Canucks Open Practice

This morning was the Canucks Open Practice sponsored by BCAA.  Door opened at 9am and practice was slated to start at 10am.  This gave me an hour to find all the trophies around Rogers Arena and take pictures with them for a donation.  Once this was done, I went to my seat and watched the Canucks practice.  Joey Kenward was hosting as he did last time with the addition of Assistant Coach, Rick Bowness explaining on the microphone to everyone what types of drills they were running and why.  It was great to see Ryan Kesler practicing with the rest of team again.  He looked like he was a bit sore after awhile but he showed his skill in many of the drills.

The practice was only for an hour and a bit and it ended with a shootout for obvious reasons.  Luongo needed to work on this a bit more.....Joey Kenward called on Kevin Bieksa to shoot first and then had him commenting on all his team mates as they took their shots.  He missed his own shot on Lu and when Joey asked him what he thought about his shot, Bieksa replied "They won't be calling on me for a shot."  The best was when Mikael Samuelsson took his shot and got it past Lu.  Bieksa then commented "Where was that shot the other night?  We could have used it." lol.  Reffering to Samuelsson's missed shot on Marc-Andre Fleury of the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night during the shootout.  At the end of it, Bieksa thanked everyone for supporting them and hoped that everyone had a great time at the practice as much as we have had looking at Kesler's nude picture.  You knew he had to get a dig in there somewhere.  Thats why we love him so much.

Vancouver Whitecaps 1st Win on Bell Pitch downtown @ BC Place!!

I'm excited for the Vancouver Whitecaps! They have won their first match at BC Place...this will make it their 5th win this year.  The win came against a team that they were originally scheduled to play in July but due to an insane amount of rainfall at Empire Stadium, was forced to cancel the match for another time.

Real Salt Lake City fell 3-0 to the Vancouver Whitecaps tonight.  I was unable to go due to feeling under the weather since the weekend home openers at BC Place but am trying to get better for this weekend's Lions game.  Eric Hassli was not playing in tonight's match due to a one game suspension from receiving too many yellow cards. 

The first goal came from Camilo on a penalty shot and the 'Caps were up 1-0 before halftime.  The second goal came shortly after the match restarted after halftime on another penalty kick by Camilo to make it 2-0.  The third goal came from winger, Nizar Khalfan to seal the deal with a 3-0 win in front of a hometown crowd of 20,113 fans.

From what I hear, the crowd was loud and energetic and the Whitecaps were hungry for a win on home ground after losing to Portland on Sunday night.  The fans are amazing and always so loyal to the Whitecaps even though they haven't won a ton of games.  I hope this continues and our team evolves next year to somewhere near the top of the standings instead of being dead last. 

The next game is on Wednesday, October 12 when they will host D.C. United at Bell Pitch downtown at BC Place.  Come down and support your soccer team. I'll be there! :) 

Canucks Season Opener vs Pittsburgh Penguins

Hockey Is BACK!!

It felt like a long summer but in reality it was a short summer.  Four months ago our Vancouver Canucks fell to the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup Final of Game 7.  Canucks came back this year in better fitness condition than any other year with only one thing in mind. REDEMPTION and are focused again on our holy grail, THE STANLEY CUP!!  This year its do or die.

The team for the most part came back in tact with only a couple major guys on the injury reserve.  Ryan Kesler is expected to come back sometime in November now that he's been cleared for contact after undergoing hip surgery in the summer and Mason Raymond will be out indefinatley with a broken back that occured on a play in Game 6. Of course, because Erhoff  left to play for the Buffalo Sabres, Raffi Torres is with the Phoenix Coyotes and Tanner Glass chose to play for Winnipeg this year, there were some spots for new guys this year.  With the addition of Marco Sturm, Aaron Volpatti, Dale Weise and with Cody Hodgson filling in for Kesler on the 2nd line, it will be interesting to see how this plays out. 

The first test was tonight!  It was a magical night as our Vancouver Canucks took to the ice and the President's Trophy, Western Conference trophy and all the individual trophies were showcased in front of an almost sell-out crowd.  Also the "Heart of a Canuck" campaign kicked off and many heros who emerged after the riots broke out after Game 7 were honored.  This included first responders like Police, Fire and individuals who tried to defend our city that night as well as the people who initiated the Clean-up efforts the day after.

The game itself started out kinda rocky for our Canucks as the Penguins had control of most of the first period.  Canucks ran into penalty trouble as Kevin Bieksa headed to the box for Matt Cooke's first power play goal.  Can't really blame Bieksa as it was a good play and a bad call by the ref.  The second goal of the night also came from Cooke shorthanded from between Bieksa's legs and beat Luongo on the glove side.  Lu's weakest side.  As the game progressed you could see our team started to come on with some great chances and were gelling alot more.  The final score of this game is not indicitive of how well this team played.  Canucks should have been up at least 6-3 by the end of regular time.  However, that's not how it went.  The Sedin twins, Alex Burrows, Bieksa, Lapierre and others all had great chances to put this game away in the third period but were not able to.  Unfortunatley, after one overtime period it was a 3-3 stalemate and so a shootout took place to decide the ending of this game.  Lu himself would have told you that he hates shootouts the most as its his weakest part of his game.  I wasn't expecting a big win here but I was hoping and praying that maybe it would happen.  It was not meant to be tonight.  Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin made sure of it.

