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.
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.
Obviously Bieksa didn't agree with one of Kesler's calls and tried to pull his hoodie over his toque.
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.
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.
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| 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.
The Vancouver Road Hockey Game will air next Friday, Dec 14th on Cabbie's TSN show, Cabbie Presents. Watch out for it.
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