President of the Abbotsford Heat, ex-Vancouver Canuck and winner of the 1986 Stanley Cup as a member of the Montreal Canadiens, Ryan Walter gave us some time to chat about table hockey and play a few minutes in the Heat locker room.
What happened next may or may not have been totally scripted.
d) No, I don’t want your advice about how to lose that gut.
Thanks to Ryan Walter and his wife Jennifer, Hawkey and the person inside him, the Abbotsford Heat and of course the image man himself, Clint Trahan. Let’s not forget the voice of CBC Jim Hughson, who makes a cameo near the end! It was a ton of fun making the video; kudos all round!
Ryan Walter (left) battles Jason Kurylo for table hockey supremacy as Hawkey looks on in the Abbotsford Heat locker room. Photo by Clint Trahan for Pucked in the Head.
Pucked in the Head founder Jason Kurylo pulls a selfie during a long squat. No, it’s not rude — it’s training for the world record attempt at the Table Hockey Extravaganza September 20-21. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
A few months ago, when we said, “let’s set the world record for the longest table hockey game”, we seriously thought how hard could that possibly be?!?!?!?
*ahem* Yeah. Well. Lemme tell ya ’bout that.
To qualify for Guinness Book of World Records status, participants in a marathon table hockey game must play mano a mano with no substitutions. They must stand for the entirety of the competition, with just five minutes for bathroom breaks, gymnastic demonstrations and/or gladhanding allowed for every full hour completed.
It doesn’t sound like much at first. Thirty hours? Dude, I pulled that in college, like, every week. Then you think about it. That’s 30 straight hours — 1800 minutes — on your feet. No sitting, no lying down, no leaning with your back against the wall. Dude. Maybe I didn’t do that in college.
Samira Noor, seen here at Five Hole for Food’s Vancouver finale, offers up her thoughts on the Canucks Prospects Scrimmage that took place a couple of Thursdays back. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
This month has been a remarkable one round these parts — after a couple of years of poor-to-middling weather, we’ve quite literally basked in a glorious summer so far this year. YVR didn’t have a single drop of rain in the month of July, which made the trek to Rogers Arena for the 2013 Canucks Prospects Scrimmage a particularly odd way to spend a Thursday afternoon. Still, thousands upon thousands of people did it, including Samira Noor (@ChaoticAppeal on the mighty Twitter), who filed this piece with Pucked in the Head. Be kind, folks. Jordan Subban broke her heart, dammit.
Prospector Samira Noor, reporting for duty
Without hesitation I willingly gave up the sunshine to sit in that cold, familiar arena for a small dose of summer hockey. Prospects — young players drafted and/or signed by the Vancouver Canucks — hit the ice to a hesitant cheer from a crowd, and immediately the whispers began.
“Who is [insert player number]?”
“His name is what? Why have I never heard of him before?”
“Where is Bo Horvat? I’m only here to see him.”
The state of confusion was shortlived, as everyone (including myself) trundled out their phones to pull up a roster list. Even then, a sense of familiarity sunk in with only a handful of players. Nicklas Jensen, 2011 Canucks draft pick and mini Great Dane, was the easiest to spot. His competitive glare made the scrimmage feel like a regular season game, and his ability to shuffle the puck through defensemen woke up the overly polite crowd.
Frankie Corrado quickly became another favourite, spending every free moment he had near the boards interacting with folks looking his way. A wink or two, a few cheeky grins, a couple of pucks flipped over the glass. Soon enough, he had people making signs for him on their iPads and pressing them against the glass competing for even a second of his attention. It wasn’t difficult. This guy was drinking it up.
Marie Hui is well-loved as the anthem singer for Whitecaps FC matches at BC Place. Now she’ll lend her talents to the Table Hockey Extravaganza. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
If you’ve been to a Whitecaps FC match, you know Marie Hui as the vocalist who shows off solid pipes prior to kick-off. She proves that you don’t need to add unnecessary trills or do vocal gymnastics to bring life to national anthems. Instead, she soaks O Canada and the Star Spangled Banner in soulful glee — you can feel the heart, and hear the smile in her every phrase.
