Hall of Fans

It’s time the Green Men were recognized for being more than green men.

It’s time to enshrine Force and Sully into ESPN’s Hall of Fans.

The new Hall of Fans is an institution committed to honoring greatness in sports fandom; according to ESPN, “The mission of the Hall of Fans is to discover, elevate, and celebrate greatness in sports fandom.”

In Vancouver, it doesn’t get any greater (or greener) than Force and Sully. The dynamic duo first attended a Canucks game enveloped from head to toe in skintight green nylon in 2009 and although they weren’t credited with any points in the 4-1 win over Nashville, the eccentric, menacing pair assisted the home team by getting under the skin of the opposition (see: Scatchard, Dave) with their antics.

That was the beginning and there’s no end in sight.

Force and Sully have been to more than 50 Canucks home and away games since, typically seated beside the visitor’s penalty box distracting all those who enter, while pumping up the crowd.

The Green Men (both under the name Sully O) are now part of the 10 finalists with a shot at being inducted into the Hall of Fans during its inaugural year. Only three finalists will be chosen, so the boys need your help.

CLICK HERE to cast your vote for Force and Sully – the men brave enough to don taut suits as thin as a slice of cheese, that provide about as much coverage as SPF 5 sunscreen, in order to give the Canucks an edge.

You can vote once a day from now until August 31st.

It’s not easy being green, it’s even harder getting into the Hall of Fans.

VOTE NOW!

Hammer time

Dan Hamhuis is visiting the Canucks Hockey School today and this morning he took part in an intense Q&A session with the participants.

Best question of the day so far:

Kid: “Who’s your best friend on the team”

Hamhuis: “I like being friends with the goalies so they stop the puck if I make a mistake.”

Bieksa drops in

In memory of Rick Rypien, who died a year ago August 15th, the 2012 edition of the NHLPA’s Goals and Dreams Cup is taking place in his home town of Crowsnest Pass, Alberta, today.

As part of the festivities, a Rick Rypien Memorial Hockey Camp is being run from August 13-17th, and today Vancouver Canucks defenceman, and Rypien’s dear friend, Kevin Bieksa dropped by.

The above photo was taken by the Canucks crew in Alberta covering the event. This was part of a brief Q&A Bieksa did with the kids. On the very first question, Juice was thrown a curve ball: “my mom has a crush on you,” beamed the youngster. “That’s not a question, that’s a comment!” replied Bieksa, tongue-in-cheek.

Follow @VanCanucks Thursday for coverage of the event, with a feature video expected to be up on Canucks.com early next week.

Envelope please…

The winner of the Canucks in the Summer deviantArt contest is: “Summer” by peanutjester

The voting as intense. It looked like a one horse race (which is technically just a horse running, I guess) at first, with “Canucks in the Summer” by Bleezer leading the way. The poll closed Tuesday at noon PST and somehow, peanutjester swooped in and captured the title and the Canucks team-signed stick with 30.64% of the votes.

Overall peanutjester collected 514 of 1,674 votes.

Thanks to everyone who arted and/or voted!

Canucks in the summer

What do the Canucks do in the summer? According to the final five entries in the Canucks In The Summer deviantArt contest, they hit the links, sell lemonade, play volleyball and so much more.

Below are the final five entries, in random order, as voted by the members of the #VancouverCanucks page on deviantArt. To vote for your favourite and help determine the winner, go to Canucks.com and select the name that matches the photo below in the poll on the homepage. The winning piece of art earns its creator a team-signed Canucks stick and a spot in the Fort Nucks Art Hall Of Fame.

*Note - The winning entry was originally set to be chosen by a secret panel of Canucks Employee Judges, including myself, but since I wouldn’t know art if it hit me in the face, I’ll leave it up to you, loyal Canucks fans everywhere. Thanks for your help.

ENTRY #1

“Canucks in the Summer” by Bleezer

ENTRY #2

“Canucks in Summer” by LeelaB

ENTRY #3

“Summer Sizzle - Wet Coast Style” by tony-p-power

ENTRY #4

“Canucks in the Summer” by bonsoirdebonsoir

ENTRY #5

“Summer” by peanutjester

The one about…the Naslund commercial

What do Markus Naslund, Ilya Kovalchuk and Steve Pinizzotto have in common?

