NHL New Division Alignments

For more information on this, please go to the NHL website page, NHL introduces new division names with schedule

Vancouver Canucks Prospect Open Practice 2013

Well, I was back in Rogers Arena again for another free event.  The Vancouver Canucks Propect camp held a scrimmage on Thursday afternoon from 3:30-4:30pm.  I asked my nieces if they wanted to accompany me to Rogers.  They were both excited to go, so we went.  It was a nice day.

As we got off skytrain, we could see the lineup around the Roger Neilson statue.  The line was going in thru Gate 10.  We walked up to the concourse and sat down in the middle seats for a good view of everything.  My eldest niece, Marya, commented on how small the ice actual was compared to how it looks on TV.  She loved being there though.  

As everyone was finding their seats, the prospects were on the ice already, warming up.  Shooting pucks and skating around.  There was team Green and Team Blue.  There must have been about 200 people there for this event.

 

Across from us sat 4 prospects, Canucks brass and the media. Jordan Subban was second from the left. Not sure who the others were.  At first I thought it was all the 2013 draft picks but not so sure anymore. There were a couple fans up front who kept screaming out "Jordan!  Jordan!" ..."You're too late!" (cause he came out after everyone else) and were waving at him which drew a laugh from the crowd.  Jordan didn't respond.  

The game started on time.  There was no introduction or anything.  You had to follow @VanCanucks on twitter to find out the roster.  It's a lot harder trying to watch Bo Hovart and Hunter Shinkaruk when you don't know what numbers they're wearing.  There were a few guys that played with speed and aggressiveness that the current Canucks are lacking.  It was impressive.  Team Blue scored first.  They seem to dominate the play throughout the game.

At one point a Team Blue player was so aggressive at Team Green's net, that he knocked off the mask of the goalie!  All you could see was this mask flying up in the air and the goalie went down on the ice.  I think it was goalie, Joe Cannata.  The game stopped while he received medical attention.  He received a loud applause from the crowd when he finally stood up and skated off to the bench.  Unfortunatley, he was hurt so much, he left a puddle of blood in the crease.  They decided to make that into intermission while the ice masters cleaned it up and the zamboni flooded the ice once more.  

My nieces and I decided to head over to the team store at Sec 114 and look around a bit.  Items are so expensive.  Crazy.  They did a have a rack that had a $5.00 sale sign on it but some items were marked as $22 so I wasn't sure if it was all $5 or starting at $5 and up!  I decided to leave the rack alone and come back to our seats.  Good thing nobody took them.

Both teams looked good out there but Team Blue looked dominant.  Here is Blue Team.

The Green Team was coached by Dan Cloutier on the left and Dave Babych on the right, both located behind the bench.

 Team Green won the scrimmage match 4-3.  At the end they all turned to the crowd, held up their sticks to our standing ovation and they left.

 

That was the end of a short scrimmage match with the Vancouver Canucks prospects.  It was fun to watch them but next time I want to know who everyone is.  Can't wait for the Canucks open practice in September when they all come back into town.  Marya has decided she likes hockey and is really excited to come with me to the Canucks open practice.  She obviously takes after me.  She's made me a proud Auntie :)