25 days of Canuckmas

[John.Tallhouse]

 

[Coconuts]

On the twenty-fifth day of Canuckmas, Canucks lore gave to me

Orland Kurtenbach 1971-1974
Ralph Stewart 1971-1978
Jim Mair 1975
Kevin McCarthy 1979-1984
Rob Tudor 1979
Doug Lidster 1984
Al MacAdam 1985
David Bruce 1986-1989
Jim Sandlak 1991-1996
Dan Kesa 1994
Nathan LaFayette 1994-1995
Stéphane Morin 1994
Alek Stojanov 1995-1996
Steve Staios 1997-1999
Andrew Cassels 2000-2002
Mats Lindgren 2003
Kevin Bieksa 2006
Josh Green 2007
Kris Beech 2008
Matt Pettinger 2008
Michel Ouellet 2009
Sergei Shirokov 2010-2011
Andrew Ebbett 2012-2013
Mike Santorelli 2014
Jacob Markström 2016-2020
Brogan Rafferty 2021
Aidan McDonough 2023

 

Some real characters mixed in here

 

 

[Coconuts]

Merry Christmas folks, may keep this thread going through the remainder of the year just for funsies

 

Thanks to everyone who's posted and contributed to this ongoing walk down memory lane 

[John.Tallhouse]

 

[NucksFan]

6 hours ago, John.Tallhouse said:

 

I got a signed Boeser skate jersey 

[OldFaithfulcap]

 

[Redhdlois]

1 hour ago, NucksFan said:

I got a signed Boeser skate jersey 

Pictures

[Jaimito]

One of my Xmas present

 

 

[Kevin Biestra]

Since you said you were keeping it going to the end of the month...

 

GEORGE GARDNER...  I think I said a bit about him earlier under a different jersey number.

 

PETRI SKRIKO...  Canucks legend.  There was a time in the 80s where it didn't seem possible Canucks fans could one day not know who this guy is.  Year in and year out while he was a Canuck he either led the team in points or was close to it.  Had a hat trick streak as a Canuck that made the Jeff Cowan run look ordinary.  I believe he was named the top forward of the entire tournament at the 1982 World Juniors.  He and Tanti were the young new faces of the franchise in the mid 80s the way Pettersson and Hughes are now.  If he had played a couple more seasons it would be disrespect to not have him in the Ring of Honour.

 

JIM AGNEW...  Just an honest hard working grinder.  I had friends who made fun of him because the guy couldn't get a point to save his life but the guy made the big leagues and that's more than almost everyone ever does.

 

TIM HUNTER, STEPHANE MORIN, TIGER WILLIAMS...  Talked about them earlier under different jersey numbers.  They must have worn these for one game.

 

MARTIN RUCINSKY...  I forget he was a Canuck. Same as I remember Mike Ridley as a Ranger even though he was only there for the first fairly short portion of his career, I remember Rucinsky as a Quebec Nordique rather than a Canadien where he spent the bulk of his career.  Talented player.  Over 240 goals, 600 points, almost a thousand games.  Just a Canuck briefly but a fine NHLer to have worn the jersey.

 

GERRY MEEHAN...  Just a brief stopover in Vancouver in the 70s but a largely forgotten 30 goal and 60 point player who scored pretty consistently throughout his career.

 

LARS MOLIN...  A short NHL career, just three seasons, but he arrived and turned it up when it mattered the most.  46 points as a rookie in the 1981-82 season and then 11 points in 17 games on the run to the 1982 Cup final.  Then after 1984 he just went back to Sweden from whence he came and was a point a game (one season almost two points per game) until his mid 30s.

