The Armies: The Ice Man Thatcher Demko cometh! (2024)

They say it’s not a proper playoff run until the Canucks have a goaltending controversy.

In 1994, there were cries for Kay Whitmore to take over the net when Kirk McLean faltered in the first half of the series against Calgary.

Roberto Luongo alone had around 72 of them during his time here, but none probably as loud as it was during the infamous “Do they start Schneider in Game 6?” debates.

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So it should be no surprise that after a team MVP season and an untimely injury to Jacob Markstrom, we now have Thatcher Demko arriving on the scene to cause a stir. It’s a tradition as old as time, the pumpkin spice latte of our hockey calendar.

To be clear, this is a bit of a different goaltending controversy than the others. I think most people in Vancouver would be willing to ride again with a fully healthy Markstrom.

But that’s where the fights will break out, you see. People will debate “but just how healthy IS he?” if Markstrom comes back. Even if he’s fully recovered, but loses the game, we’ve officially run into “Should’ve started Demko” territory.

It’s both a credit to Demko’s play in Tuesday night’s 2-1 win and to Canucks Nation for their love of a good goalie debate that we’re even having this conversation.

However, to quote a local wine enthusiast, having two goalies with the ability to steal a playoff game is “champagne problems” at the moment. If anyone has put off something and told themselves “that’s a future me problem,” congratulations, because the Canucks are going to happily put this burden onto the future them’s doorstep.

Need to do your taxes? Don’t worry about it, future you will take care of it.

Need to decide what to do with Demko or Markstrom? Pfft, that’s clearly a future Jim Benning problem.

But to quote the well known welders Metallica:

So close, no matter how far
Couldn’t be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
And nothing else matters

Never opened myself this way
Life is ours, we live it our way
All these words, I don’t just say
And nothing else matters

And it’s true. The Demko and Markstrom situation?

Doesn’t matter.

To quote Jarvis Landry: “All that weak sh*t? It don’t live here no more.”

Right now the only thing that matters is that the Canucks found a way to get this series to a sixth game.

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Was it ugly? You bet.

Would you want the Canucks to repeat this performance next game? Hell no.

But in the end?

They won.

And nothing else matters.

Best VIP request

"Stayin' alive" is tonight's theme song for The Armies. You're Welcome!
— Alex H (@alexhoegler) September 2, 2020

Alex asked Danny the concierge to send along this request, and I do want to say it also would’ve worked. We were pretty locked into Metallica, though, my apologies.

Also, Jeff, you left your swim trunks in the Jacuzzi again and it plugged up one of the drains.

Best let’s kick some ice!

Obviously, there is risk attached to giving big dollars and term to a 30yo Markstrom
But he's the safer option in the short term as this team's cap structure means they NEED to be better next season ahead of EP and QH getting paid
Long term though, walking away would be prudent
— /Cam Robinson/ (@Hockey_Robinson) September 2, 2020

Why is the Bob Ross of hockey prospects waxing poetic about Demko? Because, yes, it’s safe to say Thatcher was the story of this game.

That tends to happen when your team is outshot 43-17 and the shot heat map looks like a before and after of that time you had to grow bacteria in a ~~Jeff~~ Petri dish for science class:

“Thatcher played unbelievable all game,” was the short and sweet summary from Elias Pettersson.

“He was awesome tonight, our best player. We’re fortunate to have two goalies like that,” noted Quinn Hughes in the ~~postgame scrum~~ Zoom call.

And maybe you don’t need to overstate the game Thatcher had because the evidence speaks for itself. It was one of the best performances from a Canucks goalie in the playoffs ever.

Not that you could tell when talking to Mr. Freeze after the game. Whether it’s busting out a dance on Vine or shutting down the potent offence of the Golden Knights, nothing seems to rattle the kid from Southern California.

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Clearly he trains at Miyagi-Do Karate. Life is all about balance for him.

And no offence. Never offence.

The best part of the postgame scrum was by far when Hughes explained why he wasn’t worried about Demko being ready for his big moment.

“I think we all knew Thatcher was going to be dialled in. He goes to bed early, he eats the right way. We knew that when he gets his chance he was going to be pretty dialled in … we know how good he is. I didn’t even talk to him before the game, he was just doing his own thing,” Hughes said.

