Fans outside the Lower Mainland and BC, why do you cheer for the Canucks?

[Father Ryan]

History - moved to northern BC, from Arkansas, in 1975. I had never even heard of hockey. Started watching it (HNIC only), and earliest memories of hockey is Guy Lafleur coming down right wing with all that blonde hair flowing, invariably scoring on some poor goalie. But, the few Canuck games that were on were enough to realize I had a local team to cheer for. Moved to Vancouver in January 1980 to attend Douglas College in New West. That's when I really became a Canucks fan. I've been one ever since; I've seen all of our Finals appearances, and I will always think the world of Stan Smyl; he epitomized what an NHL player should be - hard working, tough, dedicated and enough talent to record a couple of 30 goal campaigns.

I've moved back to Arkansas (very long story), but keep up as best possible; read everything in sight, watch the occasional game, stream highlights whenever possible.

 

Thick and thin, this is my NHL team. Sure, I "like" a couple of other teams, but none of them would get the slightest cheer when they play the Canucks!

[ThePeaceAwakens]

Because i grew up on the coast and back in 82 when i was 11, my brother who was 10 years older than me took me to 1 game in each of the first three rounds of the playoffs.  Unfortunately though we couldn't afford tickets for the final round against the islanders, but none the less i was there for the birth of towel power and needless to say ive been hooked ever since.  I spent most of the 80's listening to the games on the radio and watching the odd televised games whenever they were broadcast on t.v.  i didnt go to another live game until about ten years later when a buddy and me decided to buy a couple cheap tickets for a pre-season game against winnipeg, which unbeknownst to us magically turned out to be Bure's first game in the Nhl.  We were 2nd row from the glass, right on the blueline and i couldnt believe what i was watching, Bure must have had 3 or 4 mad rushes that game, he was so fast just busting through the winnipeg defense.  Definitely the most exciting canuck game ive seen live, and it was only preseason!  Since then ive watched almost every televised game and ever since the advent of pvr i havent missed a single one.  I've lived in the Kootenays since 97 and try to make it down for at least 1 or 2 games a year.  It was only a year and a half ago though that i discovered cdc and nowadays i fall asleep every night reading everyones posts.  GCG!!

[Blue_Jays_Canucks]

When I was younger I asked my dad why the canucks had a c orca on their jersey; my dad said he had no idea, so I started liking them cause of their weird logo. I was like 4 or 5 at the time. Logo still doesn't make sense to me- team is named Canucks, slang for Canadian, have no idea why they've never had Canadian themed jerseys or even something remotely resembling a "Canuck". Maybe the orca represents the west coast but when I think of a Canuck I think of something a bit more Canadian. Now they're trying to play off the logo as if it's a classic lol like the blackhawks or red wings- two logos that actually make sense. 

[IBatch]

8 hours ago, Blue_Jays_Canucks said:

When I was younger I asked my dad why the canucks had a c orca on their jersey; my dad said he had no idea, so I started liking them cause of their weird logo. I was like 4 or 5 at the time. Logo still doesn't make sense to me- team is named Canucks, slang for Canadian, have no idea why they've never had Canadian themed jerseys or even something remotely resembling a "Canuck". Maybe the orca represents the west coast but when I think of a Canuck I think of something a bit more Canadian. Now they're trying to play off the logo as if it's a classic lol like the blackhawks or red wings- two logos that actually make sense. 

As you probably know by now the orca jersey was created because Orca Entertainment owned the team.   Though it was classless then and absolutely hated the jersey at the time.  Most teams were going for black colours then as I suppose they felt it was intimidating .... Since going back to the club's roots with the blue and green and going to the final with our most successful group of guys the jersey has grown on me.   Still liked the flying skate it was an upgrade from the strange 80s colour scheme (most pundits felt it was pretty awful although I didn't mind them) and love the hockey stick third jersey.

[whytelight]

In 1989, I was invited to a flames/canucks playoff game on TV when I was living in Medicine Hat, Alberta.    I was 14 at the the time and really didn't understand hockey or was really that into it....actually, that was probably the first game I ever saw. 

