Sports in Seconds: Canucks home serves as shrine to past glory
During my trip to beautiful Vancouver in British Columbia, as part of the Canadian University Press National Journalism Conference, I signed up for a sports reporters tour of General Motors (GM) Place, home of the National Hockey League's (NHL) Vancouver Canucks.
The hike to the arena was not very pleasant, I trucked through downtown Vancouver amidst the usual, rainy weather that is apparently the norm for this time of year on the West Coast.
After getting thoroughly rain soaked, our tour guide finally came to our gate and let us into the main concourse area where our tour began.
One of the first things our tour guide pointed out were a series of pipes that were in the ceiling and shot off in multiple directions all over the arena.
One might think, wow pipes, who really gives a shit about them? But these were no ordinary pipes, these were huge metal cylinders filled with beer.
With a microbrewery directly on site, the pipes travel around the entire arena, filling kegs at the various concession stands around GM Place.
Believe me, I definitely had visions at that time of beer raining down on me. Now if that isn't heaven, I do not know what is.
The tour continued into the press box, the place where sports reporters from across Canada regularly cover NHL contests and also the spot where hundreds of international reporters will be covering the ice hockey events in the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympic Games, which will be held in Vancouver.
As we made our descent from the press box, I came across something amusing and something that any NBA fan would snicker at as well.
Below my feet was a huge symbol of the Vancouver Grizzlies, a beleaguered NBA franchise who relocated to Memphis before the 2001/2002 NBA season.
The tour guide made quick reference to the "only remaining evidence" of the Grizzlies franchise in GM Place, other then an equally humourous picture of the first ever draft pick in Vancouver history, Bryant "Big Country" Reeves.
Prominent displays throughout the tour featured many pictures of the Canucks current captain, Marcus Naslund, and a couple of other reoccurring themes that seemed a bit questionable to me.
It appeared that the Canucks were extremely proud of their history, including the history of their logo and uniforms.
If I would have seen one more picture, painting, or statue featuring the hideous orange-yellow-brown-vomit coloured jerseys of the mid-80's Canucks teams, I think I would have gotten sick all over the Grizzlies symbol.
After Naslund, the most prominent Canuck displayed all over the arena was Canucks forward and assistant captain, Todd Bertuzzi.
Oh that is right, Bertuzzi was traded to the Florida Panthers this off-season for goalie Roberto Luongo.
I found it a bit strange that GM Place was littered with Bertuzzi's mug and I feel the casual fan may still think that Bertuzzi was a member of the franchise.
I understand that Bertuzzi is a major part of the Canucks history and the short 10-year history of GM Place, but I think they take it a bit overboard. Hell, they might as well have a special display of the Bertuzzi/Steve Moore incident, just so fans will not forget that either.
The tour then brought us through the stands, into the actual penalty box, onto the players bench, and finally into the opposing teams locker room.
The final stop on the tour was in the press conference room. We were all given the chance to step up to the podium and act like an NHL player or coach that is getting grilled by reporters. As anti-climatic as this sounds, it did get a bit interesting after I had taken a picture for an individual on the tour who was doing his best Pat Quinn impression behind the microphone.
We both left the room only to find no one else from the tour in the vicinity.
So as we wandered around GM Place for the duration of our now self-guided tour, with some help from security we concluded our very memorable experience, and managed to safely travel back to the hotel.
The hike to the arena was not very pleasant, I trucked through downtown Vancouver amidst the usual, rainy weather that is apparently the norm for this time of year on the West Coast.
After getting thoroughly rain soaked, our tour guide finally came to our gate and let us into the main concourse area where our tour began.
One of the first things our tour guide pointed out were a series of pipes that were in the ceiling and shot off in multiple directions all over the arena.
One might think, wow pipes, who really gives a shit about them? But these were no ordinary pipes, these were huge metal cylinders filled with beer.
With a microbrewery directly on site, the pipes travel around the entire arena, filling kegs at the various concession stands around GM Place.
Believe me, I definitely had visions at that time of beer raining down on me. Now if that isn't heaven, I do not know what is.
The tour continued into the press box, the place where sports reporters from across Canada regularly cover NHL contests and also the spot where hundreds of international reporters will be covering the ice hockey events in the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympic Games, which will be held in Vancouver.
As we made our descent from the press box, I came across something amusing and something that any NBA fan would snicker at as well.
Below my feet was a huge symbol of the Vancouver Grizzlies, a beleaguered NBA franchise who relocated to Memphis before the 2001/2002 NBA season.
The tour guide made quick reference to the "only remaining evidence" of the Grizzlies franchise in GM Place, other then an equally humourous picture of the first ever draft pick in Vancouver history, Bryant "Big Country" Reeves.
Prominent displays throughout the tour featured many pictures of the Canucks current captain, Marcus Naslund, and a couple of other reoccurring themes that seemed a bit questionable to me.
It appeared that the Canucks were extremely proud of their history, including the history of their logo and uniforms.
If I would have seen one more picture, painting, or statue featuring the hideous orange-yellow-brown-vomit coloured jerseys of the mid-80's Canucks teams, I think I would have gotten sick all over the Grizzlies symbol.
After Naslund, the most prominent Canuck displayed all over the arena was Canucks forward and assistant captain, Todd Bertuzzi.
Oh that is right, Bertuzzi was traded to the Florida Panthers this off-season for goalie Roberto Luongo.
I found it a bit strange that GM Place was littered with Bertuzzi's mug and I feel the casual fan may still think that Bertuzzi was a member of the franchise.
I understand that Bertuzzi is a major part of the Canucks history and the short 10-year history of GM Place, but I think they take it a bit overboard. Hell, they might as well have a special display of the Bertuzzi/Steve Moore incident, just so fans will not forget that either.
The tour then brought us through the stands, into the actual penalty box, onto the players bench, and finally into the opposing teams locker room.
The final stop on the tour was in the press conference room. We were all given the chance to step up to the podium and act like an NHL player or coach that is getting grilled by reporters. As anti-climatic as this sounds, it did get a bit interesting after I had taken a picture for an individual on the tour who was doing his best Pat Quinn impression behind the microphone.
We both left the room only to find no one else from the tour in the vicinity.
So as we wandered around GM Place for the duration of our now self-guided tour, with some help from security we concluded our very memorable experience, and managed to safely travel back to the hotel.
