Ron Sexsmith is widely known as one of Canada’s greatest songwriters.

TORONTO - Canada produces great songwriters and great hockey players. Some people say it’s the country’s long winters.

So how appropriate that while Canada’s greatest sport was being played across the country during Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals in Vancouver, one of the country’s greatest songwriters, Ron Sexsmith, was being celebrated at Massey Hall on Wednesday night.

And even if the Canucks didn’t emerge victorious against the Boston Bruins and their golden goalie Tim Thomas, at least Luminato’s Canadian Songbook all-star tribute to Toronto’s Sexsmith went off without a hitch save for the last-minute cancellation of opera star Measha Brueggergosman whose allergies led her to bow out.

If anything, the concert - featuring everyone from The Band’s Garth Hudson to Blue Rodeo’s Greg Keelor to Sexsmith’s own wife, Colleen Hixenbaugh of By Divine Right - almost seemed to go too fast, clocking in a mere 95 minutes as if everyone wanted to get out of the building as fast as they could and go home and catch the rest of the game.

Turns out it was Sexsmith, who appeared at the very end of the night to sing Get In Line, Tell You, and Love Shines (featuring all of the performers in the evening’s standout moment), who had to catch a plane.

Literally.

He was due on a flight to London just before midnight where he was to join The Kinks’ Ray Davies, among those who appeared in video tributes including Canadian Daniel Lanois and British filmmaker Richard Curtis (Notting Hill, Love Actually), and others for a festival show on Thursday night.

“This is insane - I wish I could stick around for the after party,” said Sexsmith, 47.

In fact, Keelor, the night’s very first performer, said a drunken Sexsmith had told him at a recent Sadies show in Toronto that he was too young to have such an honour coming his way.

“It was supposed to be Blue Rodeo,” joked Keelor. “But (bassist) Bazil (Donovan) was on vacation.”

And, it turns out, Sexsmith - who famous fans include Elvis Costello, Paul McCartney, Chris Martin, and Elton John - was wrong.

Keelor and Julie Fader got the night off to the right start with their delicate rendition of Words We Never Use and from there Hixenbough got in the line’s best night when she attributed to her husband.

“Ron likes to say behind every great man there’s a woman rolling her eyeballs,”she joked before adding; “I’ve been that woman.”

Other highlights included Tomi Swick’s rocking version of Hands Of Time - one of the few uptempo performances in a night that could have used more - Broken Social Scene frontman Kevin Drew’s slow-boiling Lebanon Tennessee, Andy Kim’s gospel-like This Song aided by Ladies Of The Canyon, and the gorgeous duet by current touring partners Oh Susanna and Matthew Barber on Gold In Them Hills.

They were all backed by the house band led by Barenaked Ladies keyboardist Kevin Hearn, who it turns out, is Sexsmith’s neighbor in Toronto and his drinking buddy.

Less effective was the Barenaked Ladies muted take on Strawberry Blonde although frontman Ed Robertson admitted to the crowd beforehand they had never performed it together before, unable to rehearse it or even make it to soundcheck earlier in the day and it showed.

And spoken word artist Shane Koysan’s tribute to Sexsmith while occasionally funny - “Ron Sexsmith, you are legwarmers,” - did little to add to the musical proceedings.

It was definitely cool to hear Hudson play accordion alongside Hearn singing and playing acoustic guitar on For A Moment There but it was hard to see The Band’s keyboardist as he hunched over his instrument in a wide brimmed black hat while seated on a stool and just kind of wandered off stage after the song.

Also a special thanks to host Matt Galloway (of CBC’s Metro Morning), who decided not to reveal the hockey game score during the show.

Frankly, if you make the commitment to go to a Ron Sexsmith tribute at Massey Hall, your head better be there and not something happening “across the continent” as Galloway so eloquently put it.

In Canada, hockey is king, but Wednesday night, at least inside Massey Hall, Sexsmith was wearing the crown.