OTTAWA — When asked to give his name, Larry Doshen instead grabbed his trading card. The photo was fairly recent, capturing him in black hockey pants as he cradled a hockey stick. He was helmetless, with a head of gray hair to match his “Silver Foxes” jersey.

Holding the card aloft, Doshen’s hand shook. He chalked it up to old age, but he was also filled with boyish nerves. And for good reason: The 84-year-old had just stepped off the ice after finally living his childhood fantasy of playing on an NHL rink.

“Once you get to skating, it’s fine,” Doshen said, pausing to reach into his mouth and remove his upper dentures. “I’ll take this thing out so you can hear me.”

An average NHL intermission typically features children from local minor hockey associations,  often as young as the under-7 “Timbits” level in Canada, either scrimmaging or competing in a shootout. Following the second period of the Ottawa Senators’ 4-0 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets at Canadian Tire Centre on Sunday, the youth made way for some much older gentlemen.

Or, as one attendee less delicately dubbed them, the “Stalebits.”

Forgive my lack of tweets during this game. I’ve been following this group of 80-year-olds who are playing in the second intermission of this Sens-Blue Jackets game. pic.twitter.com/kQ88PgWvpX

— Julian McKenzie (@jkamckenzie) April 6, 2025

Thirteen players representing multiple 80-and-over non-contact hockey teams in the Ottawa area — the eldest of whom were 88 years old — participated in the unusual exhibition on Sunday afternoon. The action lasted a brief three minutes, with Doshen battling through his brief anxiety at the front of the net to score the only goal. But the group of octogenarians drew cheers from the tens of thousands in attendance throughout, starting from the moment they each stepped onto the ice.

“This is a dream come true for me,” Aime Beaulne, one of the 88-year-olds, told The Athletic.

The game also brought awareness to the 80+ Hockey Hall of Fame, a nonprofit that recognizes active hockey players above the age of 80 across Canada. The initiative was founded in 2011 with an inaugural class of six, each of whom were inducted according to what the organization describes as its “knighting protocols using a vintage 1930 one-piece wooden hockey stick.” Applicants can be nominated online. In addition to the age requirement of its eligibility criteria, the 80+ Hockey Hall of Fame’s website lists “sound character and good sportsmanship.”

“Because now we’re getting guys right across the country,” said Herb Brennen, the 80+ Hall of Fame’s president. “We need to know that.”

The number of inductees has since grown to nearly 400 players and almost 40 builders since its launch. An induction game is played every year and each new member receives their hockey card, as Doshen did. The Hall plans on inducting its first female player later this year.

“We try to make sure that this is really family-oriented,” Brennen said. “Because most of our children and certainly our grandchildren have never seen us play hockey, so it’s rather an amazing experience for them to actually see the old guy on the ice.”

The 80+ Hockey Hall of Fame got the opportunity to skate at the Senators game through a mutual connection. Back in January, Hall of Fame vice president Loris Bondio met with a friend, Liam Maguire, over drinks at the latter’s titular restaurant just east of Ottawa’s downtown. It wasn’t planned, but they wound up discussing the 80+ Hall. A self-proclaimed hockey historian, Maguire was blown away by the concept and wondered how he could get the Senators involved. Bondio replied that his organization had tried, but failed, to meet with the Sens.

“I’ll get you your meeting,” Maguire told Bondio.

Maguire tapped his connection to team president Cyril Leeder, who alongside fellow Senators co-founder Randy Sexton once sold Maguire a season ticket pledge in the hopes of eventually luring an NHL franchise to the Canadian capital city. When Ottawa ultimately succeeded in its bid in 1990, Maguire celebrated with Leeder and Sexton. Thirty-five years later, it was Maguire pitching Leeder on the 80+ Hockey Hall of Fame as an intermission showcase.

“I think it’s a beautiful, beautiful way of encapsulating why the Hall exists,” Bondio said. “Those kids have got to keep skating. Doesn’t matter if you don’t make the NHL. Doesn’t matter if you don’t make the team, keep skating. There’s always a place to play.”

Before their game at the CTC, the 80+ Hall of Famers sat in makeshift dressing rooms covered by curtains just near the Zamboni entrance, surrounded by stacks of wooden pallets, a pair of lowered basketball hoops, and a portable emergency eye wash station. After putting on their gear — including jerseys bearing the 80+ Hall’s logo — they lined up single-file and hit the ice.

“It’s uplifting to think one day like this could be me too,” said Matt Franczyk, the Senators’ specialist in hockey outreach. “Like, if I stay healthy, stay active, I could be on the ice playing with these guys as well.”

Most of the men who participated Sunday play hockey twice a week, for teams like the “Elder Skatesmen” and the “Octokids.” Others, like Barclay Frost, might play more often.

The 83-year-old Frost is considered the oldest goalie in Ottawa and is a member of Athletics Ontario’s Hall of Fame for his various athletic contributions as an athlete, coach and official — he filled the last role at the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal. Frost even represented Team Canada at an 80+ USA-Canada hockey event last fall. That is, until the American starting goaltender became unavailable and Frost was forced to change allegiances.

“I know what it’s like to be a traitor,” Frost said. “People wouldn’t talk to me. My wife was sitting up in the stands with all the Team Canada wives and all our Team Canada staff. And I’m on the other team.”

Herb Brennen’s hockey card was given to him after being inducted into the 80+ Hockey Hall of Fame in 2023.

The fact that these over-80-and-above hockey teams exist is already impressive, but they also stand to combat a worrisome trend for elders. A Canadian government report estimated that 30 percent of seniors in the country — a group expected to grow from nearly 15 percent today to up to 25 percent of the population by 2036 — are at risk of being socially isolated. The International Federation on Ageing has added that “keeping older people socially connected and active” is the “number one emerging issue facing seniors” in Canada.

“I would really, really miss it if I didn’t have the dressing room to go to, to talk to the guys, and the banter back and forth,” Doshen said. “Talk about what we do on the ice, talk about what we do off the ice. A couple of the guys I know are having health problems, so you listen to them. Some others are having family health problems as well. It gives them a chance to talk.”

Indeed, playing means everything for these seniors, whether it’s because they want to stay fit — or, as Brennen recalled himself recently doing with fellow skaters, to chirp one another.

“I said, ‘I don’t know why the hell you even bring a hockey stick to the game,’” Brennen said. “(The pucks) go in off your ass. They go in off your elbow. What do you need a hockey stick for? You’ve probably got the same stick you ever started with.”

And then there are men like 88-year-old Wil Côté, who just appreciates the support that comes with playing with a band of brothers.

“It keeps me going for sure,” Côté said. “I like playing, but I like the camaraderie. When I come home, I’m happy.”

(Photos: Julian McKenzie / The Athletic)