Marie has agreed to sing O Canada on September 20 at the beginning of our World Record attempt for the longest table hockey game in history, so we invited her to False Creek to play a little puck with her home pitch BC Place as a backdrop. Turns out it was her first time. Like, ever.
Marie Hui will be at Robson Square for the Vancouver Table Hockey Extravaganza. Will you? Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
“I can’t believe I’ve never played this before. It’s so much fun!” said Marie after trouncing a buddy of mine 2–0. “Seriously, can I play in the tournament?”
Sure, Marie, but you’ll have to register for $25 like everybody else. There are two main parts to the event at Robson Square. A group of World Record hopefuls will play for 30 hours straight, from Friday 1pm to Saturday at 7pm, to raise money for Canuck Place and food for Five Hole for Food. The tournament begins at 1pm on Saturday afternoon, with six players per table. The round robin guarantees five games per registrant — each game is five minutes long — with the top 64 players in the tournament moving on to the playoff round.
Marie Hui in her first-ever game of table hockey. “This is so much fun. Can I play in the tournament?” Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
Marie is excited to be a part of the Extravaganza, singing the anthem before a World Record. But for the moment, she was more jacked about winning her first-ever game. “There’s no shame in losing to a girl, because, you know, I’m super-competitive,” said Marie. “But let’s be honest: he should be embarrassed losing to someone who’s never played before.”
Marie Hui gets her first taste of table hockey action at False Creek in July 2013. She’s hooked! Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
Mr Ferraro brought the Cup to Burnaby on Monday afternoon. No, not that Cup. And for that matter, not that Ferraro.
Chances are if you’re from the Vancouver area, you know of Ray Ferraro. Born in Trail, Ray played 18 seasons in the NHL — to this day you’ll see Hartford Whalers jerseys bearing his name round these parts — and since hanging up the skates in 2002 he’s built a tidy career as a broadcaster with Team 1040 and TSN. In 1,258 regular season games and 68 playoff contests, Ray never got close to winning it all in the NHL. But this story isn’t about him. Or the Stanley Cup.
Landon Ferraro, prospect of the Detroit Red Wings, won the Calder Cup with the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins last month. He brought the trophy home to the Burnaby Winter Club for an afternoon this week, and chatted about everything from training camps to championships, from the Griffins to grilled cheese sandwiches after hockey practices while growing up. Photos by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
Harrison Mooney, of the mighty Puck Daddy and the somewhat less threatening Pass It to Bulis, rocks a Ghostbusters jersey from Dave’s Geeky Hockey. Sopranos star and E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt looks on with stern, Jersey-soaked envy. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
As any good hockey fan knows, one can never have too many hockey shirts. Dive into those closets and dresser drawers, and you’ll find jerseys, herseys, shirseys, Ts, baby Ts, half Ts, tanks, halters, and hell, even bikini tops.
It is summertime, after all.
The sun brings out any and all of the above, as puck bunnies and puckheads alike lay about yearning for the cool air of the rink and the ardent smell of freshly used hockey gear.
Note that we here at Pucked in the Head do not condone the automatic relegation of every female fan to the title of ‘puck bunny’. We refer to fans of all genders and ages as ‘puckheads’, and only use ‘puck bunnies’ when the persons in question use the term themselves. But that’s another post. On with the fashion, dang it all!
We at Pucked in the Head support summer usage of hockey-themed upper body covering, so we’ve dedicated today’s post to a collection of photos thereof.
Sadly, we didn’t see any of the aforementioned bikini tops on Saturday, but we’ll be happy to accept photos at jason (at) puckedinthehead (dot) com. Strictly for research purposes, of course, honey. It’s for the blog, I swear.
Saturday saw the 2013 edition of Five Hole for Food wrap up in Vancouver with a festival-like atmosphere. Tunes played all afternoon, free snacks and water bottles roamed the city block of Granville Street between Robson and Smithe, and hundreds of people gathered to play ball hockey. Let’s not forget the main aim of the event: participants and sponsors combined to donate over 70,000 pounds of food to the Vancouver Food Bank. In just four short years this campaign has turned into a frickin’ juggernaut of charity goodness.