Demko takes his vitamins, says his prayers, and brother, whatcha gonna do when Thatcher-Mania runs wild on you? He’s clearly this team’s biggest baby-face.

Just how early did he go to bed? Drance asked the question we all wanted answered.

“I think I was lights out at 10:05. These guys go to bed a little bit later than I do,” Demko said.

The biggest game of his career and we’re talking about how he likes vegetables, avoids pop and makes sure he’s in bed early.

Clearly it’s a good thing this game didn’t go to overtime, otherwise it would’ve been past his bedtime.

But again, why listen to me or his teammates hype up the job Demko did when we have the Ultimate Hype Man Travis Green who can do so much better?

“Demmers a good pro, a good goalie. I was happy for him.”

Best tonight’s forecast? A freeze is coming

We’ve talked about it recently, on how a goalie can play so good that a plethora of their saves can look kind of basic due to the goalie being in such good position. Game 5 was one of those nights for Demko, who somehow always found a way to be in the right spot at the right time.

While Robin Lehner was sweeping the leg on pucks left and right at the other end of the rink (or as much as one can with only 17 shots), it felt like everything was sticking to Demko.

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Get those loonies ready because we have a big pile of Demko gifs to get through!

With the game just starting, the Canucks wanted to let Demko know that they would be giving him the true Vancouver goaltending experience by giving up high danger shots:

Credit to Troy From Richmond for skating back to put pressure on Nick Cousins and eventually block the shot. That’s clearly a move he learned at Minoru.

And credit to the Canucks, because for as many shots as they gave up, they were right on the scene anytime a Golden Knights player tried to take an extra poke or two at Thatcher. Here, after a nice save from Demko, Oscar Fantenberg makes sure to get into Mooster Sauce’s face:

Clearly we haven’t heard the last of this feud because we need to see how it plays out on Instagram, but the Canucks did a good job of being tough for their goalie, something this team has struggled with in the past.

A shot off the boards that leads to a sharp angle shot? Demko was there, no problem:

He was making saves look incredibly easy.

Reilly Smith moving in from the slot, a common sight this series, was also denied by Mr. Freeze:

Shooting for a low rebound because it works in NHL ’20 (and to be fair, every single one of their games)? Nothing doing:

The most common sight was Demko clutching the puck to his chest and slowly sliding backwards. Also hat tip to Troy From Richmond, who was raised to be a gentleman, offering to help up Ryan Reaves from the ice.

The few times Demko had to scramble, he still managed to track down the puck and, ahem, freeze the puck:

Late in the game with the Canucks holding onto a lead, Demko did my favourite save, the “slowly fall over like you’ve been shot in an action movie” save:

That is a dangerous as hell shot being unleashed from a very good spot but Demko once again made it look easy.

No matter what Vegas threw at the net, Demko was shutting it down. And again, watch Alex Edler clear out the crease with these violent delights. That was something it felt like Vancouver was really on top of — if a Vegas player touched Demko, the Canucks made sure to touch them right back:

Also, please pray for Brock Boeser on that last play, who saw his soul leave his body when Nate Schmidt hit the Denis Savard deke.

In the last minute of play, Demko again found the puck and gave up absolutely nothing. Even Patches O’Houlihan was unable to summon his goal scoring ways to beat him:

Best through fire and brimstone

@TheStanchion I like how Demko just did a hair flip during the timeout a la “Kane” from wwf
— 𝗠𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗿𝘁 (@realmikeystew) September 2, 2020

I look forward to Demko one day becoming Corporate Demko and playing hockey in slacks.

Best in this universe, there is only one absolute. Everything freezes

#tbt to that time Thatcher Demko took a little goalie snooze pic.twitter.com/rpXS3dppM8
— Ben Birnell (@OD_Birnell) March 19, 2020

Is it any wonder the Canucks have been able to keep this playoff run going? Hughes, Pettersson, Demko, this team is rife with young kids who are cool under pressure.

Also nobody show this to John Tortorella, it feels like he might take too much advantage of this.

