Philadelphia Flyers center Maxime Talbot shoots the puck during a practice session in preparation for the 2012 NHL Winter Classic ice hockey game at the Ballpark in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania January 1, 2012.TIM SHAFFER/Reuters
Well, it's not NHL hockey, more like NHL-ish.
But if you happen to be in the environs of Chateauguay, Que., on Thursday evening and want to see some hockey, a game will be played featuring nothing but big-league players.
It's all being done for charity, the game is the brainchild of locked-out Philadelphia Flyers teammates Max Talbot and Bruno Gervais.
Nominally the players will be split into teams of guys from Montreal and Quebec City – as long as the greater Quebec area includes Copenhagen and Toronto, and Montreal's boundaries stretch to the B.C. interior and Russia, that will indeed be the case.
The lineups have just been released and several current Habs will be playing (David Desharnais, Travis Moen, Lars Eller, Brandon Prust and Francis Bouillon for team Quebec City, Brian Gionta, Josh Gorges and – gulp – Andrei Markov, for Montreal).
Other big names participating: Simon Gagné, Alex Burrows, Marc-André Fleury, Jonathan Bernier and Jason Pominville.
It'll be just like the NHL, except for the hitting. And the intensity, and the fighting (unless Burrows is in mid-season form and somehow ticks off Prust).
Hey, there's a fall chill in the air and guys want to play, so drop the puck, we say.