HBO is back this season with its Emmy Award winning 24/7 series.

The Flyers and Rangers will be featured in four episodes that air every Wednesday beginning on Dec. 14 at 10 p.m. ET.

The final episode on Jan. 4 will feature footage of the 2012 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic between the Atlantic Division rivals on Jan. 2 at Citizens Bank Park.

HBO 24/7 documented the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals last year. It was the first time the network went inside two teams during the season.

The NHL has invaded Citizens Bank Park for today's announcement of the 2012 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic.

The home of the Philadelphia Phillies has been turned into a temporary hockey heaven, as Flyers, Rangers and the beautiful Classic logo are all over the ballpark.

Dignitaries expected today include Flyers Chairman Ed Snider, Rangers GM Glen Sather, Flyers GM Paul Holmgren, coaches and players from both teams, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, and Phillies President David Montgomery.

You can follow along here at this blog, and NHL.com and the NHL Network will have live coverage.

Ottawa Senators goalie Alex Auld knows firsthand just how passionate the hockey fans are in Winnipeg.

Auld, a former second-round draft pick (Florida, 1999), spent parts of four seasons playing for the Manitoba Moose in the American Hockey League. He reflected on his time there fondly this morning after the Sens skated in preparation for tonight's Kraft Hockeyville showdown against the Jets at the Mile One Centre.

"It's exciting," Auld said of the Jets' return to the NHL. "I played four winters there and you could see the passion in the fan base and the love they still had for the Jets. It was tough some nights. We were having a tough game, and the, 'Go Jets Go!' chant would go. It was a little discouraging for us, but it's pretty cool. I was pretty excited and I had been hopeful for a couple of years with all the talk about it."

One of Auld's best seasons came during the NHL work stoppage, when he appeared in 50 games for the Moose. Auld helped Manitoba qualify for the Calder Cup Playoffs that season by going 25-18-4 with a 2.56 goals-against average. That season marked the opening of the MTS Centre, which will be the home of the Jets.

"We had a great group of guys," Auld recalled. "Nobody was worrying about who was getting called up or anything like that. We had a good playoff run that year and it was a really fun year. We all really enjoyed it. Opening the new building was pretty cool and closing the old arena. All those things are things you remember forever. Now we'll be playing in Winnipeg again in the NHL. That'll be cool."

 

It's extremely rare that an NHL team conducts a morning skate that is open to the public, but that is the norm in Kraft Hockeyville.

The Winnipeg Jets arrived on the ice here at Mile One Centre at about 9 a.m. Newfoundland time and were greeted by roughly 1,000 rabid fans who will surely be back tonight to watch the preseason game between the Jets and Ottawa Senators.

Two-time Stanley Cup winner Andrew Ladd was a good sport and wore a microphone during the pre-game twirl. He's excited to participate in his first Kraft Hockeyville game this evening.

"It was fun … there was a bunch of kids in the crowd," the Jets' captain said. "You can see how excited they are. It's always fun to do events like this and to get people involved that don't normally get a chance to see NHL hockey and to see their reaction to it."

One could understand that the Jets were a tad groggy on the ice this morning, as their bodies were still on Winnipeg time. Newfoundland is 2 1/2 hours ahead, which meant the team was really up this morning before dawn.

"It wasn't a very good morning skate for us, some of the guys were a little sleepy," defenseman Ron Hainsey told me, as the Jets had a 7 a.m. wakeup call -- or 4:30 in Winnipeg. "It's fun. It's always fun when there's energy in the building. I'm sure the game will be fun tonight, too."

Winnipeg coach Claude Noel is battling a cold, but he's nonetheless thrilled to be in St. John's, which will host the Jets' top minor-league affiliate this season. He and his players are happy to embrace the Kraft Hockeyville event, which seems to get bigger each year.

"The Hockeyville thing is really good and it's really exciting for us," Noel said. "What's really worked out in our favor is this is our farm team. It couldn't have worked out any better. We end up getting a franchise that we didn't know, or certainly I didn't know, and then we end up putting an American League team here. It all works great for us. The excitement now is double what we've got in Winnipeg and what we've got up here. The frenzy continues out here in the East. It's great for us."

We're now just hours away from the 2011 Kraft Hockeyville game, and both the Winnipeg Jets and Ottawa Senators have arrived here at the Mile One Centre in St. John's.

The Jets will hit the ice for their morning skate at 9 a.m. Newfoundland time (7:30 ET), while the Sens will practice at 10 a.m. From there, representatives from each club will head out to Conception Bay South to visit a school and hospital.

The game is slated to begin at 5:30 p.m. Newfoundland time (4 p.m. ET). Make sure to check back with NHL.com throughout the day for Kraft Hockeyville coverage.

Another day of fun-filled activities is in the books in Conception Bay South, which means we're inching closer to the main event.

Sunday's festivities kicked off in the morning with two more sessions of on-ice clinics with NHL alumni including Kris King, Patrick Lalime, Laurie Boschman, Shaun Van Allen, Mathieu Schneider and Rob Zamuner. All the alumni were incredibly friendly and enjoyed their time working with Conception Bay South's youth.

A family skate at Robert French Memorial Stadium followed, as kids and parents shared the sheet of ice at the arena that is receiving the incredibly generous donation of $100,000 from Kraft that will go toward upgrading the facility.