Best advertising

Clearly Demko wants more #Armies @TheStanchion @TheAthleticNHL @TheAthleticVAN
— JG (@Justen8) September 2, 2020

Clearly, clearly, Demko wanted to see another Armies full of Mr. Freeze quotes.

Best all right everyone, chill

you never like to see your goalie facing his net but, the puck stayed out, we take those #Canucks
— Risa (@OverlordRisa) September 2, 2020

Jesus mother of Demko
— Jenn 🤷🏼‍♀️ (@bosoverbros) September 2, 2020

Demko don't do that. Not good for my health.
— Bryan (@kesrows) September 2, 2020

There was one scary moment for Demko, when he entered “Roman Cechmanek backwards save mode,” but again, relax, this kid goes to bed at 10 p.m., he knows how to get up in time:

Best what killed the dinosaurs? The Ice Age!

With these guys its either pure domination or bafflingly painful
— Kevin Sorenson (@TheHolybeardman) September 2, 2020

The Canucks offensively? Yeah, it was stinky. For two periods it felt like the Canucks couldn’t find a way to enter the Vegas zone with the puck, and when they did, it led to plays like this:

Tyler Myers finally finds a way to skate in with the puck only to fire a pass into double coverage, and once again the puck was turned back and sent the other way. It was a common theme and you’d be forgiven if you had given up hope after 40 minutes.

Yes, the Canucks managed to win, but you’d never want to see the Canucks try this strategy in Game 6. It was such a poor performance that when asked after the game, Hughes gave a surprisingly in depth answer about their struggles.

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“I think we’re just trying to play fast and get the puck in their zone. The thing is they clog the middle pretty well so we can’t really skate through it. The longer we wait to pass and our forwards are stuck at the far blue line, so if we pass it to them then, they have no speed, so for us we’re just trying to get it out of our hands quickly so that they can get in on the forecheck with speed and then it’s the defenceman’s responsibility to get up and gap up and try to support the forecheck. As for as that we can probably do a little better of a job just because we didn’t have a lot of offensive zone puck time. I think it’s partly on the forecheck and it’s partly on us trying to get the puck up so the forwards can make plays,” he said.

OK.

Can I just say that this answer is amazing? Like, Quinn knows he can Edler or Chris Tanev this one up and just say “we struggled a bit so we just have to tighten some things up for next game” and nobody would blink. Teammates would’ve hugged him and given him high fives for nailing such a solid sports cliche.

This isn’t the answer from a hockey player, this is an answer from a future coach.

For all the VIPs who’ve read all season, it shouldn’t surprise you. We’ve often talked about how Hughes is one of the most interesting guys to talk to postgame because he does this all the time. He thinks about what you’ve asked him and gives in depth answers. It’s amazing.

And he’s right. There is a disconnect right now between the forwards and the defence and it’s causing the team to have trouble getting time with the puck in the offensive zone.

The good news for the Canucks is that they were able to generate a few chances, like when Jonathan Tonathan Miller found Boeser alone in the slot:

The Flow didn’t score, but for fans of foreshadowing …

Best you’re sending me to the cooler!

Well that was bound to happen IF THE GOALIE IS THE ONLY ONE PLAYING. #canucks
— Make Donna Great Again (@donnathegreat) September 2, 2020

Brandon Sutter is the CEO of gliding around the ice 🙄 #Canucks
— Andrew Neilson (@neilson_andrew) September 2, 2020

Shea Theodore, a man who has haunted the Canucks so badly that they simply refer to him as Pennywise, absolutely wrecked four Canucks on one play. Myers was saved from the massacre simply because Theodore didn’t bother to skate by him.

We all float down here. You’ll float too.

The usual recipe for highlight reel goals is someone making someone else look ridiculous on a play that you feel could have been prevented if they’d just done anything at all. That probably takes away too much credit from the person scoring these goals, so let’s all agree this was a fantastic drive to the net from Theodore, and this isn’t new for him. He’s been slashing through the Canucks defence all series.

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But we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out all the bad things on this goal, too, from the Canucks side.

You have Demko shooting the puck over his D-man into a turnover.

You have Antoine Roussel getting burned on the cut back by Theodore.

You have Brandon Sutter just taking it all in because life moves pretty fast and if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

You have Fantenberg jumping in so he could get deked too, just so he could know what it feels like.

