Thursday night was a pretty amazing night. Hockey season began for the Canucks with a game against the Calgary Flames, their biggest rivals. The atmosphere on opening night is great enough anyway, but with it being a game against the Flames as well I knew it would be electric. Added to this, in the pre-game ceremony the team were going to pay an emotional tribute to Luc Bourdon, our defenceman who died at the end of May when a gust of wind blew his motorcycle into the path of an oncoming truck. As that event had hit me so hard, I truly didn’t want to miss this game. We paid more than we wanted to for tickets up in the second to last row, but it was a night I’ll never forget so it was well worth it.

When we arrived at the stadium we were all given a commemorative cap and a round silver pin with the initials LB etched on (the logo that all the Canucks will wear on their helmets throughout the season to honour Luc Bourdon). The pre-game Luc Bourdon tribute was so wonderfully done and extremely emotional. His mother and girlfriend went onto the ice to be presented with Luc’s last game-worn jersey (which had been given to a fan on the night and very honorably returned by the fan to Luc’s family). Then Tom Cochrane came onto the ice to sing Big League as a video tribute was shown. My god it was emotional, and there wasn’t  a dry eye in the house. The lyrics to Big League are so apt to Luc’s life cut so short, it could have been written specifically for him:

When he was a kid, he’d be up at five
Take shots till eight, make the thing drive
Out after school, back on ice
That was his life, he was gonna play in the Big League

Not many ways out of this cold northern town
You work in the mill and get laid in the ground
If you’re gonna jump it will be with the game
Real fast and tough is the only clear lane to the Big League

My boy’s gonna play in the Big League
My boy’s gonna turn some heads
My boy’s gonna play in the Big League
My boy’s gonna knock ‘em dead
The Big League

All the right moves when he turned eighteen
Scholarship and school on a big U.S. team
Out with his girl near Lake McClean
Hit a truck doing seventy in the wrong lane
To the Big League

My boy’s gonna play in the Big League
My boy’s gonna turn some heads
My boy’s gonna play in the Big League
My boy’s gonna knock ‘em dead

Never can tell what might come down
Never can tell how much you get
Just don’t know, no you never can tell

Sometimes at night I can hear the ice crack
It sounds like thunder and it rips through my back
Sometimes in the morning I still hear the sound
Ice meets metal…
“Can’t you drive me down to the Big League?”

My boy’s gonna play in the Big League
My boy’s gonna turn some heads
My boy’s gonna play in the Big League
My boy’s gonna knock ‘em dead

Never can tell what might come down
Never can tell when you might check out
Just don’t know, no you never can tell
So do right to others like you do to yourself
In the Big League

You can watch the ceremony in its entirity here - kudos to the Canucks organisation, they did it so right. I had chills running down my spine all throughout, although also had a smile on my face as I remembered him. By the way, if you’re watching the video and aren’t a Canucks fan you’ll notice what sounds like a lot of boos from the crowd but they are really “Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu“’s for our goaltender Luongo, and “Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuc“s for Luc - Canucks fans have never been particularly creative with their chants! You’ll notice the same Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuc chant in this video - one of my favourite plays from Bourdon when he almost single-handedly stopped Ovechkin, one of the league’s top offensive threats, from scoring a goal.

The game itself was about a perfect a game as any fan can ask for. The Canucks were a bit nervy in the first period, trying to get their heads together after the tribute, but it was plenty physical and we managed to come out of it with a 1-0 lead. In the second period we scored 2 goals in the first 4 minutes and then we were away. There were hits and fights and harsh words spoken but the Flames couldn’t faze us and we went on to win 6-0 with our new captain, Luongo, getting a shutout and Alex Burrows, Luc’s closest friend on the team and by far the most emotional at the ceremony, scoring 2 goals. He dedicated the second goal to Luc by imitating Luc’s custom goal-scoring move - shooting an imaginary arrow to the heavens. Burrows actually had dinner with Luc’s mum and girlfriend the night before and they had asked him to score a goal for Luc - and he managed to score one for both of them. No one has a clue if Luc was watching over Alex and the team that night but it certainly felt like it, and the team did him proud.

I think any game I ever go to again is going to be a bit of a disappointment compared to that one - it was all just too perfect.