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.
With the Vancouver Canucks just days away from training camp, players have slowly trickled into town. As they do, they’re hitting the ice at UBC for informal team skates, like the one Pucked in the Head hit up for some photos last week.
Vancouver Canucks defenseman Jason Garrison lines up a hit — albeit at 25% — during an informal team skate at UBC’s Father Bauer Arena. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
There’s not much to report — Luongo had yet to hit YVR, and David Booth came in skating and left answering media questions about hunting. Other than that, all I have to say is hockey’s back.
To wit, after the jump I’ve got something a little more tangible from the Vancouver Giants pre-season game at Bill Copeland Arena in Burnaby.
The title says it all. Global Morning News anchors Steve Darling & Sophie Lui jumped on the table hockey game with Jason this morning, giving some TV love to our September 20-21 event.
Weatherman for the ages Mark Madryga and traffic reporter extraordinaire Kaitlyn Herbst jumped in on the action, too.
Darling proved to be the top performer of the bunch, scoring thrice and looking pretty comfortable at the controls despite not having played in decades. Lui performed admirably for her first time, and full points to Herbst for transferring her love of soccer defensive play into some solid table hockey puck stoppage.
Jason Kurylo appears on the Global Morning News with Steve Darling and Sophie Lui to promote the Vancouver Table Hockey Extravaganza. Screen capture courtesy of Global BC.
Madryga? He couldn’t translate his hockey smarts into a goal until he lifted the game right up off the table, a clear violation of both table hockey rules and weatherman etiquette.
But we’ll let it go this time, as long as he comes out to the media challenge on September 20. As for you, you can register for the tourney for just $25 here. Proceeds from the event will benefit Canuck Place and Five Hole for Food.
Vancouver Whitecaps FC entered Sunday afternoon with just one win in their last six games. They’d dropped from second to seventh in the Western Conference, and seen their league-leading scoring duo of Camilo and Kenny Miller suddenly go dry.
Kenny Miller steered this shot into the base of the post as Marco Delgado looked on during the first half of a frustrating 2-2 draw against Chivas USA. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
A visit from the MLS bottom dweller Chivas USA was just what the doctor ordered, then. The Caps had never lost at home to the Goats from LA, and surely they’d find their form, attack at will, and score a half dozen at least.
We’re now into the second week of English Premier League action. The last two Saturdays, I’ve been up at 7am to watch my chosen favourites Norwich City. What can I say; sports is my religion, and this is my flagellation. I knew going into the season that Norwich would be sporting new kits , but I hadn’t yet seen them in action. Holy cow, are those nice shirts! While watching the Canaries play a superior Everton side to a 2-2 draw on opening day, I couldn’t help but look up how much one of those bad boys would cost. Holy cow, are those cheap shirts (by sports jersey standards)! As a Whitecaps fan, I’ve come to expect that the bland shirts my club wears will cost the customer well upwards of $100. Imagine my surprise when I found that I could get a shirt from my favourite premier league side for only £45. (Yeah, yeah, I’ll do the math for you. That’s $73.80 CDN.) What’s up, Adidas? Continue reading Whitecaps Wednesday: What’s With The Price Gouging, Adidas?→
Saturday evening, in front of 21,000 rather tense Vancouver fans, the Los Angeles Galaxy made things rather difficult for the Whitecaps. Just two weeks ago, the Caps were sitting pretty in second place in the ridiculously tight Western Conference. Today, after two consecutive losses, Vancouver sits in seventh. Such is life in the West.
LA Galaxy forward Landon Donovan takes a corner kick during a 1-0 victory over Vancouver Whitecaps FC at BC Place. Photo by Jason Kurylo 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.
When we last heard from Kenny Miller’s boot (hereafter known as Max Webster), he was boarding a flight to Sicily. On his lace was the defiantly beautiful and curvaceous ball (we’ll call her Alana) he slotted into the net back on June 16th in a game versus the New England Revolution. See here for the back story.
Their luggage included a 40 oz. bottle of Barbados’ finest rum, a pump and needle for when the love-life gets a little ‘flat’, a disk of shoe polish and small slip of AstroTurf on which to rest their weary studs and patches. All told, it had been a marvelous week spent drinking lager and ale and sipping margaritas beneath the patio lanterns at Hacienda Del Pancho’s cabin #14.
Beautiful leather heart photo courtesy of http://www.janehornsby.com
It was such a marvelous week in fact, that at the behest of his fine lady, Max Webster booked a five-night stay in Sicily to lengthen the dream honeymoon come true. The dream, however, was about to become a nightmare.
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.
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.
