At the beginning of the season, a lot of WHL players look at the calendar to see where the three-in-threes are. John Tortorella might wax poetic about his Canucks being a tired team after five games in nine nights, but when was the last time an NHLer hit the ice on three consecutive nights?
Thomas Foster scored once and added an assist as his Vancouver Giants beat the Prince George Cougars 5–2. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
The Vancouver Giants ended 2013 with a threefer, taking four of a possible six points despite travelling on the bus between each game. Sunday was the final game of the calendar year for the G-Men, and they made it count with a 5–2 win over the visiting Prince George Cougars. Jared Rathjen made 27 stops for his eighth win of the season, while both Carter Popoff and Thomas Foster had a goal and an assist at the other end of the rink.
It’s a game they should have won, but on that third night in a row, you never know which of the legs or the heart will show up. Sometimes you get both. Sometimes you get neither.
With the win, the Giants go into 2014 at five games over .500 and sit seventh place in the Western Conference. Their 45 points are one more than they had all last year, when they finished in the league basement. Making it all the more remarkable is the fact that the Giants started this year with a dismal 1–9 stretch to start the season. Since then, they’ve played solid two-way hockey, and gone 18–5–7.
You’re just a few shopping days away from the big Noël, and you’ve still got a few unchecked boxes on the naughty and nice list. Maybe one or two of those stockings belong to sports fans. Here’s just one idea for how to fill that bit of footwear that hangs on the mantle.
The Lonely End of the Rink: Confessions of a Reluctant Goalie
by Grant Lawrence $26.96 list price
$16.89 on Amazon.ca
Lonely End of the Rink is an autobiographical tale of how Grant Lawrence went from being a pre-teen King of the Nerds to a forty-something Kingpin of Beer League Rock ‘n’ Rollers.
Lawrence, ex-lead singer of The Smugglers and current King of the CBC 3, sketches out his childhood in terms of horrific geekdom, replete with knee braces, massive glasses, teeny tiny limbs and bad hair. There are Simpsons-esque episodes with fellow dweebs, beatings from bullies that would make Saruman the White proud, and verbal abuse from Seinfeldian gym teachers, who give him a lifelong hatred of being called by just his family name.
Grant Lawrence, shares his transition from King of the Nerds to King of in the Beer League Rock n Rollers in The Lonely End of the Rink.
That reminds me: in this here tome, thar be pop culture references out the wazoo. Lawrence Grant writes the way hipster radio presenters talk — not that there’s anything wrong with that. He sprinkles metaphors and similes on the page like Emeril hopped up on too much essence. On a single two-age spread (pp 76–77 if you’re interested), he references Harry Hamlin (BAM!), Clash of the Titans (BAM!), the Spartans laying waste to Arcadia (BAM!), Richard Brodeur, the Scream Machine roller coaster, Gollum, zombies, Popeye, and a gym teacher named only The Fire Hydrant (BAM! BAM! BAM!). Chapter headings — and the book’s title, for that matter — are all nods to hockey rock influences, from Alan Thicke to the Tragically Hip, from Dave Bidini & the Rheostatics to the aforementioned Jill Barber & her equally talented brother Matthew.
We get a few anecdotes from Grant’s time as the lead singer of the Vancouver-based Smugglers, but large doses of talk about the Flying Vees, a collection of musicians, artists and other creative types who dabble in rec league hockey wearing — you guessed it — Gibson Flying V guitars on their blue, green and white jerseys.
Grant Lawrence won’t win the Giller Prize anytime soon, but his conversational tone makes The Lonely End of the Rink a fast, entertaining read. Hockey plays the on-again, off-again romantic lead in the piece, even though we know our hero eventually settles down with sublime songstress Jill Barber. If you’ve even once heard a Top 10 list on CBC 3, you can’t help but hear the author’s voice in your head as you read his recollections of unsuccessful Vancouver Canucks runs to the Stanley Cup final. Thankfully, you can hear it & cheer as he recounts his own (admittedly unlikely) tournament wins, battling as an adult those childhood demons that still hang about the rink.