 

 

 

Edited December 26, 2023 by Kevin Biestra

[Coconuts]

On the twenty-sixth day of Canuckmas, Canucks lore gave to me

 

Ken Block 1971
George Gardner 1972
Bryan McSheffrey 1973-1974
Steve Stone 1974
Bob Hurlburt 1975
Gerry Meehan 1975
Bob Murray 1975-1977
Don Kozak 1979
Bruce Affleck 1980
Tiger Williams 1980
Lars Molin 1982-1984
Petri Skriko 1985-1991
Jim Agnew 1992
Tim Hunter 1993
Stéphane Morin 1993
Mike Sillinger 1996-1998
Brandon Convery 1998
Trent Klatt 1999-2003
Martin Ručinský 2004
Steve McCarthy 2006
Tommi Santala 2007
Ryan Shannon 2008
Mikael Samuelsson 2010-2012
Samuel Påhlsson 2012
Frank Corrado 2013-2015
Emerson Etem 2016
Joseph Cramarossa 2017
Thomas Vanek 2018
Antoine Roussel 2019-2021

[Kevin Biestra]

#27s...

 

HAROLD SNEPSTS...  I can't say for sure that I wouldn't have him ahead of Bure and Naslund for a jersey retirement.  The guy was really the overall face of the franchise for the first decade and a bit until Smyl and Brodeur and Gradin showed up to share some of that responsibility.  Played in All Star games and got there on his merits as a mostly defensive defenseman.  The Canucks gave up on him in the mid 80s the way they gave up on Ronning in the mid 90s...not knowing he had more hockey left in him than they thought.  So they brought him back in the late 80s.  And with him in the lineup they gave the Stanley Cup champ Flames all they could handle with overtime of game seven and Calgary needing an illegal goal to win.  That's after Snepsts played a big role in the 1982 run to the Cup with the Canucks, with his duties doubled because McCarthy and Lanz were both injured for the entire playoffs.  Stan Smyl refused to accept the Campbell Bowl when they won their conference unless Snepsts skated out there to accept it with him, such was the reverence by his own teammates for his place in Canucks history.  He was even there for the 1974-75 season where the Canucks won their first ever division title (and only one for many years).  He was there for it all.  Snepsts was at one point the all time Canucks record holder in games until Smyl passed him.  He may have been the career penalty minute leader as well.  It was close between Snepsts, Smyl, Tiger and Butcher if I remember right.  Just an all around legend.  Over 1000 games...and they should have all been in a Canuck uniform.  Harold Snepsts on the Canucks felt kind of like Bruno Gerussi on the Beachcombers...it just seemed like a folksy small town Canadian traditional fixture that would always be there.

 

KING KORAB...  This guy was a great acquisition by the Canucks in the early 70s.  But then they traded him away after one season pretty early in his career still, and he went on to play a shade under 1000 games and have several years for Buffalo where he was in the voting for the post season All Star team as best defenseman.  The Canucks really had some great blueline talent in the early 70s with Tallon, Guevremont and Korab...and moved on from all three quite early.

 

SERGIO MOMESSO...  20 goal scorer and 50 point man for the Blues, 20 goal scorer for the Canucks.  Not bad for a guy who also patrolled the ice and spent 200 minutes in the box for defending his teammates.  Right from the mold of the 1982 Canuck team if you ask me...would have fit right in with Smyl and Fraser and Tiger.  Came over with Ronning, Courtnall and Dirk in the legendary trade by Pat Quinn.  Big Serge...  The guy was passionate about winning.  If I remember right it was Big Serge and Murray Craven who couldn't hold back the tears at the end of game seven against the Rangers.

 

GLEN COCHRANE...  Really a forgotten man in terms of the NHL's great enforcers.  One tough defenseman and I'm glad the Canucks had him for a bit.  Some real monsters like Cochrane, Randy Holt and Troy Crowder wore the Canucks jersey for a cup of coffee.  Cochrane was always good for 200 penalty minutes and occasionally 300.

 

LEIF ROHLIN...  More fuss made about this guy being a second round bust than there usually is, especially back in the 90s.

 

MIKKO JOKELA...  For a second I was like what, we had Mikko Makela (a now forgotten rather good 70 point player in the 80s).  Unfortunately I don't really remember Mikko Jokela.  He only played one game as a Canuck.  Mikko Makela, Ilkka Sinisalo...some really good Europeans in the 80s who don't get much mention these days.  Hell, Kent Nilsson had a 130 point season and nobody knows who he is now.

 

BRAD ISBISTER and SHAWN MATTHIAS...  Two more big guys that Canuck management hoped and prayed would turn into Cam Neely.

