Few rinks feel bigger than an NHL ice surface when you are five or six years old and still learning to stand on skates. A short clip from a Timbits intermission game at a Montreal Canadiens home game captured exactly that: one small player struggled to keep up, and the moment someone helped him back into the play became the heart of the clip.
Timbits intermission hockey at an NHL game
Several NHL clubs run Timbits intermission games. Between periods, while the ice crew prepares the surface, a team of young Timbits players gets a few minutes on the same ice as the professionals, in front of a full crowd.
The Winnipeg Jets describe how their version works: Timbits hockey and ringette teams are drawn at random to play during the intermission of a home game. Each selected team receives tickets for players, coaches and parent escorts, Timbits and juice for the children, and a gift after the game. For many families, it is the first time they have seen the inside of an NHL rink from ice level.
What the Timbits Minor Sports Program is
Timbits are the doughnut holes Tim Hortons introduced in 1976, twelve years after the chain’s first shop opened in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1964. The name also belongs to the company’s children’s sports programme. The Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles records “Timbits” as the term for players in the Timbits Minor Sports Program, which Tim Hortons sponsors in Canada and the United States for children of about four to eight.
By 2014 the programme covered hockey, soccer, lacrosse, t-ball, baseball and ringette. In hockey alone, Tim Hortons said it was supporting more than 50,000 young players a year, with team jerseys provided by the company. The programme’s guiding line is simple: “The First Goal is Having Fun.”
Sidney Crosby is a former Timbit. He played for the Cole Harbour Timbits in Nova Scotia in 1993, at the age of five, wearing number 8 at centre.
Why a helping hand matters at that age
At the Timbits level, the game is mostly about skating, balance and confidence. Children fall constantly, lose their edges and end up far from the puck. That is exactly why the Montreal moment worked so well: the help kept a struggling player in the game instead of leaving him behind, and the crowd cheered the effort as loudly as any goal.
For parents and coaches of young players, the lessons are the same ones the programme promotes:
- Keep the focus on fun and time on the ice, not on the score.
- Praise effort and getting back up after a fall.
- Encourage teammates to help each other, as happened in Montreal.
- Make sure helmets, gloves and skates fit properly; comfortable gear makes learning far easier.
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