Grant may be small in stature, but he stands tall when he calls himself “still a gimpy, small, lopsided goaltender who always made the first move, who flopped like a wounded moth and let in way too many goals.” He may be called ‘The Guesser’ by bearded Ontarian rockers, but for starting up the Flying Vees, he’s forever ‘The Kingpin’ to his teammates. That’s probably why, at 41 years of age & drinking Black Label from the Duffers League championship trophy — seriously, man, ain’t there any craft beer in North Vancouver? — Grant was already thinking about the end of the off-season: “I couldn’t wait for the next hockey season to begin.”
The CBC’s Grant Lawrence makes a diving save with his mask during Duffers League action in North Vancouver. (The puck is actually visible under his neck protector if you look for it.) Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
Vancouver forward Dalton Sward collected an assist as the Giants doubled up on the Seattle Thunderbirds 6-3 on Saturday night. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
We at Pucked in the Head encourage you to play the Mötley Crüe’s Girls Girls Girls at full volume during this post. We would have recorded a hockey version, but Harrison Mooney was busy mixing his Christmas album.
Vancouver was awash in red lights Saturday as the Giants and Canucks collectively exploded for a dozen goals in a single night. These are teams that have moved in opposite directions in the standings of late. The Canucks had lost five straight, scoring just six goals in that span. The Giants, on the other hand, had picked up points in six consecutive games. (In fact, since a disastrous 1-9 start to the season, the Giants have gone 10–4–3.) Their 6–3 win over the visiting Seattle Thunderbirds, coming on the strength of a four-goal second period, was their fourth home win in a row, and brought them to a .500 record for the first time in recent memory.
Jared Rathjen earned his third win of the season, stopping 24 of 27 shots; at the other end, Danny Mumaugh allowed five goals on 31 shots and was chased after forty minutes. Trace Elson scored his first career WHL goal, and completed the Gordie Howe hat trick with a first period fight and an assist in the third.
They say the first game home after a road trip is the hardest game to play. The Vancouver Giants put the spurs to that urban legend Friday night, spanking the Kamloops Blazers 5-1 at the Pacific Coliseum to end an eight-game losing streak. The majority of that stretch came during a brutal road trek that included six games in six cities in eight nights. Let’s not forget that in the Dub, all of those klicks are logged by bus — it was a two-day jaunt from Vancouver just to reach the first game in Brandon, Manitoba.
Vancouver Giants defenseman Brett Kulak delivered a dominant performance in a 5-1 win over the Kamloops Blazers, scoring once and adding two assists. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
The G-men had been outscored 36-15 since their last win on September 21. A game against the 4-7 Blazers was just what the doctor ordered, then, as the Giants desperately needed a win to put a little wind in their sails in the still-young season.
They came out gunning, jumping out to a 1-0 just 2:20 into the game. The Giants would score early in each period, and overall outshot the Blazers 38-24 in the win. Calgary Flames prospect Brett Kulak scored once and added two helpers to become the team’s top scorer this season. Kulak now has two goals and eight points in 11 games played.
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.
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.
Québec’s LHFDQ Nord won the province’s first-ever national Midget AAA title, coming from behind to beat Ontario 5-2 in the gold medal game of the 2013 Esso Cup.
Frederique Maringer readies a wrist shot during the 2013 Esso Cup. Québec Nord took the gold medal with a 5-2 win in the final game. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
Jason & Chris examine the Eastern Conference playoff picture, and somehow wind up talking about Derek Roy and the Canucks. Along the way, they utilize as many metaphors as you can shake a dead horse at. Or something.
Episode 52: Leafs & Habs & Midgets, oh my!
• Intro
• Sofa Surfer Girl / Regularity
• Ovi’s back
• 2013 Esso Cup in Burnaby
• NHL Eastern Conference playoffs
• Time for a Change
• Thanks for Listening
