Hockey near, Hockey Far, hockey from everywhere today.

It's been a festival of puck for hockey fans this Saturday, the morning (afternoon in the eastern zones) kicked off with the latest in the growing theme of outdoor classics, this time from the home of the Hamilton Tiger Cats as the Hamilton Bulldogs and the Toronto Marlies did battle at the ancient yard of Mosca in the Steel City.

The game played under ideal conditions combined the outdoor visuals of a pond hockey game under a bright Ontario Sun, today's outdoor game follows on the heels of the AHL Outdoor classic of earlier this month in Philadelphia, when the Adirondack Phantoms played the Hershey Bears.

Clearly if this ongoing trend of outdoor hockey continues to grip the imagination of both the NHL and the AHL, I think perhaps we should all pick up some stock options with Stanfield's.

For those of us that couldn't make it to the big show in Steeltown, Sportsnet was there to offer up all the drama of the game and the background of the celebration weekend.

The pursuit of the puck continued over at TSN2, where the KHL All Star game was being delivered to North American homes as Team Federov took on Team Ozolnis, live from Riga and beyond.

We'll be honest hear, most of the names on the rosters aren't particularly familiar to us here at the HockeyNation portal, but we imagine they are household names  from Moscow to Prague to Riga.

Canadians participating in the KHL all star game included, Chris Holt and Michael Garnett, while Brandon Bochenski flew the American colurs in the game.

TSN2's play by play was kind of interesting, with what seems to have been a soccer announcer doubling down as the hockey play by play caller, we gather Paul Romaniuk wasn't available, or perhaps not under contract to the KHL media conglomerate.

You can review all the festivities from the KHL website.

The NHL continues on with the hockey theme in the afternoon and into the evening, with a string of early afternoon games on  Sportsnet, including San Jose at Vancouver and Ottawa at Anaheim, all leading up to tonight's usual CBC offering of the Hockey Night in Canada double header.