The Hockey Hall of Fame in downtown Toronto is inviting well-wishers to reach out and touch the "Lucky Loonie" in the final days before the start of the Vancouver Olympics.
A hole in the protective hard plastic covering the $1 icon was opened Monday by legendary hockey coach and commentator Don Cherry for the first time in eight years.
"It's worth it come down and just touch it," he said at the unveiling, where the Loonie is mounted inside a puck attached to a backlit enlarged photo of 2002 gold medal Team Canada players Therese Brisson, Geraldine Heaney and Danielle Goyette.
Canadian ice-maker Trent Evans tucked the brass-coloured bird buck into the ice in Salt Lake City for good luck before the men's and women's won gold at the 2002 Olympic hockey tournaments. Dubbed the "Lucky Loonie," it was excavated and present to then-Team Canada general manager Wayne Gretzky.
Gretzky donated it soon after to the Hockey Hall of Fame at Front and Yonge Sts.
Former Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Pat Quinn, who coached the Team Canada medalists for the 2002 games, unveiled the loonie with Goyette on March 8, 2002.
"People could touch it during March break," their fingertips leaving the coin's centre tarnished brown, Hockey Hall of Fame spokesman Bob Stellick said. It was then given a protective coating.
Letting visitors rub the loonie for the rest of February and wish Team Canada good luck at the games this month will appeal to everyone who knows hockey players and fans "are so superstitious," Stellick said.
Cherry became the first Canadian to offer support for this year's men's and women's Team Canada players.