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Report: NHLers to play in Quebec “caravan” league, starting next week

Marc Andre Fleury

Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury blocks a shot during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Phoenix Coyotes in Pittsburgh on Monday, Dec. 20, 2010. The Penguins won 6-1. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

AP

A hockey tour organized by Flyers forward Maxime Talbot and defenseman Bruno Gervais will begin play on Thursday, Sept. 27, according to a report from RDS.

The first contest will be held in Chateauguay, a suburb of Montreal, and will feature a number of Francophone NHL players: Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andre Fleury and Kris Letang, Montreal’s David Desharnais and Mathieu Darche and St. Louis’ David Perron.

RDS’s Renaud P Lavoie reports San Jose’s Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Vancouver’s Alex Burrows, Columbus’ Derick Brassard and Los Angeles’ Simon Gagne will also be on hand.

The games are scheduled to take place on a weekly basis and the cost of tickets will be $20.

RDS reports that all proceeds will go to charity.

The so-called “caravan” league is a spinoff of an idea hatched by ex-NHLer Joel Bouchard during the last lockout.

He created the McDonald’s Caravan, a 16-weekend tour of four-on-four hockey that featured the likes of Jose Theodore, Simon Gagne, J.S. Giguere, Yanic Perreault and Alexandre Daigle. The league toured throughout Quebec and all proceeds went to charity, leaving a lasting legacy on a number of French-Canadian players.

One such player is Daniel Briere -- a Flyers teammate of Talbot and Gervais -- who told CSN Philadelphia he heard only good things about the traveling troupe.

“They traveled and called it the caravan and they traveled all over Quebec with different games every weekend,” Briere said. “I didn’t get to participate in that because I was in Switzerland, but it was a lot of fun from what I heard.”