 

MATHIEU SCHNEIDER...  Hell of a career.  Almost 1300 games and over 700 points which puts him on the first page of all time NHL leaders for defensemen.  Don't really know what his problem was in Vancouver though.  Upset about being healthy scratched or not being the first power play guy anymore I guess.  The Canucks signed him and then he played about 10 games before he wanted out.  The Canucks managed to trade him and then he played about five more games wherever he went and retired.  I guess it's tough to go from a star to a waterboy.  I just remember Trevor Linden handling it in a very dignified way during his final season...but he also had an image in Vancouver to maintain, as opposed to a history of ten games.

 

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by Kevin Biestra

[-dlc-]

On 12/26/2023 at 10:25 AM, Coconuts said:

On the twenty-sixth day of Canuckmas, Canucks lore gave to me

 

Ken Block 1971
George Gardner 1972
Bryan McSheffrey 1973-1974
Steve Stone 1974
Bob Hurlburt 1975
Gerry Meehan 1975
Bob Murray 1975-1977
Don Kozak 1979
Bruce Affleck 1980
Tiger Williams 1980
Lars Molin 1982-1984
Petri Skriko 1985-1991
Jim Agnew 1992
Tim Hunter 1993
Stéphane Morin 1993
Mike Sillinger 1996-1998
Brandon Convery 1998
Trent Klatt 1999-2003
Martin Ručinský 2004
Steve McCarthy 2006
Tommi Santala 2007
Ryan Shannon 2008
Mikael Samuelsson 2010-2012
Samuel Påhlsson 2012
Frank Corrado 2013-2015
Emerson Etem 2016
Joseph Cramarossa 2017
Thomas Vanek 2018
Antoine Roussel 2019-2021

My friend and I were in our regular spot down by the zamboni entrance when two guys showed up, one pushing the other in a wheelchair and speaking Swedish. We noticed one had several hockey pins/patches so my friend asked about them. One fellow did speak English (the other one, not a word) and told her about them. Friends of Samuelsson's from Sweden, they were in Van staying with him for a holiday. The pins/patches represented tournaments/games they'd traveled to to watch him play. They asked to have a picture with us. The picture is bittersweet for me....that's usher/friend Vern, who passed away last summer unexpectedly. His last words to my friend when he saw her in April..."tell Deb I'll see her next season". Miss him...haven't been back down there since but they've installed a plaque on the wall commemorating him (he was on board with the team from the start/1970).

[Coconuts]

On the twenty-seventh day of Canuckmas, Canucks lore gave to me

 

Jerry Korab 1974
Harold Snepsts 1975-1990
Craig Coxe 1985
Glen Cochrane 1986
John LeBlanc 1987
Brad Maxwell 1987
Randy Boyd 1988
Shawn Antoski 1991
Sergio Momesso 1991-1995
Leif Rohlin 1996-1997
Todd Bertuzzi 1998
Mark Wotton 1998
Brandon Convery 1999
Harry York 1999-2000
Mike Brown 2001-2002
Mikko Jokela 2003
Lee Goren 2006-2007
Brad Isbister 2008
Jason Krog 2009
Mathieu Schneider 2010
Manny Malhotra 2011-2013
Shawn Matthias 2014-2015
Ben Hutton 2016-2019
Travis Hamonic 2021-2022
Aatu Räty 2023

[Coconuts]

Krog was a helluva AHL guy who just couldn't translate his game to the NHL

 

Hutton was always likeable, is now a cup champ

 

Manny, he was a gamechanger, we haven't had a 3C as good as he was since

[Kevin Biestra]

1 hour ago, Coconuts said:

Krog was a helluva AHL guy who just couldn't translate his game to the NHL

 

Hutton was always likeable, is now a cup champ

 

Manny, he was a gamechanger, we haven't had a 3C as good as he was since

 

 

Yeah I was kind of excited when we got Krog.  100 point players in the AHL don't grow on trees.  Oh well, still a fine achievement even if he couldn't reproduce it in the NHL.