And then you have Jay Beagle with the swipe heard around the world:

There are certain plays where I say to myself “What if Goldobin did this?” and I think about the ramifications.

This is one of those plays.

If Goldobin took a Hail Mary swipe at a guy bearing down on him instead of standing up and playing the body, he’d have been absolutely ripped online, and the team bus would’ve left without him.

It was not a strong game from Beagle, who saw his usage drop dramatically in the third period, but he would get one moment to redeem himself.

There’s that foreshadowing again!

Now, clearly a lot went wrong on this play, and a lot went right for Vegas, but yes, it’s not often you see four players join together to form some sort of horrifying version of Captain Planet that almost ends the world.

Best explanation

Relax, he was heading for a change.
— Benny (@bennybehnsen) September 2, 2020

Best allow me to break the ice

HOLY sh*t WE MANAGED A GOAL! BOESER! #Canucks
— Courtney 🏒 (@CeeJesse) September 2, 2020

Scoring while the other team’s goal is still being announced will never not be hilarious to me
— Gregory Balloch (@GregBalloch) September 2, 2020

Just when it felt like the Canucks’ season might be over, they found a way to drag us back in:

The much maligned Boeser finally found the back of the net when he tipped home this delightful pass from Jilly Tilly Miller.

As we discussed in the last Armies, Boeser has been playing well but not scoring goals. And as nice as it is to have someone who does all the little things but can’t score, that job is already taken by Loui Eriksson.

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For those that have been too hard on Brock, though, Green thinks people need a little perspective.

“Boes is still a young guy, this is his first playoffs. I think he knows that he’s had a little more in him. And it’s not just about goals. But I thought he had a strong game tonight,” he said.

In Game 4, Boeser had a lot of nice passes but zero shots. For a guy who is known for his release and has an NHL All-Star Game accuracy trophy hidden somewhere in his Yaletown loft (right beside the Gossip Girls Blu-rays), getting more pucks on net was going to be vital for him.

Best support system

@TheStanchion Rocking the BB ND tonight! #canucks pic.twitter.com/m3i7rLeR7l
— Ryan McLellan (@RyanMcLellan1) September 2, 2020

Okay, no gradient jersey tonight. I have doubled the Brock Boeser manifestation instead pic.twitter.com/0gf7KyUgda
— Danielle (@danihuntley) September 2, 2020

Best chilling sound of your doom

Lotto line united and it works.. Great shift started with the miss from Miller, then they work it around again and it's EP40 with the tip.. crazy crazy game, 2-1 Canucks
— Blake Price (@BlakePriceTSN) September 2, 2020

Why did the #Canucks ever go away from The Lotto Line? 😂
— 𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 Faber 🤙🔥🎙 (@ChrisFaber39) September 2, 2020

With the Canucks season on the ropes and with Tanner Pearson struggling to make a connection with Pettersson, Green took out his hammer and smashed the “in case of emergency” button and reunited the Lotto Line.

It paid immediate dividends with a goal:

It was a move that Green felt was needed.

“You know we just needed a spark … it was no secret we weren’t going. Put that line together for a shift and they scored. Obviously they have chemistry from the past,” he said.

The Pearson-Pettersson-Toffoli experiment did not go well this game, as they got outshot handily against Vegas. Breaking up that line felt like a good move, even if it hadn’t been done to put the Lotto Line back together.

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Pettersson was just happy he got to play with his BFF again.

“We’ve been playing with each other all season and we have good chemistry between each other. I think it was good we switched up the lines because the first period wasn’t good from our side. Coach made some changes and it worked out,” he said.

With an assist on that goal, Boeser would earn his second point, as did Miller.

The Canucks got a goal when it mattered most by relying on a line that had powered them through much of the season.

For fans of the dramatic, maybe Green enjoys splitting up the Lotto Line so he can have dramatic Avengers like moments where they all come back together from individual journeys to save the world.

The biggest question we have now is whether the Lotto Line will be back to start Game 6.

