Long-Time Hockey Mom Revives Centennial Arena Canteen

HALIFAX — Debbie MacKinnon Has spent her life as a dedicated volunteer in Halifax as well as a tireless hockey mom. Now, she is betting on herself while also still serving a sport, and a community, she loves.

Whatever level of hockey is being played, fans and family can always rely on a warm cup of hot chocolate and poutine from the arena’s canteen. Usually, these small eateries are run by the arena crew themselves. But recently, MacKinnon was given the opportunity to run one herself as a business.

On December 1 she will be opening Sticks ‘N Pucks Canteen inside Centennial Arena to serve hungry hockey players and their families.

MacKinnon runs the Fairview Clayton Park Farmers Market, which was hosted at the Centennial Arena community room. Near the end of the market’s season, someone from the arena asked MacKinnon if she knew anyone who would be interested in operating the canteen.

“You know what? It wasn’t even anything that was on my radar,” MacKinnon told Huddle in a recent interview.

“I said [to the arena staff] ‘let me think about some people.’ And so that night, I was thinking about it and I thought ‘why am I looking for other people?’ It would be a really interesting, fun thing to do and a great way to give back to the community because my son grew up in hockey.”

Centennial, in fact, is the arena MacKinnon’s son Jessy played in the most, since he was a Hawk growing up. Her son only recently finished his minor hockey career and MacKinnon recalls how the arena has been missing a canteen for more than two years.

“I think my bum print is imprinted on the benches up there,” she joked about how much time she has spent at Centennial. “I remember the canteen closed pre-Covid and I just thought it would be a nice thing to be able to offer the community again, because I know how much I missed it.”

As a single mother, the canteen was especially important to MacKinnon on the days where she’d get home from work and not have enough time to cook something for herself before jetting off to a hockey game.

Sticks ‘N Pucks will be serving, of course, classic rink food like hotdogs, hamburgers, French fries, poutine, and chili. But MacKinnon recognizes that people’s eating habits are changing. So she will also be looking to serve sandwiches and muffins and some other alternatives.

Right now, MacKinnon is hard at work prepping the canteen and decorating. There’s a display case of NHL collectible cups, and even a nutcracker ornament dressed in hockey gear- a mascot for the canteen.

For MacKinnon, who is also the chair of the Fairview Community Association, this will be her first business venture, which is giving her mixed emotions ahead of the grand opening.

“I’m really excited and really nervous. But it’s like I always told kids: you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take. You don’t want to look back and say, ‘I probably should have done that, it would have been a good experience.’”

Derek Montague is a Huddle reporter in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].