Luongo and his 2013 Shapys Award!

Here's Roberto Luongo accepting the 2013 Shapy Award.  What an awesome guy!  I know for a fact that the tenants in his building in Yaletown miss him a lot.  Kesler isn't the greatest neighbor.  For all the shit this guy's taken in Vancouver, he's a classy guy and has taken it with a grain of salt.  I think many have now seen how awesome and humourous his personality is through his @Strombone1 twitter account and now through this skype message on YouTube.  I'll definitely miss him when he's traded.  Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu! :)

FIFA Women's World Cup Soccer Emblem Launch for 2015

On Friday, December 14th, the emblem for the FIFA Women's World Cup 2015 was launched from BC Place and I was there.  I worked in the VIP hospitality area.  This was an invitational event only with the VIPs and media.

I arrived at 7:30am that morning to start my shift at BC Place on behalf of FIFA/Soccer Canada.  As I walked in, I saw a lot of girls soccer teams.  Apparently we had 230 girls from soccer teams from all over the mainland to help with the launch.  They spent the next two and a half hours rehearsing.  But before they could do that, we had to help cover up any logos on the teams outfits that weren't adidas with duct tape.  Fun.  I know.  Once that was done, I went to the hospitality lounge with a group of volunteers I knew and we awaited the VIPs to arrive.  The lounge itself was like a mini freezer.  There was no heat.  Just like the rest of the building.  BC Place does not believe in heating the building entirely unless there is a Whitecaps or BC Lions game on that day.  We tried to layer our clothes but the cold air was hard not to notice.

My duty was to keep the VIPs contained in the lounge so they didn't get a sneak peak of the field where the girls were rehearsing.  Most  of the VIPs were running outside of the building cause it was warmer outside than it was inside the lounge, even though I had asked catering to turn up the heat.  Too little, too late.  But they drank their coffees and tried their best to keep warm.  The Canadian National Womens Team was also in attendance.  They were part of the presentation.

This is a video of Don Hardman, FIFA Event Venues Manager, who we work closely with.  He speaks about the Women's World Cup and what to expect.

Here is the video we were shown at the presentation.

Youtube is being a pain and won't show the video presentation so I'm putting up a link.

Colorful Canada 2015 Emblem Revealed

After the presentation was all done, we headed back into the ring road and organized shirts by sizes for the girls to grab as a souvenir and could maybe get signed by the Canadian  National Women's Team.  The whole event took 5 hours and then we were done for the day.  It was a great experience and although it was just a handful of us volunteers, which was all we really needed for this event, it went really smoothly.  I can't wait for the FIFA events to start rolling in this city.  I will be involved in the management side of things...not sure in which way yet though.

By the way, I really love the logo!

TSN's Road Warriors Final Product

Cabbie Presents episode of the Ryan Kesler and Kevin Bieksa game of pick up hockey last week was finally aired on TSN. This is the final product which you can find on the TSN website.  It was cute but I still think Cabbie should have added the little kid beating up on Bieksa.  Anyways, enjoy!

 

Kevin Bieksa and FriendsVisit the BCCH

Every year the BC Childrens Hospital gets visits from the local sports athletes in Vancouver.  The Vancouver Giants and BC Lions had just recently visited the hospital to see children who are unable to go home for Christmas.  Every year the Vancouver Canucks players also make a visit to the hospital to spread some hockey cheer to the children.  Earlier last month, the Canucks staff had paid a visit but not the players because of the lockout.

Last week the BC Lions and the Vancouver Giants players had also made their rounds visiting at the hospital.  I wondered if our locked out unemployed Canucks would do the same even though they aren't playing.  The Canucks are known for donating their time and generosity in the city with volunteer work, which is heavily expected of them as Canucks when they join the organization.  Turns out, our boys didn't disappoint. With Kevin Bieksa taking lead, he organized.a visit, bringing along a few of his own "friends" and made a visit to the Oncology department to give the kids and their parents a boost.  They may not have been wearing their Canuck sweaters but they still autographed items and took pics with the kids just as if they were still playing.  This is a classy thing the Canucks did.  Just makes me proud to be a Canucks fan.

The money that was raised from the Candytown event in Yaletown I had volunteered for a couple weeks ago was given to the Oncology department of BCCH and the Yaletown BIA had met with the children in the unit as well.  At our event party, they told us that when they asked the kids what they wanted for Christmas, their only answer was "to go home".  So, seeing that the Canucks visited that very department makes me very happy and that they were able to put smiles on not only these kid's faces but I'm sure many more.

This is the reaction they've been getting on twitter from fans.  Apparently fans of other teams are also noticing the charity work the unemployed Canucks are continuing to do throughout the lockout and how much they care about the fans by putting on spontaneous road hockey games.  I have to say, hands down, we have the best NHL team in the league.

There were tons more but I can't put them all up.  I just wanted to show how the city and other cities are reacting to seeing our Canucks continuing their community work even without a paycheck to encourage them.   Class acts for sure and they do deserve our respect for how they've handled themselves throughout this lockout.  I think our team puts other teams to shame when it comes to caring about the city they play in.  Hopefully soon, we will get to watch some hockey with the talks continuing tomorrow in New York with the NHL, mediators and the NHLPA.  Cross fingers.

Kevin Bieksa Interview on CBC

Kevin Bieksa & Ryan Kesler Call on Vancity for a Road Hockey Game!