 

It was game seven in the first round of the playoffs.  Living in Alberta at the time, everyone at the party were flames fans.  Then OT happened and someone (Joel Otto) kicked the puck in net and the flames won.....the room erupted with cheers. I thought the Canucks were slighted, cheated, and deserved a better fate.  From then on, I was a Vancouver fan.  Trevor Linden was also a high school colleague of mine and I sat beside Bryan McCabe in math class when he played for the Tigers.

 

I live in Winnipeg now.

 

 

[BlackRedYellow]

As an exchange student (from sweden) back in 1991 (Victoria, BC) I fell in love with Linden, Bure and Kirk, well the whole team AND all of British Columbia. I saw three games live that year and has forever stayed a true Canuck, visiting Vancouver once or twice a year nowadays, always catching three or four home games at Rogers. Bure is my all time favourite player. I have never seen a better player in a Canucks jersey. I only wish for two things in my life: a Cup and to witness a new player like Bure in a Vancouver jersey!

[10pavelbure96]

I was born in vancouver and lived in the lower mainland and fraser Valley for 25 years and now I reside in the okanagan.

 

94 baby.  That playoff run solidified me for years, was a die hard ever since. I remember playing in hockey pools for fun when I was still in elementary school lol.

 

GCG

[TheCerebral1]

I have a cousin in Surrey BC, and I loved Pavel Bure and Alexander Mogilny.  They've always been my co favorite team with my local area team.

[Jasmijn Meeuwissen]

Grew up in New Westminster. Rant into Brent Sopel at the mall when I was around 9 years old. Then met Naslund at one of those autograph sessions, such a hunk.  Bertuzzi punching out Moore basically sealed my fate as a Canucks fan. Pretty much watched all the West Coast Express games and all of their commercials until their demise. Even the Cloutier commercial with butterflies in his stomach are fresh in my mind like it was yesterday. Nearly died while watching a Canucks game... but that's another story.

[blackpluto96]

I was born in Shanghai China and moved to Vancouver in Oct 93 at age 16. That was my first ever time on a plane and it was a long flight lol. I still remember sitting next to an older lady and she was introducing me to the lifestyle in Vancouver and sports came up. I referred to hockey as ice ball as it was a literal translation from Chinese. I barely spoke any English at that time. I watched the regular season on and off but it didn't really register until the playoff run and I was absolutely hooked, for life. Since then I've lived in China (again) where there was no tv covering hockey or internet fast enough to watch hockey. It was a blank between 2002 and 2008. I then moved to Korea for 3 years and finally found the NHL Game Center and jumped right back in and haven't missed a single game through moves to Hong Kong and now Japan. Love the Canucks, through thick or thin. They will win one and the celebration will be epic.

 

I miss Vancity.

[CeeBee51]

When I moved to BC in 65 there were 6 teams in the NHL and I was a Red Wing(Gordie Howe) fan. Soon after graduating H.S. the Canucks arrived and since I was a fan of the old WHL Canucks it was a no brainer. I always hated the leafs and habs as a kid growing up in Northern Ontario. All my friends were either leaf or hab fans so I had to be different. All I hope and pray for it that the Canucks will win a Stanley Cup before I'm gone form this earth.  

[The Lock]

I'm from Prince George. It seems here that a good majority cheer for the Canucks, but I've also known a lot of fans here of other Canadian teams (and some fans of US teams even). It actually makes it kind of fun at times as you can get some interesting discussions over which team is better, doing the right thing, going downhill, etc.

[alt kilgore]

I've lived in Vancouver since the early 80s so I don't qualify for this thread. But I just wanted to say what a great thread this is!  All this fan loyalty from all over the world and Canada! Great reading. oops, I think I've got something in my eye.

[IBatch]

On 31/01/2017 at 1:56 PM, The Lock said:

I'm from Prince George. It seems here that a good majority cheer for the Canucks, but I've also known a lot of fans here of other Canadian teams (and some fans of US teams even). It actually makes it kind of fun at times as you can get some interesting discussions over which team is better, doing the right thing, going downhill, etc.

Nice city and I love the area.  Spent a lot of time in Castlegar and the Okanagan growing up and I noticed that there is some hardcore Canucks fans.   It really is the province's team the fan loyalty is all over the place.

