A hero will rise

If the Vancouver Canucks hope to play another day, someone needs to step up. Thanks to Derek Toye for sending out the signal. We’ll see who responds.

Dragon support

Jim Treliving is at it again. Last year the Dragons’ Den and Vancouver Canucks fan backed his team all the way to the Stanley Cup Final, now, during the tough times, Treliving is back with a message to the team for Game 4.

Hold the phone

Fred Ewanuick isn’t only a great actor, he’s a great actor who loves the Vancouver Canucks. Every now and again he puts pen to paper and writes about his team and yesterday he emailed me the following to show his support going into Game 4.

Hold the phone. Nobody’s won anything just yet.

Why is it crazy to think the Canucks won’t win this series? I don’t think it’s so nuts to think that. 

It’s fair to say the Canucks have a very good chance to take game four.  They were the better team for the majority of game three. They didn’t score, sure, but the good news is, they haven’t forced Quick to make that huge save, either. And, I believe, that with this extra long break, the Canucks get a chance to step back and think about what they need to do to make it even harder on not just Quick, but all of the LA Kings.

So, if the Canucks can pull out a victory in Game 4, I think it’s just as reasonable to think that they have a great chance to take the next game in Vancouver. The Canucks, all season, have been able to stop those negative streaks, and then take that momentum and roll with it. So, two wins could very well lead to three. It’s not so crazy of a thing. It happens all the time. Then we’re at a game seven, winner takes all.  Then, my fellow Canuck fans, anything can happen.

I know the stats seem to be against them. Something like 160+ series starting in a 3-0 lead, the team with the lead has taken the vast majority of those series.  However, I see it this way, in the history of the Stanley Cup playoffs, three teams have comeback to win a series being down 3-0. There’s no question in my mind, that the Vancouver Canucks have a group of guys that can boost that stat to Four. Four teams that have come back from a 3-0 deficit.

Keep faith fellow Canuck fans, it AINT OVER YET.

Go Canucks Go!

Beyond awesome art, courtesy of Brenden Mersey.

— Daniel Sedin, post-practice Tuesday, on how he’s feeling and if he’ll dress for the Canucks in Game 4.

LA fun times

Monday started off on a somewhat hilarious note. Canucks cameraman Rory McGarry, Team 1040’s Dave Tomlinson and myself went for breakfast to this great place called Jinky’s Cafe in Santa Monica.

We walk into the restaurant and Aaron Rome and David Booth are, coincidentally enough, in a booth eating breakfast. We said hi and sat down and didn’t hear from them until Booth yelled over ‘Boo,’ to which I turned and smiled, thinking he was just being a dork.

Turns out the waitress, who happens to be from Vancouver, recognized Rome and Booth as Canucks, so she was chatting them up when Booth decided to deflect the attention to us. Booth wasn’t yelling ‘Boo,’ he was yelling ‘Lu,’ as in Roberto Luongo. He told the waitress I was Luongo and that Rory was Cory Schneider.

Rome and Booth finished eating and stopped for a quick chat before taking off and leaving us with our new fan Norita, who suddenly became the greatest waitress in the world. She eventually worked up the courage to come talk to us about our play and wasn’t long into her spiel about what a big fan she is when Rory broke the news that we aren’t players. Things got awkward when she still asked to have her picture taken with us.

What a way to start the day!

Monday was busy in the morning and early afternoon after the news of Daniel Sedin joining the team surfaced and I worked until about 3:30 p.m. before trading my make-believe work hat for a make-believe play hat. That’s when Rory, Dave, Jeff Vinnick and I rented bikes and made our way down to Venice Beach - one of the coolest places anywhere ever.

We watched some hockey before heading over to the Santa Monica pier to play air-hockey before heading over to some incredible pizza place for a slice to end the night with.

Monday truly was funday, but now that we’re re-energized, players too, it’s time to get back to work. The Canucks practice this afternoon in preparation for Game 4 Wednesday.

State of shock

I’ve got a new nickname for Los Angeles: The City of Shock.

Since we arrived in LA roughly 48 hours ago, it’s been once shocking thing after another.

When we got here Saturday, I was shocked at how beautiful Santa Monica is. I haven’t seen too many places as close to heaven on earth as this.

Yesterday shock came my way via a brutal sunburn on my neck after eating a quick breakfast on the Santa Monica pier, followed by the shock of a Kings fan punching the Canucks team bus as we neared the Staples Center. Fairly sure I looked like Kevin McAllister trying aftershave for the first time after that happened.

I was then shocked to run into Los Angeles Lakers forward Pau Gasol, all 7-foot, 215-pounds of him, shocked by the amazing buffet ice cream dessert bar post-media meal and shocked at how nervous I was for Game 3.

Game 3 produced another fair share of shocking moments that includes, but isn’t limited to, how well the Canucks played, the Hockey Gods inability to give them a single bounce, and an eventual loss to go down 3-0 in the best-of-seven Western Conference Quarter-Final.

Already in shock from the loss, my shock doubled when I met David Beckham and Kobe Bryant after taking a left instead of a right out of the media elevator – best moron moment of my life. Cory Monteith was also there, as were about 10 other massive celebrities, whom I had to push through to get to Vancouver’s dressing room.

My final shock of the night was that the Canucks weren’t shocked, they weren’t stunned, they weren’t surprised following the 1-0 loss. They stuck to the script, stood behind their solid 60-minute effort and vowed to win Game 4 and take the series back to Vancouver.

Only four teams in professional sports (three NHL teams) have ever come back from down 3-0 and shock is exactly how teams who lost those series felt, and probably still feel, as a result.

Can the Canucks comeback to shock the Kings? Sure. Will the Canucks comeback? Well, I feel that depends on if I can do something while in Los Angeles to get to turn this series around. It has now become personal.

How can I jinx the Kings, and especially masked man Jonathan Quick that is currently haunting the Canucks? Submit your suggestions here – best ideas win, well hopefully win, Game 4 for Vancouver, and maybe even an eventual #reversesweep, as proposed by Juicetra, friend of Fort Nucks.

Chins up Canucks fans, the team needs you now more than ever.

RIGHT NOW

Game 3, pre-game warm-up at the Staples Center in LA.

Johnny Canuck is back.

His newest feature will be released soon, but until then, he’s passed along the following teaser images to get you ready.

Johnny wouldn’t tell me much about his latest work, only that he “braves the winter season, fights his greatest foes and introduces a President to a King.”

The finished feature will debut on Canucks.com soon…

— Dan Hamhuis, looking ahead to Game 3 Sunday night in Los Angeles