We drove to Telegraph Cove to book a kayaking tour of Johnstone Strait the next day and to our surprise and delight we spotted Willie Mitchell (one of our favourite Canucks players) sitting in the early morning sun, chatting to some fellow about babies and what not. I kind of smiled at him as we walked to the main Telegraph Cove office but I doubt he saw. I was determined not to get all star-struck like Monkey was (look who it is! Look who it is!!!!) so I just ignored him on the way out of the office, and we went to book our kayaking tour with the operator.

When we walked back to the car, he was still sitting there with his wife and dogs so Monkey decided that he wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass us by and he got his camera out and headed towards Willie to ask if he wouldn’t mind having his picture taken with us. He’s a nice guy so he obliged, his wife took a couple of pictures for us and we made some small talk about being on honeymoon and loving the North Island and Monkey told him I was his biggest fan and that he often saw him jogging round the seawall (read: once saw him jogging round the seawall) and how we lived by GM Place and what huge hockey fans we have become since moving to Canada.

I wanted to chat with him but I kind of clammed up, because really I know nothing about him other than hockey, and being the off-season I didn’t think it appropriate to ask any hockey-related questions. I also felt a bit awkward bothering him in the first place since he was on vacation himself - I’m sure he’s used to that type of thing, but still, I wouldn’t like it myself. Anyway, awkwardness aside it was lovely to meet him and shake his hand and tell him that we really enjoy watching him play. With all the changes on the roster and the departure this year of our captain Markus Naslund and alternate captains Brendan Morrison and Trevor Linden, we hope that Willie will become the new captain. He was a warrior last season and we hope to see more of the same this year, hopefully with a better end result!

Need to work on that stomach!