[Coconuts]

5 hours ago, Kevin Biestra said:

 

 

Yeah I was kind of excited when we got Krog.  100 point players in the AHL don't grow on trees.  Oh well, still a fine achievement even if he couldn't reproduce it in the NHL.

 

There was a stretch where he was a dominant AHL guy, impressive for sure

[Kevin Biestra]

28...

 

MEL BRIDGMAN...  Drafted first overall and was considered by some to have underachieved by not making the Hall of Fame.  He was one of my favorite players and had a good 700 point and nearly 1000 game career while playing a pretty hard nosed brand of hockey and coming close to or surpassing 200 penalty minutes per year, while also topping out at 33 goals and 87 points.  5th for the Calder, had Selke and All Star votes at other points in his NHL run.  The Canucks had him for the last 15 games of his career...but it was a heck of a fifteen games.  Finished out the 1988-89 season with Vancouver and was part of an absolute embarrassment of riches in terms of veteran leadership (Smyl, Snepsts, Reinhart, etc.) to set Trevor Linden on the right path in his rookie year...and that was the year they almost beat the Stanley Cup champs in the first round of the playoffs.  Seventh game OT with a kicked in goal needed to eliminate the Canucks.  He was not unlike Stan Smyl and his last hurrah with Vancouver was kind of like King Richard's last hurrah in Hartford where he came in and got a playoff win against Patrick Roy's Canadiens before riding off into the sunset.  I'm glad Bridgman ended his story as a Canuck.

 

JOE KOCUR...  It's easy to forget we had this guy for a handful of games but it seems every all time great enforcer passed through Vancouver (Randy Holt, Glen Cochrane, Troy Crowder, Craig Coxe, Ron Stern, etc.) even if only for a cup of coffee.  377 penalty minutes to lead the league one year in the 80s.

 

ROD BUSKAS...  Another tough guy, a hard nosed defenseman who it's easy to forget was a Canuck briefly but was a credit to the jersey.

 

BRIAN GLYNN...  Decent 6th / 7th defenseman to have for the 1994 run.  I remember back when he was a Canuck there was actually an article in the Sun or the Province about how lousy his physique was and he was like yeah I have trouble getting rid of the love handles but fans shouldn't judge his hockey just because his body looks like a melted candle.

 

BRIAN NOONAN...  Like Esa Tikkanen and Sergei Nemchinov he beat us with the Rangers in 1994 and then later joined us.  Carved out a good long career for himself as a third line type 15 goal scorer.

 

 

Edited December 28, 2023 by Kevin Biestra

[NucksFan]

On 12/25/2023 at 9:00 PM, Redhdlois said:

Pictures

 

Surprise present , I hadn’t asked for it 

Edited December 28, 2023 by NucksFan

[Redhdlois]

5 hours ago, NucksFan said:

 

Surprise present , I hadn’t asked for it 

What an awesome surprise!  

[Coconuts]

One of the few unofficially out of circulation numbers

 

On the twenty-eigth day of Canuckmas, Canucks lore gave to me

 

Rob Flockhart 1977-1979
Larry Goodenough 1977-1978
Jerry Butler 1980
Rick Vaive 1980
Colin Campbell 1981
Mike Christie 1981
Marc Crawford 1982-1984
Taylor Hall 1984-1985
Jean-Marc Lanthier 1985-1988
John LeBlanc 1988
Mel Bridgman 1989
Rod Buskas 1990
Dave Capuano 1990-1991
Dan Ratushny 1993
Brian Glynn 1994
Roman Oksiuta 1995-1996
Joe Kocur 1996
Brian Noonan 1997-1998
Donald Brashear 1997
Steve Washburn 1999
Chris Joseph 2000
Bryan Helmer 2001-2003
Wade Brookbank 2004-2006
Yannick Tremblay 2007
Luc Bourdon 2008

[NucksFan]

2 hours ago, Redhdlois said:

What an awesome surprise!  

I know , my daughter gave the idea to her Dad , I owe her lol

[Kevin Biestra]

29s...