They all starred in the following commercial.

Did you spot Pinizzotto? Neither did I. But he swears he was one of the Vancouver Canucks extras on the ice in the opening hockey scene and he has the photos to support his story.

Shuffling through photo albums Saturday at Pinizzotto’s childhood home, he came to a page with photos of him, in Canucks gear, beside Naslund in one, and Kovalchuk in the other.

Pinizzotto is a master at Photoshop?

“Those are real,” he laughed. “I auditioned, I ended up winning the part, and then I found out it was with Naslund and Kovalchuk. I even wore the Canucks jersey, by chance. Kind of crazy. I think I was 17 here, maybe. I look so young.

“I’m glad that wasn’t the only time I got to put on an NHL jersey.”

The one about…his tattoos

It is said the world is divided into two kinds of people: those who have tattoos, and those who are afraid of people with tattoos.

Steve Pinizzotto joked that his numerous tattoos are in place as an intimidation factor, but they’re actually well thought out pieces of art that tell his story.

Sitting at Souvlaki Port Credit, a Greek grill owned by a his high school friend Andrew, Pinizzotto got to the bottom of his ink, beginning with his left arm. I noticed earlier in the day something was written in roman numerals and he said, rolling up his sleeve, it’s a vertical LXXXIV for ’84, as in 1984, as in the year he was born.

Lifting up his shirt, he pointed to four vertical capital letters, L L J M, running vertically down his left rib cage. They’re the first initials of his mom, Linda, dad, Leo, and brothers Jason and Marc.

Turning his body, Pinizzotto displayed a larger tattoo running down his right rib cage. “It’s an ambigram, so this way it says STRENGTH and if you look at it from the other way, it says COURAGE,” he said with moxy.

The tattoo tour ended on his right arm, a wonderful display of ink that began with PINIZZOTTO put high on his right shoulder in bold, black jagged letters when he was 18-years-old. Last summer he added a whack of ink below it.

“I have the CN Tower here,” he said, pointing to his arm. “It’s right below my last name, then there’s a star sprocket on top of that with Sono Convinto Di Credere In Me Stesso, which means I am convinced to believe in myself in Italian, running from the top down to the Sicilian coat of arms with a Taurus bull in the middle and an Italian pepper below it. There are some German birds flying around as well, then on the inside it’s a cross with roses.

“It’s funny, once you get one, you get a million.”

I, and millions of others, know the feeling.

So what’s next?

“I actually went to the tattoo parlour the other day to do my whole arm and get the sleeve done, but I kind of chickened out. I wasn’t too sure about it, so I’ll live with this for now until I come up with some good ideas.”

Pinizzotto’s dad has tattoos, as does one of his brothers, not that they had any influence on his body of work.

“I just like the look of them. I’m sure they won’t look good in about 40 years, but I’ll worry about that when it comes.”

The one about…his last name

Two I’s, two O’s, two T’s, two Z’s, a P and an N.

Forget the second I and don’t emphasize both Zs and you’ve got “Pinizzotto,” Steve Pinizzotto said slowly Saturday morning as the Excellent Adventure landed in his hometown of Mississauga, Ontario. “If I tell someone to spell it, it’s not happening.”

Pinizzotto said his last name has been butchered “millions and millions and millions” of times, basically by anyone that has ever tried to say it. “I’ve heard Pennazato and Pizzanova, I just hear A’s instead of the O’s, but I’m almost done correcting people because I’ve heard it different so many times.”

He took teasing in stride in grade school, it’s unclear what they rhymed Pinizzotto with, but there’s always something. It has led to a few fisticuffs on the ice, however. He did not elaborate, he just laughed.

Pinizzotto’s father is Sicilian, as are his grandparents on his father’s side. His mom was born in Canada by German parents; Pinizzotto has dual citizenship, but can’t speak or understand a lick of German. He hasn’t even opened his German passport.

Someday he will.

