Actor Kim Coates, seen at a NASCAR event in 2006, is a native of Saskatchewan. Actor Kim Coates, seen at a NASCAR event in 2006, is a native of Saskatchewan. (Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

If actor Kim Coates had his way, the world junior hockey tournament would have started in his hometown of Saskatoon on Nov. 30.

Anything to take his mind off the events that occurred a day earlier, when Coates and his fellow Saskatchewanites were felled by the cruellest of blows because of the bizarre way their beloved Roughriders lost the Grey Cup to the Montreal Alouettes.

Remember, the Roughriders were nabbed with too many men on the field to enable Alouettes kicker Damon Duval a second try to boot his game-winning 33-yard field goal?

"I don’t think I’ll ever get over it," Coates said. "That was — well, I don’t want to talk about it."

For something to silence the affable actor, Saskatchewan’s Grey Cup meltdown must have stung. Coates, who turns 51 in February, gets excited about everything. He was over the moon that his latest film, Resident Evil: Afterlife, wrapped up shooting in Toronto just in time for him to fly to Saskatoon to host a Grey Cup party at a friend’s house for his mother Joyce and 45 close friends.

"To be there, it was neat right up until those last couple of seconds," he said. "Then it wasn’t very neat at all."

Coates has more than 40 film credits and has acted in several popular television series. He has worked alongside Kevin Costner in Waterworld and Open Range, appeared in blockbusters like Pearl Harbor and Black Hawk Down and was honoured with a best actor award at the Action on Film festival in Pasadena, Calif., for his role in King of Sorrow.

'Here’s the deal: you can take the boy out of Canada, but you can’t take Canada out of the boy.'—Kim Coates

Coates now lives with his wife Diana and daughters Kyla and Brenna in Los Angeles. But Saskatoon remains near and dear to his heart.

"Here’s the deal: you can take the boy out of Canada, but you can’t take Canada out of the boy," he said. "All these people down here who know I’m a Canadian say to me ‘So you’re a Kings fan now or a Ducks fan.’ I tell them that I’m a fan of [Anaheim’s] Ryan Getzlaf [who hails from Regina]. I’m a Detroit Red Wings fan, always will be. I’m a Toronto Blue Jays fan, always will be. I’m a Riders fan, always will be."

Coates cheers for the Red Wings because their greatest player, Gordie Howe, was born and raised in Floral, Sask., 10 minutes from Coates’s old neighbourhood.

In the actor's youth, it was all about going to Saskatoon Blades junior games at the old Saskatoon Arena.

"Fifty-four hundred people packed that rink every game," Coates said. "It was something else. Everybody was smoking and drinking.

"When I was a kid, they were good. Bernie Federko was my favourite player. But there also were guys like Blair Chapman. Bruce Hamilton had the hardest shot in the league. There was this goalie, Geoff Brand. They called him goofball because he was a goofball. But he stopped everything."

Coates’s attention has now turned to his hometown and the world juniors. He has watched the games on the NHL network at his Los Angeles home and has kept in close contact with two buddies, Larry Harley and Jim Lindsay, who purchased $1,400 ticket packages for the entire tournament.

"Larry was telling me that all these kids from all the 10 teams can play, but that no one can pass or move the puck like Canada," Coates said. "They tell me that the Canadian players are big, skilled and their passing is phenomenal."

A Canadian gold medal next week would set off quite a party for the city of Saskatoon and help ease the pain of what happened at the Grey Cup. And certainly make one Hollywood actor proud.