Best reunited and it feels so good

Elias Pettersson Smiling Gif after the Goal #Canucks pic.twitter.com/it49E6VLFU
— Lucas Parmenter (@LucasParmenter) September 2, 2020

Best logic

If you ever split these two up that is just an unequivocal attack on the concept of friendship. #Canucks pic.twitter.com/J1wrr5qrBm
— j.Bowman (@jBowmancouver) September 2, 2020

Best scare

Wow, what a setup for Horvat, hammered wide
— Blake Price (@BlakePriceTSN) September 2, 2020

Watching the Canucks trains you to expect the worst, so you might’ve been one of the people who saw Bo Horvat fire the puck wide on a late game power play and assume it meant Vegas was going to tie the game.

After all, we saw it in Game 4 when Jake Virtanen missed a shot from the slot only to see Vegas score right after. This is how things usually work in this town.

But Mr. Freeze apparently has no time for the cruel Hockey Gods, so now this miss becomes merely a footnote inThe Armies history.

Best always go out on top

See? I told you there was foreshadowing. Beagle’s heroic dive to draw a penalty and close out the game.

The Theodore goal is forgiven.

Best bet

Oh my https://t.co/LaUXj2oxtC
— Quinnelli (@MikeGrinnell_) September 2, 2020

Horvat put the puck into the empty net because you can take the boy out of the Insurance Line but you can’t take the Insurance Line out of the boy.

As of now it’s no goal, and we know that the NHL talks about a disconnect between the time shown on the clock and when the game actually ends, so we won’t know for sure if this goal will count until the NHL looks at it.

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Best nobody makes us bleed our own blood

Award Bo Horvat his playoff-leading 10th goal you cowards! pic.twitter.com/yFjTQKuU96
— /Cam Robinson/ (@Hockey_Robinson) September 2, 2020

Charging into the bubble to demand Horvat gets credit for the empty netter: pic.twitter.com/lR4rDk4hp4
— CanuckSkate (@CanuckSkate) September 2, 2020

Best trilogy

With a series of events so crazy that even Scott Sterling thought it was a bit much, Zach Whitecloud had himself an adventure during Game 5. If he wasn’t flying face first into the boards, or being hip-checked into space, he was stuck on the ground with a stick in his skate. It felt like anytime something weird happened on the ice, Whitecloud was on the scene.

Based on the still pictures, I think it’s clear the Whitecloud was trying to pull off Liu Kang’s kick over a napping Adam Gaudette:

Later in the game, it’s clear that Whitecloud was trying to do a plank video, which feels a little too 2010-ish, but they’re stuck in the bubble, they have to make their own fun:

And clearly in the third period, Whitecloud was trying to attach sticks to his feet because if you can score with a stick, wouldn’t it be better to have two of them?

The only thing missing was a picture of Whitecloud with bees in his mouth and when he barked he shot bees at people.

Best “MVP” Motte

Give me all the Motte gifs. @TheStanchion. You know you're paid for it. #VANvsVGK
— Dan D'Amour (@DanielDAmour) September 2, 2020

Right move by Sutter… just too slow doing it.#VANvsVGK #Canucks
— Ken Henderson (@krusty027) September 2, 2020

We have promised to have one Tyler Motte gif per game for the rest of the season and we will deliver:

Every game Motte blocks a shot or steals a puck and creates a chance on net, and Game 5 was no different.

Alas, his pass was to Sutter, who has become really good at getting nice chances but never scoring.

Things called this game? Penalties.

Things not called this game? Baton Rouge.

Best chirping

#VegasBorn frustrated that Elias Pettersson drew another penalty.
"That's f*cking embarrassing, are you looking at anybody else but him?" – Vegas bench
— Thomas Drance (@ThomasDrance) September 2, 2020

It feels like Vegas might be the loudest bench in the league? I know both sides will complain about everything, as is tradition in hockey, but this feels like a pretty clear penalty?

I know it might be hard to see the slash from Mooster Sauce, it’s pretty subtle, but I promise you it’s there.

Also the defence of “please stop watching their star player, whom we commit most of our crimes against” seems on par with “why does the bank security have to keep staring at the vault, don’t they look anywhere else?”

