Canucks fans want Odjick honoured
VANCOUVER, B.C. — The time has come for Gino Odjick’s name to be hung permanently inside Rogers Arena, some Vancouver Canucks fans say.
Marcia McNaughton and Hans Petter Johnsen are leading a push online to make it happen.
“With Gino being sick again fighting cardiac amyloidosis, we thought it was time to push for this to happen,” McNaughton said Saturday from her home in Cloverdale, B.C.. “There’s not a bigger name in Vancouver, other than the obvious ones who have already been honoured. We’re just trying to put our support in, get him up there.”
The Canucks have previously named Orland Kurtenbach, Kirk McLean, Thomas Gradin, Harold Snepsts, Pat Quinn, Mattias Ohlund and Alex Burrows to the Ring of Honour.
The former Canucks pugilist won the affection of Vancouver hockey fans from just about his first shift in the NHL in 1990. By the end of that November home game against the Chicago Blackhawks, he’d already secured the beginnings of his legend: he fought Dave Manson and Stu Grimson in separate third-period fights.
He said he was delighted about what McNaughton and her friends are doing for him.
“I’m happy, she’s doing a good job,” he said.
“Hopefully it brings some results. It’s been really awesome; I had a really good connection with the fans from Day 1. It’s really amazing that people still remember me 30 years later.”
It’s the second time Odjick has had to deal with the affliction also known as “stiff heart disease.”
His first bout, in 2014, nearly killed him. The prognosis this time around appears more promising because his doctors were able to spot the recurrence early.
“I’m feeling good, I’ve done two cycles now. The doctor says I’m doing good,” he said.
Odjick’s friend Peter Leech said Odjick has been considered for elevation to the Ring of Honour before by Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini and longtime executive and former player Stan Smyl.
“I think Marcia has done a tremendous thing,” he said. “I’ve always insisted, every time I see Stan or Francesco, I’ll take a poke myself. It should be up there in the rafters.”
McNaughton, a long-time Canucks fan, first got to know the man nicknamed the Algonquin Assassin and the Maniwaki Mauler a few years ago via Twitter, when she accidentally tagged him in a tweet she meant to send to a friend.
She also got to know Leech and brought up the idea of Odjick being added to the Ring of Honour a few years ago, but Leech said he was never sure how serious she was.
Earlier this year, McNaughton started a Twitter account called Gino For Ring Of Honour (@gino_ring), hoping to start a movement. Johnsen, who lives in Switzerland, jumped aboard recently and has been helping ramp up the account’s activity, especially in posting pictures and old highlights of Odjick.
Johnsen, originally from Norway, is a lifelong fan of Odjick’s.
“I came across an interview of him in a Scandinavian hockey magazine called ProHockey back in ’93 or ’94. His personality hit me straight away. Everyone else collected Mario or Gretzky cards, and I was collecting Gino cards,” he said with a laugh.
He started a website dedicated to all things Odjick. In the late ’90s, that sometimes meant hours of work a day to keep it up to date.
“By 2002, my website was big and I kept getting emails intended for Gino, so I added a disclaimer, stating I was not him, but my dream was to one day visit him in person,” he recalled.
Then he got an email from Odjick’s girlfriend at the time, who arranged for Johnsen to fly to Montreal and spend 10 days there during the Canadiens’ playoff series that year vs. Carolina. (Odjick was playing for Montreal by this time.)
“Yes, that was me winning the lottery of life,” he said. “But it was a very humbling experience and shows what Gino will do for those he cares about.”
Johnsen and McNaughton’s movement does seem to be slowly growing, as they’ve seen a recent uptick in online support.
“When we saw (the Twitter account), I thought, ‘Wow, good job,’” Leech said. “And it makes Gino feel good seeing the fan support.”
“I really appreciate the fans remembering me,” Odjick reiterated.
“Marcia’s really nice, she’s a really nice person. She’s a fan of the B.C. Lions, Seahawks, Canucks. She’s been a treat to be around. We’ve brought her to a couple games, to the alumni suite. She always remembers all the old players.”