A Port Elgin composer and musician is taking a stab at coming up with a new theme to Hockey Night in Canada.
Ian Burbidge is one of thousands of entrants vying to have their piece of music heard by millions of hockey fans every Saturday night.
Burbidge says when the opportunity came up he thought he should take a crack at it.
He says Hockey Night in Canada and the old theme song is recognized everywhere in Canada.
In coming up with his theme, Burbridge says he wanted to maintain the energy associated with the old theme and Hockey Night in Canada but also wanted to add a rock element to it.
He says the old theme had a lot of hooks and was a really good opening theme.
Burbidge says his piece is entitled “Ice Time” and can be found at anthemchallenge.cbc.ca.
Unfortunately, he says there are a number of other entries with the title “Ice Time” and suggests people who want to hear his theme to type in his name in the search engine.
Burbidge says there is no voting process but the site is there for people to listen and the producers will see which ones catch the imagination of some of the people who listen to it.
He says the producers will be making a short list sometime around October 4th.
The original composition — written by Dolores Clamen — had been the theme of Hockey Night in Canada on CBC for nearly 4 decades but the network decided not renew their rights to the song after the 2007-2008 season.
It was scooped up over the summer by CTVGlobemedia and will be used on TSN hockey telecasts starting this coming NHL season.