Overall, our boys played a great game tonight showing their fans that even with only playing together for 2 pre-season games, they can still be a threat and I'm sure that given more time to play together, they will be a formidable team...and don't forget that our spark plug and most aggressive player will return to play in November.  I really missed 'Kes' tonight though.

I'm excited...HOCKEY"S BACK!!! GO Canucks Go!!!

ESPN Body Issue 2011 - Ryan Kesler

This is Ryan Kesler.  WOW.  Enough said. Happy Wednesday! :)

Welcome to Bell Pitch Downtown

"Would you like a Program??"

So today was the Whitecaps turn to have their first game inside BC Place.  The Whitecaps revealed the new soccer specific roof which comes down to cover the 4th level which isn't being used (as seen in the above pic).  We were close to a sellout with  just over 21,000 fans.  Compared to Friday night's football game of 50,213, there were no long beer lineups and there were plenty of hot dogs to be eaten.  It went pretty smoothly.  My volunteer partner and I were positioned in the Season Ticket Holder entrance at Gate A.  This suited us fine as we used to be the Ushers at Swangard Stadium and had known many of our members.  It was wonderful to see them again after being at Empire Stadium since April. It felt like our family was reunited again.

Bob Lenarduzzi and some officials were outside the Gate before doors opened for the Official Opening of BC Place for Whitecaps.  Once this was done, the fans were let in and were free to look around and get familiar with the Stadium.  Overall, everyone seemed to like it.  The roof was also opened this morning as the sun was out and shining bright. You can see in the pic below that the roof material gathers into the middle area when its open.

This is a view from the 4th level between the second roof panels.

Here's another look at the roofing panels.

The Portland Timbers won this match 1-0.  They had a legion of fans in one corner of the bowl where they were dressed in green and dancing in rhythm and chanting in tune.  Our Southsiders were barely audible...in fact, I never saw them cheer.  It was very unusual.  Oh well....we may have lost another one but the atmosphere and love of soccer is what brings the fans to the matches.  No complaints like Friday and everyone left home in a good mood even though we lost.  Gotta love soccer.

Volunteers Needed

Currently Recruiting for World Jr A Hockey Challenge in Langley

Besides the Grey Cup coming in November, I will also be volunteering for this event.  Hockey Canada and Langley Events Centre are hosting the IIHF World Junior A Hockey Challenge in late October and are currently looking for volunteers.  It runs from November 7 -13.

Individuals are needed as team hosts, media runners, game presentation assistants, scorekeepers, statisticians and more.

If you'd like to put your name forward or just want more details, send an e-mail to:

 volunteer@langleyeventscentre.com

Grand Re-Opening of BC Place and Lions are 2nd in the West!!

WOW!!!  Another win for our boys in Orange!  33-24 against the Edmonton Eskimos....at least they were a bit of a challenge unlike Saskatchewan last week! haha!

The Grand Unveiling  of BC Place was held before the gates were to open on the 3rd floor of the building and lucky me, that's just where I was positioned for the first hour and a half.  It was a mixture of Whitecaps and Lions players and Management holding a very long ribbon that Cristy Clark was to cut.  I took pictures of them as they marched out of the forum to outside of the gates where they were to cut the ribbon.

Once this was done, the BC Lions players were taken away in golf carts to get ready for the game and the gates were officially open. The lions fans were very curious and anxious to get in to take a look at what their 563 million dollars got them.  I gave out maps, answered questions and helped people find their way to the 4th and 2nd floors where they were seated.  At one point I turned around and saw an old favorite of mine, Pat Quinn.  Some people had spotted him and were taking pics with him so I took one of him as well.  Always love seeing Pat at sporting events.  Reminds me of the "Gentle Giant"...for those of you who remember that show.

So, once the game started and people were for the most part seated, I headed to my alternate position on Level 2.  The crowd was massive and usually while the game has been on in the past, the hallway is pretty quiet.  Not tonight.  We had 50,213 people in the building tonight!  The lines for beer and food were crazy and constant.  This is where I thought adding all those extra TV's came in handy.  Everyone was able to watch from the lineups they were in.  The ATM's were even co-operating tonight! Unreal...that never happens at a Lions game.

At half time I went up to the 4th floor to find a friend and get his impression of the building as it was the first time he had seen the inside.  He thought it looked great as well.  The only thing I hadn't thought about was that with the roof open, the stadium did become somewhat cold.  I know I was freezing and so were some of the Ushers who hadn't thought about wearing a jacket either for this game.  In the past because of the dome, the air was still and that made it hot inside the stadium everywhere, in the stands, hallways and anywhere else!  Looks like we're gonna have to get used to the "fresh air" now.....it was nice however.  Here's a pic I took with the roof off.  Amazing.

When half time ended I went down to the 1st floor of the building for break with all the other volunteers.  We sat and watched the game on our big TV and cheered on our Lions as they defeated the Eskimos in Lion fashion.  We used to be able to hear the crowd cheer and feel the rumble of the feet on the bleachers by our area but not anymore.  If we hadn't seen the touchdown with our own eyes on TV, you wouldn't have known the crowd was cheering.  Kinda eerie if you ask me.

The 50,213 people who came to celebrate the re-opening of BC Place and to cheer on our Lions went home very happy and in some cases, were also extremely drunk.  It was a good night had by all and I get to do it all again on Sunday with the Whitecaps!