Kevin Bieksa confirmed after the Colorado game that he has been named to Team Canada's roster list in Belarus. This will be the first time he has been able to participate in an event where he is able to represent Canada in a World Championship.
If you'd like to see him respond to the questions about the invite to play, you can watch it here. Bieksa's interview starts at the 23:16 mark.
Wishing Bieksa and his team success and he will bring home the gold! He won't be able to resist rubbing it into Kesler's face too. That's what best friends are for!
Wow!! What a week! So, the Canucks have failed to make the playoffs for the first time in 6 years. This year has been like no other. With many injuries, new defensive systems and GM trades that have made no sense in the last three years and giving half this team "No Trade Clauses", it has finally come to a head. The core players, the Sedins, Ryan Kesler, Kevin Bieksa and Alex Burrows need support from their team and they didn't get it. Mike Gillis was finally fired a day after the Canucks failed to make playoffs. The fans were chanting "Fire Gillis" inside Rogers Arena. It was finally time for a change. The fans wanted it and the Canucks ownership finally recognized it with the low season ticket renewal and had the courage to do the right thing and make that change. They did the next best thing. They hired "The Golden Boy" Trevor Linden.
Trevor was named the President of Hockey Operations yesterday morning. With the reputation that comes along with Trevor, this hiring has given the fans hope again. In hopes that he will do the right thing and finally bring balance to this team that has been lacking since the 2011 Stanley Cup final. I thought it was just a media stunt but after hearing him at the conference yesterday, I'm convinced that he has a plan and feels the same as most of the core players and the fans do in this city. I do sincerely wish Trevor Linden luck with this organization and truly hope that he can right this ship and make us a Stanley Cup contending team once again.
If you missed the conference yesterday of Aquilini naming Trevor the President, you can watch it here on Youtube.
There is a great interview with Trevor on the CKNW Bill Good Show . He shows a lot of insight of which direction he wants this team to go. Worth a listen.
With the lockout ended in January, I wasn't sure if there would a Super Skills event this year but apparently, there was. It was held on February 10th with the proceeds going to the Canucks Kids Fund. I believe some of the proceeds also went to help Rick Rypiens foundation as well.
So, if you missed it on Sunday, you can catch it all here.
Some cute pics taken by Jeff Vinnick at the Super Skills.
Kevin Bieksa with his kids, Reese and Cole Bieksa.
Jordan Schroeder got a shaving cream pie in the face by Keith Ballard. This is the Canucks "Welcome to the Club, kid!" ritual. Always fun.
Tonight was the Anaheim Ducks season home opener. The Ducks organization had laid out Teemu Selanne jerseys on each seat for their "loyal" fans. Mind you, even though they managed to sell out this game, it was only with the help of Canuck fans who also made the trip down. The funny thing is that I didn't see anyone in the stands wearing this jersey during the game as it was intended. The Canucks had done a similar thing at their home opener by laying Canucks scarves on the seats for their fans and all of the fans wore them. Oh well.
The Canucks managed to win this game 5-0 with goals coming from Mason Raymond (2), Daniel Sedin, Aaron Volpatti and Zack Kassian. There were also two fights vs Matt Beleskey. The first one came two minutes into the first period with Aaron Volpatti. It was a solid fight with punches being thrown and hits connecting each time. Volpatti had that one though. The second fight against Beleskey came in the third period with Kevin Bieksa. This is what it looked like.
It was a good fight but it wasn't Bieksa's greatest by far. Although, I do have to say I did like that UFC flying knee kick to Beleskey's face that Bieksa started off with. He always makes his fights a little more interesting to watch. Kind of reminicent of the Superman Punch he delivered to Mike Richards a few years back. Here's a still of Bieksa leaping 3 feet into the air introducing his knee to Beleskey's face.
Meanwhile.....Kesler has been keeping busy while his team has been playing games. Mike Gillis mentioned he should be back in 10-12 days from now. The sooner the better. Although this team is getting it done without him, I'd feel much better if he was back playing with the team. He's missed and it shows. Anyways, here's Ryan Kesler out at his day jobs.
He also spent some time working at the Tim Hortons on Granville and Nelson.
Last but not least, they even had Kesler call up a lucky fan who had been selected to drop the ceremonial puck at the home opener of the season.
This was a great Canucks promotion to get the fans of Vancouver pumped up again to fill in Rogers Arena for their opening night. Looks like he's having fun doing it too. Get well soon, Kes! Our team needs you.
I was so excited about going to the Canucks scrimmage tonight. I met up with my friend, Lesiie-Anne, at the Stadium Skytrain station at 5:15pm and headed off across the street to get into the lineup that was already snaking its way around Gate 10. We waited for 45 mins before the doors were opened and we were welcomed into the building by staff. LA and I had already decided we were going to sit in the middle seats so we could see everything. We sat in the area across from the players' bench.
The scrimmage game was to be a mock game with inter-squads. Three ten-minute periods with twelve minute intermissions while the Zamboni cleaned the ice. Followed by a shootout at the end. So, while we waited for the players to come on the ice for their half hour warm up session before the game began, the screen showed the fans. This is all part of their "Our Team, Our Way" #OTOW campaign where they showcase the fans and the passion we have for our team.
They showed more of the Canucks videos that are now on Youtube and then the players came out for warm up.
Everyone cheered. Including me. Then they practiced. Kevin Bieksa is one of the two that is not wearing his helmet. In the pic below, he is on the left.
And headed back into the dressing rooms once warm up was over. Then Joey Kenward showed up on screen to fill us all in on the program for tonight, the rules of the scrimmage and presented the teams.
And then I put my camera away and watched the game as the boys came back on. Lu got luuuuuu'd as he came on and there were tons of signs for him as well to welcome him back. I have to say that he looked sharp as ever tonight. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets the start on Saturday.
The first two periods were for ten minutes like we were told they would be but then Joey Kenward came out at the start of the third and told us that the last period had been extended to 15 mins instead. It didn't take long for ten minutes to pass anyways. There were only three penalties all game. One minute to Edler and two one-minute penalties to Ebbett. Team Blue ended up winning 2-1, which was team Luongo. They had a shootout at the end of the third period.
After it was all said and done, the Canucks gathered in the middle of the ice and saluted the crowd of 10-12,000 there tonight to watch their team play. Its a larger number than they've been able to attract for morning practices in the last few days and according to the Canucks, it will be 15,000 plus tomorrow night. I also intend to be there with another friend. Since I don't want to pay for a ticket or buy merchandise this year from the Canucks, I will be attending only the free games and practices - unless they make it into the playoffs....then its a whole new ballgame. What can I say? I love my Canucks. :)
Second day of Camp and Bieksa collides with Roberto Luongo and another team mate! Guess he really doesn't want Luongo to go anywhere. Can't trade a broken goalie! How sweeeet!
Oops!
Oh-no!
Ouch!
So, uh, Juice....what the hell just happened there??? Hope your all alright!
Sadly, this is what it has come to....now that we have our NHL back and our guys are showing up in droves for practices at UBC, the one thing that seems to be on everyone's mind is, where is Luongo being traded? Mike Gillis has not given any indication that Lu is going anywhere this season and so, Lu flew into YVR this afternoon and answered a few questions for some enquiring minds.
Its got to hard to come back to a city where the fans want you gone and there's nothing happening except rumours of teams who are interested in acquiring Luongo. I really feel for the guy. I for one, am happy that he's back and I say, for the next 48 games, lets keep him and then think of trading him during the off season. Schneidz is gonna need the help and it might help keeping Lu's sanity!
Hang in there Lu! Welcome back to Vancity and to training camp!!
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!
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.
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.