Today, one the most amazing things happened on social media.  Ryan Kesler and Kevin Bieksa organized a little road hockey game under the Cambie Street Bridge.  All they had to do was tweet it out that they wanted people to come out and play with them and that's exactly what they got!  Three hundred people showed up to play.  Even Mark Donnelly came out to sing the national anthem. So, this is basically how it all started. All pics were taken from twitter.  I was not there, unfortunately, so I had to live it through those who were.

Cabral Richards, also known as "Cabbie" is a personality on TSN.  He used to work for The Score but left in Nov 2010.  He's done some interviews with Ryan Kesler and Kevin Bieksa before.  I'll show some of those highlights soon.  He actually got Bieksa to sing..well, he had asked him to come up with a  fight song for the Canucks.  It was kinda brutal...lol.  But I wanted to show how much planning went down for this game.  Cabbie had tweeted Bieksa and Kesler on Nov 28 with a cyrptic "we doing it?"  To which Bieksa jokingly replied back in his angry tone.  All three have since removed these tweets so people wouldn't know what they were up to.  From here on, Cabbie asked Bieksa to DM him on twitter for details.

So, Cabbie organized the hockey sticks from Sportcheck and everything else.

Then, we first saw a tweet from Kesler and Bieksa asking everyone to come down to the basketball courts under the Cambie Bridge for a game of road hockey.  Jason Garrison and Cabbie were also present.

 

The Greenmen were also there.  Wouldn't be hockey without their presence.

  

Neither would the presence of Mark Donelly, who also saw the tweet and brought his stick to play and started things off the right way by singing the anthem.

 First, Ryan Kesler shows up.  The media instantly go to him like a moth to a flame.

And then the fun started.  People started showing up in droves.  Garrison had mentioned on Team 1040 in an interview afterwards that as he and Bieksa were walking to the pick up game from Urban Fare, they were shocked to see so many people were already there.  

Talk with Garrison on Team 1040

Here,  Bieksa and Garrison show up.  You can see Garrison on the right with the zebra shirt hung over one shoulder while Bieksa gives an autograph to a fan.

Kesler and Garrison were unable to play because they are currently on the injured list for the Canucks.  So, they opted to put on the zebra shirts and call the game instead.

Here are the hopefuls waiting to be picked for either Team Kesler or Team Bieksa.

Bieksa picking his team.

His 2nd and 3rd drafts were none other than The Greenmen.  According to their tweet, they were both drafted on Team Bieksa.  He said they were like the Sedin twins...you can't have one and not the other.  So they both went to Team Bieksa.

 

Then the fun really began.  Once everyone was drafted to their teams, Bieksa started talking strategy with his own team.

The anthem was sung by Mark Donnelly.

Puck Drop. That's Bieksa's son, Cole, at centre.

 A little convo between friends.

Obviously Bieksa didn't agree with one of Kesler's calls and tried to pull his hoodie over his toque.

Play resumed.

They even had a game with toddlers and young kids.  This one's too cute for words. I'm pretty sure its Ryker Kesler.

Fight!! Fight!!

Watch this kid that Bieksa pokes his stick at.  Kesler is in the orange hat and Garrison is the other zebra shirt.  It seems that the kid started throwing punches at Bieksa, who played along, and won.  Here are some pics taken of this cute fight occurring.

 Here is Ryan Kesler pinning Bieksa down while Garrison declares the kid the winner of that contest.

But he is best buds with Bieksa and promptly helps him back up after that scuffle.

Here is a short video of what happened at this particular moment.

They proceeded to play and the score was 2-0 at one point with Bieksa's team in the lead.  However, the other team managed to tie it up and surprise, surprise....we had a shootout.  Sound vaguely familiar?

Only with the Canucks.  Here's Bieksa walking away from his goalie after giving him some advice.  I imagine its the same he's been overheard saying to Luongo at games "Try to stop at least one". :)

Turns out Team Bieksa won.

Here's how the shootout went down.

After the game, they all shook hands and the trio stayed behind for media interviews and to sign autographs and take pictures with all their fans.  Class acts for sure.

Like I said, there were probably 300 people there.  This picture says it all.  Good job Vancouver.

Kesler and Bieksa both tweeted their appreciation and thanks to the city of Vancouver for showing up to play some ball with them.

taken from cbc.ca

Twitter is full of love, adoration, thanks and appreciation for what they've done in the community so far during this lockout.  The fans really appreciate these two leaders staying in touch with the fans throughout this and just getting back to playing hockey again.  It was a chance of a lifetime for so many.  So, even in if the lockout doesn't end by Friday and the NHL cancels the season, the fans of Vancouver can appreciate our players for staying classy and still looking after their communities which they help time and time again.  Bieksa is in fact, blossoming into the next Trevor Linden for our city.  He cares and he wants to make a difference here.  And it shows.  I look forward to the next Bieksa's Buddies Charity game if the season gets cancelled.  At least he cares.

Looking around YouTube, I found this video with some of the highlights of the game shot to "The Good Old Hockey Game". Its well done and very clear.  Enjoy.

For an extended version of the game and see Bieksa score a goal.

The Vancouver Road Hockey Game will air next Friday, Dec 14th on Cabbie's TSN show, Cabbie Presents.  Watch out for it.