 Watched the Canucks game with my uncle all year when I was sixteen in Castlegar the last year the Oilers won who's been around since way before the Canucks were formed.  

He is so devout that the TV was often banged on when we had a questionable call against us...Good thing their were no remotes in those days.  To my knowledge hes never seen a Canuck game live but he's lived in many small towns throughout the province.  Most fun guy I have ever watched a game with by far just total devotion and the passion is at the ceiling with him. Used to trick him and yell fight! And he would come running from wherever he went during adds knocking over anyone and everything on the way including his mom or my 77 year grandmother....Ahhhh...Those were the days.  Super fan and he's my uncle who never lived in the lower mainland.

[spur1]

Why am I a CANUCK?

I started out a Lions fan in the days of Capp and Willie (cheering for a Willie again) back in  63.

When it came to hockey I was anybody but the Habs or TO due to all the hype trying to sell them to me. 

I was a Saskatewan boy transplanted to BC. As Sask and BC had no hockey team I could cheer for whoever I wanted. Like Bobby and Boston and the Broad Street Bullies 

Then along came the Canucks that I could only see about 5 times a year. Whenever I watched I was a fan but still cheered for other teams when they were not playing the Canucks. 

Then came 82. Life was never the same after. 

I live an area that is overrun with Flames and Oiler fans (even some of the locals).

I could watch the Flames on 2 and 7 for 50 games a year but only 5 games on CBC of the Canucks in 89.

I love to wear my Canucks hat and needle the Flames and Oiler fans. 

The last 20+ years have been awesome and i can see I will enjoy the next 20 will be awesome as well. 

[NewbieCanuckFan]

On 1/31/2017 at 11:55 AM, kilgore said:

I've lived in Vancouver since the early 80s so I don't qualify for this thread. But I just wanted to say what a great thread this is!  All this fan loyalty from all over the world and Canada! Great reading. oops, I think I've got something in my eye.

We are all Canucks...errr Masochists 

[HorvatToBaertschi]

I immigrated to Canada when I was 4 years old. Started 1 year in Kelowna and then 4 in Vancouver (Port Moody and Coquitlam). Fell in love with nucks, thé WCE, Jovo, Ohlund Salo and the sedins, and then it was all but cemented when Luongo played his first season in 07. The first time I watched the canucks, it was in thé 04 playoffs vs Calgary. First time watching hockey, and although I loved the canucks (jersey, players, city), I thoroughly cheered for thé flames (I was 9 years old..... I know) and kiprusoff's amazing post season performance made me want to play. Started off goalie and then transitioned into à Burrows/Kesler type of player. Loved scoring chippy goals in thé crease, scoring dirty rebounds,  using my acceleration to go on breakaways, and loved shooting the arrow to LB every time I scored à goal. I love my canucks. 

[Where'd Luongo?]

Bure, Bertuzzi, Kesler, Luongo, Horvat. The Canucks usually have a pretty competitive team, and someone on the team who is a stud. I also really love the Orca, which many I know disagree with but it's honestly pretty badass. Love the Aboriginal style of it, the colours, and although it may not directly associate with the term "Canuck" I think the characteristics of an Orca do match the name. Intelligent, playful, tactful, powerful, team-players. Although the logo may have been forced by a company, that same company chose their name because of those same traits. Traits that are all needed in being a successful team!

 

- Saskatchewan

[darkpoet]

I grew up (and lived in) Abbysford until I was about 35, before moving to the Brokanagan.

At 9 I was exposed to the pandemonium that was the Canucks Stanley Cup run, in 1982.

Been a sucker ever since.

Coconut-snow!!  (what my exgf from West Virginia thought fans were yelling when I took her to a game back in the day... hey... she only knew football)



 

[Spankenstyne]

Born in '71 (Yes I'm old as dirt lol)  

Grew up in the lower mainland listening to Jim Robson call the games on my dad's stereo. Always been a die-hard (long-suffering) Canucks fan, always will be even though I've now lived in Calgary since the summer of '89. Still try to get to the games when my Nucks are in town.

Still have such fond memories of the '82 cup run, and of course '94 and '11.