Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1030244
THERE'S SOMETHING DISTINCT about hockey and 'up north'; the area that spans across the entire northern half of the state, east and west, with the 218 area code. The sport is as embedded in the towns and cultures as the iron ore mined throughout the Iron Range. It just feels like hockey home. "It's a special, special place," 2018 Stanley Cup champion Matt Niskanen told the Duluth News Tribune this summer. "It means a lot to me. I spend my summers here. I plan to retire here. My kids will go to school here. This is home." Niskanen, along with Washington Capitals teammate T.J. Oshie, each honed their skills in the 218 zone; Niskanen in Virginia/Mountain Iron-Buhl and Oshie in Warroad. After claiming the game's ultimate prize this past June, there was no other place either of them would rather celebrate than the communities that raised them—a first-time visit from Lord Stanley for each town. "To bring (the Cup) to Warroad, where hockey, it didn't get started for me, but that's where I started improving," said Oshie, who was born in Mount Vernon, Washington, and moved to Warroad at age 15. "You get to skate every day up there for free. It's hard not to have fun and get better every day. "To bring it up there to the people of Warroad, who took us in and made us feel like we were born and raised there, that was really special." 23 O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8 | M H J ON L I N E . C O M T.J. Oshie and Matt Niskanen bring the Stanley Cup north RETURN 2 1 8 TO THE b y J E S S I P I E R C E Photo / Getty Images THE 218 14 The number of times the Stanley Cup has visited the 218-area code. FUN FACT