“I’d like to go explore Germany and see where my mom’s side grew up,” he said. “I’ve been to Europe before, Austria, Italy and Germany, actually, but it was during my last year of junior and our coach took the whole team there to tour around a play eight games in 14 nights. There wasn’t much time for anything but hockey.”

The one about…the injury

“That was probably the worst thing I’d ever heard,” said a straight-faced Steven Pinizzotto Saturday morning.

“I almost felt bad for the doctor telling me, just because he felt so bad for me. I had never heard those words before. The average hockey injury is four-to-six weeks and he’s saying four-to-six months and that’s a lot of time.”

The doctor visit in question went down on September 26, 2011, the day after Vancouver’s 4-3 loss to San Jose in the team’s fifth exhibition game. The night before, Pinizzotto, looking to make a good impression, took a run at Sharks brute Douglas Murray and got the worst of it.

“It was just a regular hockey play, I went to finish my check on Murray, the biggest guy in the league, and I just bounced right off the guy into the boards and fell awkwardly into the boards. My arm was in the air and the direct impact was my shoulder on the boards so it forced it out, which is pretty unlucky, and unfortunate as well.”

When Pinizzotto, already in the Canucks dressing room, was met with the rest of the team post-game, they questioned him about going after Murray. They didn’t know the extent of the injury and neither did Pinizzotto. Not that it would have made any difference. He’s a physical player who plays tough and finishes his checks, regardless of who is on the receiving end of them. He doesn’t back down.

He’s spent the last 10 months rehabilitating his left shoulder so he can get back on the ice and continue to not back down.

Pinizzotto rehabs every Tuesday and Thursday in Brampton and that’s down from as many as five rehab sessions a week he was enduring not too long ago. He’s been working on reestablishing a full range of motion in his shoulder by focusing on the little muscles around where the injury happened in order to stabilize the joint.

And it’s been paying off.

“It’s feeling just about 100 per cent,” said Pinizzotto. “I haven’t really put it through any major tests like throwing my body at some big guys, but everything outside of that feels good. I’ll get more physical in August with some competing and battle drills.”

While on the shelf, showering was a nightmare, as were everyday everything’s like opening the fridge or the car door. To take his mind off of hockey, Pinizzotto bought a PS3, some games and a stack of movies. Chino, his Chihuahua, was good company, but he’s happy his shoulder injury house arrest is almost over.

“Losing a season is not fun, that’s for sure, but you’ve got to think of ways to take up your time because you can’t sit there and just think about not being able to play. At the end of the day, that does nothing for you.

“This has been a battle mentally, but I’ll come out on top.”

The one about…his love of golf

When we walked into Steve Pinizzotto’s house Saturday morning, the golf channel was on.

When we walked into the kitchen, a Tiger Woods DVD was on the counter.

When we cut through the garage to get to his car, a large set of golf clubs sat in the entrance, a Peter Griffin cover hugging and protecting his driver.

“I love golf, I actually spent all day Friday at the Canadian Open,” revealed Pinizzotto, who took in the second round of action at the Hamilton Golf and Country Club in Ancaster, Ontario.

“A buddy called me up on Thursday and said he had VIP passes, so we hung out in this tent where they had food and drinks, and it was near one of the grandstands right where 18th hole finishes and the 10th hole tees off. It was a perfect location.”

This was Pinizzotto’s first experience watching golf live and blown away is an understatement.

“The consistency of those guys is wild, I feel like nothing really affects them, it seems like every shot is the same, they’re not really changing anything. They just place the ball and move on. It’s unbelievable.”

Asked to compare his game to that of someone on the PGA tour, Pinizzotto wouldn’t do it. “Whoever is the worst on tour,” he laughed. “They’re all great.”

He’s a Tiger guy, for better or worse, and earlier this week he was out on the links looking like Tiger off the tee and on the putting greens.

“I’d like my game to be a little bit better. Some days it’s pretty good, I went out with my buddies on Wednesday and shot an 83, and that’s with a couple of double bogeys too. My putting game is awful.”

Pinizzotto said he’ll get out golfing 20 times this summer and someday that will include a round at Pebble Beach in California, his dream course “because of all the history.”