Bieksa's Buddies vs UBC Thunderbirds Charity Event

This was the hottest ticket in town last night!  If you weren't one of the five thousand people who were in attendance last night to witness this charity event, you missed one heck of a game!  Kevin Bieksa of the Vancouver Canucks threw a very successful event for three charities close to his heart.  The Canucks Place Children's Hospice, Canucks Autism Network and the Canucks Family Education Centre received $200,000 dollars from last night.  Bieksa's goal was to raise $100,000, which he did but then singer, Michael Buble stepped in and matched the $100,000.  He was supposed to have played on Bieksa's Buddies team and they even had #88 jersey ready with his name but found he got cold feet when it came time to lace the skates up!  It was a very generous donation though.

Here's Bieksa and his dad mic'd up for the game. Courtesy of cbc.ca

So, my friend, Leslie-Anne and I got there, paid $10 for parking and found parking on the 3rd level of the parkade across the street from the Doug Mitchell Arena at UBC.  We walked into the building and took a look around.  I bought some 50/50 tickets from a volunteer.  Leslie-Anne saw him before I did.  She told me to look around "He's here! He's here!"  is what she said! lol.  So, I looked around to see who she was talking about.  That's when I saw him.  Sitting in his blue shirt and shorts giving Team 1040 radio station an interview.

Kevin Bieksa giving an interview with Team 1040 at Bieksa's Buddies

 After he was done, he ran down the steps to the bottom of the arena and got ready for the game.  We could see them walking around back there with a soccer ball bouncing around in the air.  I'm guessing pre-game warm-up!

We decided to look around some more.  LA wanted to get some beer so we walked around to the concession areas.  The prices were much cheaper than the regular BC Place and Rogers Arena prices.  So she got herself a beer and we ended up wandering around for a bit. It was both of our first times in this particular arena. Once we were oriented, I decided to have a seat and wait for the players to show up on the ice.  LA went back to the concessions to grab a burger.

We were each handed a roster program for the night.  This is what the Bieksa Buddies roster looked like.  Minus Buble.

Then they came out and started their warm-ups.

Cory Schnieder was the lone goalie for Bieksa's Buddies so he had a very long leash.  He looked kinda rusty out there for awhile but then seemed to settle down a bit more as it went on.

The Buddies are ready to roll here.

The first period started and both teams were able to keep it pretty even.  Schniedz looked shaky on his goals especially when he got beat on the very first shot!  After he let in the second goal, one of the reporters there heckled "Put in Luongo!".  Schneidz was able to laugh it off knowing full well, that this was Vancouver and he expected that sort of thing here.  Second period was horrible for the buddies.  They got schooled as the UBC Thunderbirds scored 4 straight goals to make it 7-3 before heading into the second intermission.  I have to say that I really didn't like the UBC goal scoring song.  I think it might have been their fight song followed by Thunderstruck - AC/DC.  The third period was much better with the Buddies scoring five unanswered goals followed by the Canucks goal scoring song, "Bang bang bang bang, vamanos, vamanos!"  Even Marty Bieksa, who played forward with the Sedins, scored a great goal.  He really was pretty good.
Their dad, Al Bieksa was the Referee for this event.  I thought he did a great job as well.  The only questionable penatly would have to be to Ilan Cumberbirch of the T-Birds who got two minutes  "for looking so good".  Actually it was for roughing but funny all the same.

The end result was an 8-7 win for Bieksa's Buddies over the UBC Thunderbirds.  Although, it seemed the T-Birds really made them work for it.  Even after the T-birds pulled their goalie for the extra attacker, the Buddies decided to pull Schniedz out of goal too just to make it more fun.  With the defensive draw on their own end, the Buddies were able to get the puck out of their zone at the last dying seconds denying the T-birds any chance at tying up the game.

And just for fan entertainment, there was a 10 man shoot-out at the end.  It ended in a 2-2 tie.  No points on the line here.  There were a couple standouts.  Marty Bieksa went in for a shot and threw his glove at the goalie and tried to score but to no avail.  It must run in the family.  Not quite the slider that K.Bieksa threw at Clutterbuck of the Wild last season.

The other standout was sniper Aaron Volpatti.  He had to go up against three goalies in one net.  The T-birds tried everything to try to stop Volpatti from scoring to keep it tied.  You can watch the entire shootout below.

