No matter which team you like best, there’s a special feeling that precedes a big matchup against their biggest rival. This year, people around the hockey world stopped to watch the Vancouver Canucks battle the Boston Bruins in a one-game rematch of last year’s injury-filled Stanley Cup final. But as much as the Bs and Canucks hate each other, they’ve got nothing on these: the Top Seven Team Rivalries in Sporting History – part one. (Note: there may not be overt hockey content in this episode, but we use the great sport on ice as comparison approximately 3,657.29 times during this podcast.)
Introduction
Sofa Surfer Girl by the Orchid Highway
The Boat Race
The Glasgow Derby
Basketball’s biggest rivalry
Wait: did you say a *kick* to the head?
Time for a Change by the Orchid Highway
Thanks for listening
When David Booth came to town, we fans of sports nicknames rejoiced. Surely a 20-something fledgling scorer with that name coming to a team that plays in a stadium named for a telecommunications company would have a clever pseudonym. Think of it: David “The Operator” Booth. David “Long Distance” Booth. Hell, even something that displays lateral thinking – call him “Clark Kent” after the old days, when Superman changed clothes in a phone booth.
The Canucks have no decent nicknames at the moment, unless you count Sami Salo’s Balls of Steel. With guests Kennedy Goodkey and Rob Tarzwell, we look back over the forty years of team history to discuss the best nicknames in Vancouver Canucks history. Here’s part one.
Intro by the Orchid Highway
Top Seven Canuck Nicknames of All Time, Part I
#7 – “The Russian Rocket”
#6 – “Bones”
#5 – “Spider”
#4 – “Cowan the Bra-barian”
Outro by the Orchid Highway
Thanks for listening
Neener neener neener
Guests
Kennedy Goodkey
Centre
Shoots right
Chirpy, with bad knees, but tends to score big goals in the playoffs.
Kennedy is an actor, writer and film-maker in Vancouver, BC. You can check out his YouTube series Best Picture, or his serialized novel Necropolis, or see his film The Beast of Bottomless Lake on Super Channel in Canada. Kennedy grew up watching the Canucks, but admits not getting a true handle on just how deep the roots were till he hit university. Ironically, that’s about the time the Canucks had a decent team for the first time.
Rob Tarzwell
Defense
Shoots right
5’4″
140 lbs
Dig, dig, dig. Check like you won’t survive. Inadvertently screen the goalie as often as possible.
Dr. Rob Tarzwell is a Vancouver psychiatrist with a second specialty in nuclear medicine. His clinical interests include the use of radiotracers to study blood flow, glucose utilization, and neuroreceptors in brain disease and psychiatric disorders. Speaking of psychiatric disorders, Dr Rob has been a fan of the Canucks since 1988, when Gretzky got traded to the Kings. He narrowly escaped the 1994 game 7 riots downtown Vancouver, and still sometimes wakes up in cold sweat to the sound of a ringing post.
The Canucks recent callup of Lee Sweatt, dubbed “Rudy” by his new teammates, reminded us of the dearth of good nicknames in hockey today. To spur on the creativity of today’s NHL players, here’s some examples of great hockey nicknames. And this is just the goalies!
Lacking in current hockey-related topics to chat about, yet unable to shut our mouths for more than 5 minutes, we make up our personal top list of shocking sports endings.
Kennedy Goodkey
Rob Tarzwell