 

GINO ODJICK...  There are only a few moments I can think of that would make for good bronze statues outside the arena.  One is Tiger Williams and Cliff Ronning riding their sticks side by side after scoring memorable goals in Canucks history.  Another might be King Richard raising his stick into the air when the horn sounded and the Canucks advanced to the Cup final for the first time.  Maybe Trevor Linden putting Jeff Norton through the glass.  Or that moment of Linden and McLean hugging in the 1994 playoffs.  And then Gino Odjick down to his shoulder pads taking on any and all comers from the St. Louis Blues.  Apparently he chose #29 because it was his father's or grandfather's assigned number at a residential school.  Odjick should be in the Ring of Honour...he should have been in there at least a decade ago and he should have been alive to see it.  Very few players in Canucks history have captured the city the way Gino did.

 

JIRI BUBLA...  Father of fellow Canuck Jiri Slegr, the senior Jiri was quite a good hockey player but also a wildman, getting himself in trouble with the law and prison repeatedly.  Really good player though.  Good for 30+ points on the Canucks blueline during some very lean scoring years for the Canucks in the 80s.  People remember the 80s as a goal scoring bonanza but it wasn't for the Canucks.  We never even had a player score 100 points until Pavel Bure in the 1990s.

 

JACK McLLHARGEY...  Legend of the Canucks organization on and off the ice.  Also a damn tough Philadelphia Flyer as well.  Some 200+ PIM seasons.  Went to the finals twice with the Flyers.  After retiring as a player he was a part of the Canucks organization as a coach or scout for over 20 years.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 29, 2023 by Kevin Biestra

[-dlc-]

21 hours ago, NucksFan said:

 

Surprise present , I hadn’t asked for it 

That is awesome...you are so deserving of this!!

 

My aunt (who's also a huge fan but didn't have a jersey) got a signed Hughes from my cousin/her son.

 

Awesome gifts!!

[Coconuts]

On the twenty-ninth day of Canuckmas, Canucks lore gave to me

 

Jack McIlhargey 1977-1980
Kris Manery 1980
Kevin Primeau 1981
Jiří Bubla 1982-1986
Glen Cochrane 1987
Daryl Stanley 1988-1990
Randy Boyd 1989
Gino Odjick 1991-1998
Peter Schaefer 1999-2000
Félix Potvin 2000-2001
Herberts Vasiļjevs 2002
Nathan Smith 2004-2007
Patrick Coulombe 2007
Jason Jaffray 2008-2009
Aaron Rome 2010-2012
Tom Sestito 2013-2015
Andrey Pedan 2016
Philip Holm 2018
Ashton Sautner 2019-2020
Lane Pederson 2023
Casey DeSmith 2024

[Kevin Biestra]

Canuck #30s...

 

CESARE MANIAGO...  This is a guy I'm happy to talk about.  One of the forgotten really good goalies in Canuck history.  He played his final two seasons in the NHL with Vancouver as the starter...and won the team MVP for the season both years, at 38 and 39 years old.  He played the bulk of his career for the Minnesota North Stars where he was very good.  Four seasons with a GAA below 3.00 when it was firewagon hockey in the roaring 70s.  And he turned it up in the playoffs.  In his final playoff season in 1973 he led the NHL with a 1.76 GAA and also led the league with a .939 SPCT.  Cesare Maniago is a name people should know in Vancouver but it isn't said very often.  Maybe the only guy ever to win the team MVP every season he was a Canuck.

 

FRANK CAPRICE...  Reliable sometimes second and sometimes third string goalie in the 80s.  More or less became the backup to The King when John Garrett retired.  Had a great jheri curl mullet.  Went on to play in Europe for about a decade after his Canuck days were over.  Always liked him.  Was great in net for the legendary Team Canada edition at the 1982 World Juniors.

 

GARY BROMLEY...  Maybe the greatest mask in NHL history.  He and John Garrett are both in the all time greats there.  Bromley was the skull mask like the goalie from Youngblood.  Played a significant part of winning the 1978 AVCO Cup with Bobby Hull's Jets in the WHA.

 

JACQUES CARON and KEN LOCKETT...  Two more guys who slipped my mind earlier when talking about Canuck goalies who played in the NHL and WHA.