Local Births

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Happy birthday to Mac Stephen Hanson!

<p>There&#8217;s a rink with the name &#8220;Hershey&#8221; in Tom Kostopoulos&#8217; hometown. Fear not, it has nothing to do with the rival Bears.</p><p>Kostopoulos&#8217; hometown of Mississauga, Ontario, is typical of other neighborhoods in the Greater Toronto Area. The Leafs rule, there are hockey rinks everywhere and when one famous Canadian speaks every Saturday night, everyone is glued to their televisions.</p><p><strong>Player:</strong> Tom Kostopoulos</p><p><strong>Hometown:</strong> Mississauga, Ontario</p><p><strong>Type:</strong> Toronto suburb</p><p><strong>Population:</strong> 713,443</p><p><strong>Distance from Wilkes-Barre: </strong>382 miles</p><p><strong>Being from Mississauga I take it you were a Maple Leafs fan? </strong>&#8220;Big time. I was a big Wendell Clark fan and a die-hard Leafs fan until they traded him to Quebec and I vowed never to cheer for the Leafs again. Wendell Clark, Doug Gilmour, Todd Gill, Al Iafrate - they had a good team in the &#8216;93 playoffs. They got shafted by a call by Kerry Fraser, he missed a high-sticking on Doug Gilmour by Wayne Gretzky. We were crushed.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Leafs aside, the GTA and Mississauga have grown into pretty big cities.</strong> &#8220;It doesn&#8217;t seem like it because it&#8217;s all suburbs and everyone goes to Toronto if they want to go downtown. But there is a lot of people. From Lake Ontario expanding north all the cities are growing. It kind of blew up in the 1980s and it&#8217;s more residential.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Being so close to Lake Ontario are the winters bad?</strong> &#8220;Not too bad. There are some areas - like Buffalo gets a little more wind and snow. We get snow but it&#8217;s nothing crazy.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Is it true there&#8217;s a place named Hershey in Mississauga?</strong> &#8220;Yes, but it&#8217;s a rink for the junior team. It&#8217;s a great rink and good for the community. There are so many hockey rinks in the GTA and Mississauga that people around here would be surprised.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Hockey commentator Don Cherry is from Mississauga. How popular is he back home?</strong> &#8220;He&#8217;s huge. Every Saturday night in Canada most of the people watch Hockey Night in Canada and after the first period Don Cherry has his Coach&#8217;s Corner show. Most of the people swear by him. He&#8217;s not afraid to say what he thinks. He&#8217;s brutally honest and has been doing it for years. He and co-host Ron MacLean do a great job about hockey and Canada in general. Everyone loves him.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Are you a big fan of Don Cherry&#8217;s Rock&#8217;em Sock&#8217;em video series?</strong> &#8220;Yes. Every year that would be a gift to my brother and I from our parents. I think the series is up to Rock&#8217;em Sock&#8217;em 28 now.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Is Mississauga a place you&#8217;d like to move back to one day?</strong> &#8220;I think so. My wife and I are from the same town. We went to school together since elementary school. Her parents are there and so is my dad. I imagine at some point we&#8217;ll go back there.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Tom Venesky</p><p>tvenesky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>VIDEO</strong></p><p>To see video of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguin Tom Kostopoulos talking about his hometown of Mississauga, Ontario, visit the online version of this story on timesleader.com</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Tom Venesky at 570-991-6395 or on Twitter @TLTomVenesky</p></shirttailMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><videoMeta><p><table class="mceItemTable" style="border:none;width:98%;"><tbody><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoID:</td><td id="videoid" style="width:50em;font-size:90%;">mA8zXKb8uOw</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoType:</td><td id="videotype" style="font-size:90%;">YOUTUBE</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">URL:</td><td id="url" style="font-size:90%;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA8zXKb8uOw</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Embed String:</td><td id="videoembedstring" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Caption:</td><td id="videocaption" style="font-size:90%;">My hometown series with Tom Kostopoulos</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Credit:</td><td id="videocredit" style="font-size:90%;">Tom Venesky | Times Leader</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Position:</td><td id="videoposition" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr></tbody></table></p><p style="margin-top:10px;font-size:70%;color:#555;">(use the &#8220;for files&#8230;&#8221; link above to associate attached files with this source)</p></videoMeta></div>

My Hometown with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguin Tom Kostopoulos