All in all, it was a fun night.  The hockey starved fans got their hockey fix and were entertained thoroughly.  $200,000 was raised for the three charities that Bieksa is involved with and the players themselves got to play in a game in front of their fans which I'm sure they've missed as well.  It was a total success and all because of Kevin Bieksa.  I'm so proud of him and where his mind is at during this lockout.  He's not one to sit back and just do nothing.  And now, after today's response to the new NHLPA propsal, it's looking even more dismal of any sort of an NHL season to salvage.  Maybe all we'll have are Bieksa's charity games to look forward too.  He's not only a leader on the ice, but off the ice as well.  I hope he's planning his next charity game....looks like we're gonna need it.  Thank you Bieksa for arranging this much needed night for the fans, charities and the players!  You are awesome!

Here's a bonus video I found on youtube of Kevin Bieksa and his dad talking about taking the College route playing hockey.

“I’m in the position where we can go on the ice and raise money for charity and for me, it seems like a no-brainer to impact a lot of families in B.C … I don’t look too far ahead, but I know it’s something I’ll do at some point. Trevor took a year to evaluate things and relax and do some things he wasn’t able to do with the hockey season and training. He’s involved in a lot of charities and in business. I imagine I’ll be much the same.”

—	Kevin Bieksa

"Your Vancouver Canucks" at the BC Lions game on Saturday!

Yes!  They were there.  I was working this game for BC Place. I was up on the 4th level end zone tunnel when all of the sudden I heard the announcer say "Please welcome you're Vancouver Canucks"  and next thing I knew, they were being shown on the big screen.  I almost died.  I miss my hockey so much. :(

Anyways, after the game was over, they took pics with a couple BC Lions players, the Felions standing by them and then had a chance to go onto the field and toss the football around.  The boys started off just spiraling the ball at one another and then they decided that they would try their hand at field kicks from the 40 line.  Elder was the only one to make a good field goal kick and the fans who lingered behind in the lower bowl cheered for him.

After they were done playing, they left the field and walked away towards the East Entrance.  They took lots of pics with fans and BC Lions employees.  Later that night, after my shift ended, I was on skytrain when a little seven year old got on and sat next to me.  Her parents and family friends were seated across the isle.  She was telling them how she got to talk to Ryan Kesler.  At this point, because I hadn't realized Kesler was with the crew, I asked "Kesler was there too?".  She replied "Yes."  She also told me how she got to say hi to him tell him that she loved him and that he was her favorite player.  It was so cute.  So, I told her that Bieksa was my favorite, who was hers?  She replied that her favourites were Ryan Kesler and Cory Schnieder.  She was so happy that Kesler smiled and said hi back.  It really made her day.  I love stories like this where you can see how much of an impact the Canucks have  just by saying a simple "hi" to someone.

Farhan Lalji was there from TSN and interviewed Bieksa from the sidelines.

Kevin Bieksa's Interview at BC Lions Game with Farhan Lalji on TSN

So, here's some pics I found from the Vancouver Sun that you might want to see.  My pictures turned out grainy as I was just too far up to get a good pic of them.

Cory Schneider Interviews on HNIC

If you don't know who this is by now, you need to get out from under whatever rock you've been living under!  This is our "back-up" goalie,...but not really.  His name is Cory Schneider. Not Cory "Snyder" as Milan Lucic's girlfriend recently referred to him as on twitter.  He's not really considered a back up goalie in Vancity though.  Some believe he should be starting for the Vancouver Canucks instead of Roberto Luongo every night.  Personally, I love them both.  I think its wonderful that we have two of the best goalies in the NHL playing for our city.  I like that we have the option of playing Schneider in net when Lu has his nights where he is obviously struggling like he was tonight against Anaheim.  I don't have any hard feelings towards Lu as I know he will bounce back in another game.  Cory is one of the sweetest people I've met.  Very humble and has absolutely no ego at all.  I hope that Canucks will be able to keep him on for next year but I know that it won't happen.  Cory will have to leave us at the end of this season as 29 other teams in the NHL have been drooling over him this past year.  The likes of Stevie Y and Wayne Gretzky have been spotted at Rogers Arena when Schniedz has been playing.  Most likely to scout him out for their own respective teams, The Phoenix Coyotes and the Tampa Bay Lightning.  I can only hope they treat him well where ever he goes cause Vancity will be in mourning the day he leaves.

Anyways...here are two of HNIC's interviews of Cory Schnieder.  The first is of Cory doing his Jannik Hansen impersonation back on Feb 20, 2011.

 This other video is a recent interview on HNIC where he imitates Coach AV with his blessing and then of Burrows at Coach AV's request as he walks by the interview in the hallway.

I know we'll be seeing Cory play in the playoffs at one point or another.  Its inevitable.  Lu can't play all the games.....I'm going to just take it all in while we still have him.  Love this guy!