Most NHL dreams are forged on the rinks in small towns considered the backbone of Canada and the United States. Few towns are more representative than Fort McMurray, Alberta - the province's northeastern natural resource hub currently being engulfed by sweeping wildfires.

Chris Phillips is one NHLer who's roots trace back to Fort McMurray. His sister and her immediate family have been safely evacuated from the area, but that doesn't make the harrowing visuals of the town that gave him his start much easier to digest.

"It's really hard. To be honest, I'm trying not to see what it looks like," Phillips said Wednesday, Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun reports. "I'm reading a lot of information on Twitter but I'm trying not to see video or pictures because it's hard to watch.

"To see it, in the shape it's in right now, it's just really hard. There's no easy way to describe that feeling, feeling so helpless, seeing a lot of friends and family trying to get out of there. Thankfully, I haven't heard of any injuries or worse and that everybody did get out of the fire hazard anyway."

Another local kid, St. Louis Blues forward Scottie Upshall, has a distraction: the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. But he admitted prior to Game 3 versus the Dallas Stars that his mind was elsewhere.

"I did not care about the hockey at the time. Once I started reading and I saw photos and video on Twitter, hockey was kind of the last thing I was thinking about," Upshall told Sportnet's Mark Spector.

"I was on my phone for most of the pregame warmup, in the dressing room," he added.

On his phone, Upshall learned that Beacon Hill - the neighborhood where he played his minor hockey - was largely destroyed, including an estimated 80 percent of the area's homes.

"The first arena I ever skated in was called the Beacon Hill Arena," he said. "Man, I can still remember the smell of that place. I'm told Beacon Hill is completely gone."

The rink - since renamed Frank Lacroix Arena - has apparently survived the blaze.

The Blues announced that they'll work to raise money for Upshall's hometown with a raffle and silent auction in advance of Game 4.

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