler Marty McSorley and former Pittsburgh Penguin Rob Brown had the crowd roaring with talks of their former exploits in the NHL, alongside greats like Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.

McSorley says the national senior AAA amateur men's championship is some of the best hockey you can watch, and it comes from their years on the ice.

“Those guys know how to play. These guys are experienced. There’s a lot of high level players, and they have experience…after having gone through all they’ve gone through all that, they’ve been around a lot of good people, they’ve seen a lot of big games, a lot of big situations, and I think the best teacher is experience.”

He said this type of hockey is really inspiring to watch.

“For me, I would just be a fan coming in and watching them, and the fact that they are coming back to a lot of their home towns to play senior A I think is marvellous, it’s really awesome.”

The first games of the Allan Cup is tonight (Monday, April 8th) at 4 pm down at the Gary Moe Autogroup Sportsplex, with the Rosetown Red Wings taking on the Innisfail Eagles.

Your Lacombe Generals take on the Manitoba team, the South East Prairie Thunder following that game at 8 pm with special guest Gord Bamford singing the national anthem for the first Generals game.

The opening ceremonies are happening at 7 pm, in between the first two games.

(Sunny 94 staff gather around the Allan Cup during the kickoff luncheon)