This story about the Kenyan hockey team is food for the soul

LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 28: Nathan MacKinnon #29 of the Colorado Avalanche and Sidney Crosby #87 of the Pittsburgh Penguins talk near the bench during the 2017 Coors Light NHL All-Star Skills Competition at Staples Center on January 28, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Dave Sandford/NHLI via Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 28: Nathan MacKinnon #29 of the Colorado Avalanche and Sidney Crosby #87 of the Pittsburgh Penguins talk near the bench during the 2017 Coors Light NHL All-Star Skills Competition at Staples Center on January 28, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Dave Sandford/NHLI via Getty Images)

Tim Horton’s brought the lone Kenyan hockey team to Canada so they could play in an actual game against opponents. Then they invited Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon to play with them.

This is a truly heartwarming story from the folks at Tim Horton’s. A small group of Kenyan players fell in love with the sport of hockey, but given that it’s not exactly a popular sport in Africa, they had no one to play against.

With perhaps the marketing campaign of the year, Tim Horton’s reached out and flew them to Toronto so they could play in an actual game against other players. Oh, and they had two of the best join them.

Here is the full video from Canada’s favorite coffee and donut shop.

There’s no better way to grow the game than this. Bringing these players to Canada to play a game, supplying them with full gear and teaming them up with two of the game’s greats will create memories that none of them will ever forget.

This modern-day “Cool Runnings” story went viral this morning, garnering a ton of love from the hockey community. Seeing the joy in the faces of these players as they hit the ice with Sid and Nate is incredible.

They aren’t half bad either! Considering these players couldn’t initially comprehend how skating worked, they look great on the ice in this video (So much better than me even though I had unlimited access to ice growing up in Northern Ontario).

This is what sports is all about. Bringing people from completely different walks of life together to play a game they all love. Here’s to Timmies, doing a far better job than the NHL itself at growing this great game.

Tim Horton’s has been working with Sid and Nathan for some time now, running several hilarious Tim’s commercials over the years. This one, though, is by far their best. Bravo.