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Best two points of view

Tyler Motte with some Darcy Tucker on Michael Peca energy
— 🥴 (@LeBronMaclean) September 2, 2020

Motte summoning his inner Hamhuis…
— Reid Curtis B (@donkeyfish44) September 2, 2020

Depending on your allegiances you either saw this move from Motte as an accidental whoopsie or a Brad Marchand inspired cheap shot:

It feels like a very well done “accidentally on purpose” move.

Best movie reference

Tyler Myers on his way to the penalty box. pic.twitter.com/XVGhVubWcU
— J.D. Burke (@JDylanBurke) September 2, 2020

I watch a lot of wrestling, that’s a worked punch if I’ve ever seen one. You can almost see Myers slap his thigh, Randy Orton would be so mad about that.

Still, Myers wasn’t the one to get a cross-checking penalty on the play and only took a roughing call, so this feels like an improvement.

Worst long shift McGee

a 2:23 shift for Myers who has now had shifts of 2:18 and 1:49 since his return to lineup
— Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) September 2, 2020

The good news is Myers had the third shortest average shift length of any player at 32 seconds per shift, so I don’t think it’s like a fetish or anything for him to exhaust himself publicly with super long shifts.

Best ping

Cody Hodgson would’ve had that.

So would Geoff Courtnall.

Worst news

Bad news, #VegasBorn is inserting Kelly Sutherland in their lineup for tonight's elimination game. #canucks
— Hughdini 🥁🥁🔔 (@canuckforcup) September 1, 2020

Look, just because Kelly Sutherland seems to not like Vancouver all that much, doesn’t mean-

Cool that was a trip but it’s all good no call #canucks
— Evangrantelion (@GrantAnderson33) September 2, 2020

Oh.

Best flipping their lid

Where’s the 10-minute misconduct, that’s all I’m saying.

It’s a fair question.

We deserve answers.

If hugging, whispering and shoving before a faceoff get a player 10 minutes in the box, I feel this belongs in that category.

I just want to know what constitutes a 10-minute misconduct.

Best return policy

When you want to wear a nice jacket but also want to be able to return it after your TV appearance pic.twitter.com/UqXNhp3WPS
— Wyatt Arndt (@TheStanchion) September 2, 2020

Kevin Bieksa continues to win over the hearts of Canucks fans everywhere with his witty banter during intermission, and his representation of the Canucks.

It’s also nice to see the rest of the country agree as most everyone has had nothing but positive things to say about his addition to the panel, to the point where some people want him to have his own Coach’s Corner type segment.

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Juice’s Jaunt?

I can say from firsthand knowledge what the other panellists are getting themselves into when they have to exchange barbs with Bieksa. One of my first memories of the Canucks dressing room was watching The Province’s Ed Willes ask Bieksa a question in the scrum, with cameras and lights everywhere.

I can’t remember the question, but it doesn’t matter. Bieksa turned and looked at Ed, and demanded clarification. He started drilling him on the spot and started giving it back to Ed. Willes, being the pro that he is, happily returned fire and the two finally came to an understanding of the question.

As a rookie hockey writer, I was terrified. Would all questions be like this? If I asked something poorly, would all players try to eat me alive like Bieksa just did?

Luckily for me, I quickly learned the joy of Edler’s generally dead inside responses and found a gentler journey for me to ask my first questions.

I also learned the joy of asking depth players questions, as they would happily give their time, having not been burnt out from the daily media grind. (Quick shout out to Andrew Ebbett and Andrew Alberts. My “ask only Andrews questions” policy served me well in learning to work the room.)

But I’ll always remember thinking “Man, I do not want to dance with Bieksa.”

Something me and Fedor Fedorov probably share in common.

It does make for fantastic TV, though.

Best happy little accident

Gaudette made white cloud go face first into the boards was hilarious lmao
— W (@CanucksHouse) September 2, 2020

I had a Bob Ross joke lined up for this but then I used it on Cam Robinson, and then I used still pictures for Whitecloud, so this is a remnant of an Armies award that was never meant to be.

Still, paid by the gif and all that, so here’s your peek behind the curtain.

Best stick play

🏒🧐 pic.twitter.com/rLOPCKJsVm
— Vancouver #Canucks (@Canucks) September 2, 2020

Brilliant work by the Canucks as this not only ensured they’d be talked about again on TV, but it’s also just a lot of fun.

