Back The ChartAttack Hack At Weekend Hockey Tournament

Easter falls on a different date each year, but you can still always count on it to provide egg hunts, increased church attendance, a long weekend and the Exclaim! Cup hockey tournament.

The eighth annual event, which runs from Thursday to Sunday at three Toronto arenas, will feature 28 teams of musicians and other creative types from across the country. Among those who will be lacing up the skates are Barenaked Ladies' Tyler Stewart, Sloan's Chris Murphy and Andrew Scott, The Rheostatics' Dave Bidini and Tim Vesely, The Sadies' Sean Dean and Mike Belitsky, and CBC Newsworld's George Stroumboulopoulos, the cover boy of this week's Eye Weekly.

Stroumboulopoulos is a right winger (you thought that he'd be a lefty, didn't you) for the ChartAttack Hack, who, since you're reading this, must already be your favourite team. The squad is anchored by goalie Aaron Brophy, who, when he's not stopping pucks or slicing his finger, is Chart's managing editor.

The Hack play at 1 p.m. Friday at McCormick Arena against the Fluid Living Arseholes and take the ice again five hours later at De La Salle Arena versus Capsule Music. Their third game, which will feature a special reunion appearance by wrestling-loving punk rockers Bruiser Brody, pits them against the Victoria Red Lighters at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Bands of various repute — including Wayne Omaha, Galore, The Midways and Viking rockers Dragonfjoord — will be playing in the stands at every game.

When the players aren't playing, they'll likely be drinking — and probably pretty heavily. But they'll also be performing, as each team has their own band that will take the Lee's Palace stage at some point during the Thursday to Saturday Hootenanny. The Hack band — featuring Chart writers Bryan Borzykowski and Aaron Foster, Not By Choice's Liam Killeen, a ringer named Lance Moreton and bagpipes — will be kicking butt at 11 p.m. on Friday.

If for some inexplicable reason you want to find out more about the other teams in the tournament, its website is a treasure trove of information on the entire event.