Five Hole for Food raised over 135 metric tonnes of food for regional food banks this year alone. Along the way, thousands of participants played ball hockey in downtown locales across Canada. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
Let’s put this in perspective, shall we? In 2010, Year One of FHFF collected 6,000 pounds of food in nine cities over 11 days. Pretty good for a couple of college guys looking for an interesting alternative to the traditional summer break road trip.
Well, Vancouver’s intake of well-wishing this year has beat that year’s entire tour twelvefold. In all, not even including warmup events in northern BC and as far south as New York City and Autin, TX, Year Four hit 13 cities in 17 days and collected a whopping 300,000 pounds of food. That’s over 135 metric tonnes going to regional food banks across the country.
The hot mess that is Pucked in the Head continues to spread its messy, hottie wings this week. Not only will we build on Ross Arbo’s awesome coverage of BC Superweek and introduce our first single-A Vancouver Canadians baseball coverage, we’re proud to bring into the fold a wee bit we like to call
Will DeConto shares with us the story behind his Alex Burrows signed jersey. Image courtesy of Will DeConto. Autograph courtesy of Alex Burrows.
Memorabilia Memories #1 — Alex Burrows Canucks Jersey
My name is Will DeConto and I am hockey memorabilia collector. I collect just about anything to do with hockey, but my main focus is gathering signed memorabilia, which I have been doing for five years now. Pucked in the Head has graciously offered me a place where I can talk about pieces in my collection and how you can get into the hobby and build one of your own.
In a previous job in Vancouver, I had the opportunity to meet many Canucks through dealings at work (as luck would have it, that’s also how I met Jason, the fellow who runs this very website). One of the most prized items in my collection is my signed Alex Burrows jersey. The reason: the story of how it got signed, which took more than four months.
Hunter Shinkaruk, chosen 24th overall by the Vancouver Canucks, captained the Medicine Hat Tigers this past season. Photo borrowed respectfully from www.mastimages.com
As early as the top ten, some people in Vancouver started champing at the bit that Hunter Shinkaruk might drop low enough for the Vancouver Canucks to take him in the 24 position.
In his last two seasons with the Medicine Hat Tigers of the Western Hockey League, Shinkaruk has showcased offensive abilities any team would love a piece of. Scoring 177 points in 110 games, Shinkaruk inspired this from Ross McLean of International Scouting Services:
“He is strong on the puck, has quick reactions and knows how to score goals. He typically is the player on the ice who pushes the pace of play and forces everyone else to play the game at his speed. He has great hands and is extremely tenacious around the puck. I don’t think I’ve come across a player who loves the sport as much as Shinkaruk and his passion to be on the ice, scoring goals and winning games is unbelievable.”
The knock on Shinkaruk will sound familiar to Canucks fans: he’s not the biggest player in the world. While Hunter won’t increase the team height or weight stats, he was by far the best player available in the 24 position. He’s been widely compared to Evander Kane of the Winnipeg Jets for his passion and style of play.
Look for Shinkaruk to get at least an audition with the Canucks this year, but don’t be surprised if he winds up playing a fourth year in the Dub as the big club asks him to beef up for regular NHL duty.
Bo Horvat was chosen 9th overall by the Vancouver Canucks after the team traded Cory Schneider to the New Jersey Devils. Photo courtesy of CHL Images.
Twitter servers took a severe beating Sunday afternoon, as Mike Gillis moved fan favourite goaltender Cory Schneider to the New Jersey Devils for the ninth overall pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft.
As a bazillion people who have never watched a single junior game vented their anger in 140 characters or less, the Canucks marched onstage to selected Bo Horvat. The London Knights forward inevitably known as BoHo by Vancouver fans is probably best known as the guy who tapped home an outlandish between-the-legs pass from Max Domi at this year’s Memorial Cup. If you haven’t seen it yet, shame on you. Watch it below.
President of the Abbotsford Heat, ex-Vancouver Canuck and winner of the 1986 Stanley Cup as a member of the Montreal Canadiens, Ryan Walter gave us some time to chat about table hockey and play a few minutes in the Heat locker room.