People are actually excited for the pregame skate now. When’s the last time that happened?

Best dunk

pic.twitter.com/QGiDVLNos0
— Mr Booth (@MrBooth_7) September 1, 2020

I can promise you, Botch would’ve sent me a text absolutely howling about the media falling for Mr. Booth_7’s Ocean’s 11 heist maneuver. I can hear him laughing in my head right now, peppering me with questions about the “who, what, when, why” of how this all went down.

Not since Eddie Lack told Ryan Kesler he’d been traded to Pittsburgh have we seen such a successful deception. This is Stones of Jordan levels of duping.

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Best united fans

The Provies/The Athlettties/The Armies has always been deeply rooted in the Canucks fandom community. We know the VIPs are what makes this place run. It’s why we have a clubhouse for you to hang out in after a long day’s work.

Lately, however, it feels like things have taken a turn. The fighting we see online feels rampant, and even during an extended playoff run, we see more arguments than we do people talking hockey.

I know sports can be a lot of things to a lot of people and sometimes your view of the team can cause friction with others. And I am the last person to tell you how to consume your sports.

But I just wanted to remind people of the silly fun nature of sports by showcasing one of my favourite sides of it: Superstitions.

We can call each other names and scream until we’re blue in the face over hockey debates, but there’s something so lighthearted that many of us have these weird superstitions we use to urge teams to a win.

“They clearly need to go with Demko next game you moron, and you’re an idiot if you think Jordie Benn should be put back in the lineup, anyway, I have to go put on the same socks I wore for last game and eat the same meal. Later.”

I don’t know how many Armies we have left this season, so I wanted to end this one with a thank you to the VIPs and the Canucks community, and to tell you: Whatever you did tonight?

Repeat it for Game 6.

pic.twitter.com/q9mh5nZQSn
— Dustin (@dustinlarson72) September 1, 2020

Pull out the picture of my son when he was 4 in the Canucks dressing room with Pavel !! Go Canucks !! pic.twitter.com/LDyNxBOV1u
— Greg (@Greg43847513) September 1, 2020

This one comes out for special occasions only. pic.twitter.com/GVtfPIzhEz
— abolish this website (@WebstarVanCity) September 2, 2020

New shirt to wear on game days @spittinchiclets pic.twitter.com/HtRx3xdz7l
— Nathan (@Stoneszns) September 1, 2020

Big Game Troy. Let me down game 3 vs STL, redeemed in game 5, hasn't been used vs Vegas pic.twitter.com/pSlgUl8rN1
— Graham Morrison (@GrahamCasts) September 1, 2020

i made mexican food throughout the first two rounds. switched it up to pizza for this round… with limited success. going back to mexican tonight.
these are the nachos i made before one of the wins against st. louis 🥰 pic.twitter.com/jb3XgAIgmZ
— emily 🌻 (@emily_dawnxo) September 1, 2020

Naslund jersey retirement pin. Had it the whole 2011 run, rub it at the beginning of each period for good luck! pic.twitter.com/QeNo8JI4VU
— Steven Bonham (@kaizersoze1337) September 1, 2020

It's a fairly new ritual… pic.twitter.com/gag7gq5JmA
— Brad in Pitt Meadows (@Theonlystowie) September 1, 2020

On game nights when I work, the boeser jersey always come with me, it always hangs on that hook right in the doorway pic.twitter.com/Kucn9wjjFN
— Jax (@SecondSucks22) September 1, 2020

I put on my "in case of emergency” @Canucks shoes they are 15 years old so I only wear them when they are needed most 🙂 pic.twitter.com/oGcsFjOhJb
— Jordan Bainbridge (@BattleModeBain) September 1, 2020

pic.twitter.com/CvmE38Zkgy
— Dan Murphy (@sportsnetmurph) September 1, 2020

Been working all day on the quilts for the 10th anniversary run of #IBelieveInBlue quilt campaign for @CanuckPlace kids. Hoping we're sending major good mojo for #Canucks tonight!! Go Canucks Go!! @ml_quilters @kasseeopea pic.twitter.com/LEoqDwNssI
— VR Almas (@VRAlmas) September 1, 2020

(Photo: Andy Devlin / NHLI via Getty Images)