Sunday concluded with the officials clinic, which was held by referees Mike Leggo and Gord Dwyer and linesmen Scott Driscoll and David Brisebois. Leggo and Dwyer arrived late due to a delayed flight in Montreal, but got to the rink in time to join the classroom session, where they answered questions from aspiring officials and shared some experiences of life in the NHL.

All in all, it's been another great day at Kraft Hockeyville. Can't wait for the morning skates tomorrow at the Mile One Centre. It's almost time to play hockey.

Kris King spent more than a dozen years playing professional hockey. But it was the four seasons he spent in Winnipeg that he's most fond of.

"Winnipeg was the place where I actually enjoyed my time the most, and that's both on and off the ice," said King, who was dealt from the New York Rangers to Winnipeg in December of 1992. "I think it was the people. We worked hard as a team, but the people within the community made those four years the most memorable four years for me. Coming from a small town of 900 people in Northern Ontario, Winnipeg was a small town in the NHL at the time, so it was a natural fit for me."

King was on the last Jets' team in 1995-96 before the franchise moved to Phoenix. Winnipeg's last game -- a 4-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on April 28, 1996 -- will forever be etched in his memory.

"As tough as the ending was, that's the thing that sticks out the most," King said. "Watching Thomas (Steen) and how hard it was for him … to me, he was the Winnipeg Jets for the era that I was there. To see him sitting there and how hard it was for him to realize that this was it … I saw him this summer and he's so excited to have his team back. The fans didn't expect us to win every night, but they expected you to work hard. As a group, we picked up on that real quick. We had some quality guys and we were a good team that was getting close when he had to go to Phoenix."

NHL hockey is back in Winnipeg this season, and the Jets will be landing in Newfoundland later today. They will face the Ottawa Senators tomorrow night as the main event to the 2011 Kraft Hockeyville festivities. King is obviously very excited to have his former team back in the League after a 15-year hiatus.

"Thrilled would probably we a light way of saying it," King said Sunday after helping youth hockey players from Conception Bay South hone their skills. "I'm thrilled for the people of Manitoba and the Jets fans across Canada. They proved to us as players just how hard it was for them to lose a team. It was very, very sad to see what they went through. It was a tough time. But for them to be able to feel the excitement of actually having their team back was really exciting for everybody, especially us alumni."

The Kraft Hockeyville game was originally supposed to feature the Sens and Atlanta Thrashers, but that all changed when the Thrashers relocated to Winnipeg. King believes having the Jets participate in this event will only add to what is always a special event in Canada. The game will be played at the Mile One Centre in St. John's.

"It's actually really ironic how it was Atlanta-Ottawa and then the change was made," King said. "It's great for the people here and it's great to have hockey here."

The celebrities game at Robert French Memorial Stadium went down to the wire, but it was the Kraft Hockeyville squad edging the Conception Bay South stars in a wild 8-7 affair.

Truth be told, the score could have been much worse had it not been for the tremendous goaltending by CBS's Rod Hennessey, who made several tremendous saves to keep the game close. CBS actually held a 3-2 lead after the first period, but Kraft Hockeyville rallied for sox goals in the second en route to victory in the two-period game).

At the intermission, CBC's Don Cherry and Cassie Campbell-Pascall addressed the capacity crowd and told them how proud they should be to be Newfoundlanders. Cherry reminded them of how special it was in 2008, when Detroit forward Danny Cleary became the first NHL player from the province to ever win the Stanley Cup.

After the game, fans headed for the exits and were treated to a fireworks show. Hopefully they'll now head home to rest up, because there is another busy day in the works Sunday. NHL alumni Kris King, Laurie Boschman, Shaun Van Allen and Patrick Lalime will run clinics in the morning before a family skate in the afternoon. Later in the day, NHL officials will run a clinic for aspiring referees and/or linesmen.

It was a terrific start to the weekend. Make sure you continue to check in with NHL.com for all the latest from 2011 Kraft Hockeyville.

The two biggest things about being crowned Kraft Hockeyville are the opportunity to host an NHL preseason game and $100,000 for arena upgrades.

The showdown between the Winnipeg Jets and Ottawa Senators is still two nights away, but tonight at Robert French Memorial Stadium, the mayor of CBS, Woodrow French, was part of a ceremony at center ice along with Kraft representatives. It was to pass along the check that will benefit youth hockey players for years to come.

Afterwards, Hall of Fame announcer Bob Cole, a St. John's native, dropped the ceremonial puck for the game that is pitting celebrities from Conception Bay South and Kraft Hockeyville.

"That was great," Cole told me as the game got under way. "A lot of fun."

As fans made their way around the Stanley Cup Jamboree, they were addressed by Jack Hewitt, the Vice President of Marketing Services for Kraft Canada.

Hewitt expressed his heartfelt congratulations to this small, passionate town that earned more than 995,000 votes to win a competition that began with 653 communities. To honor the remarkable accomplishment, the folks here will be treated with festivities throughout the weekend that will culminate with Monday's preseason game between the Winnipeg Jets and Ottawa Senators.

"Your pride, passion, dedication and commitment got you the title of Kraft Hockeyville 2011. Congratulations," Hewitt told the hundreds of rabid fans in attendance. "We have a great weekend planned for you. You're going to have a wonderful weekend. Enjoy it."