Canucks' superfans back with a vengeance
Playoff run inspires local heroes to don spandex and work their magic again
Heroes on the ice need heroes off the ice.
Coquitlam drywaller Joe Horrocks, also known as Captain Canuck, has dusted off his leotard to cheer on the Canucks during their playoff run. The caped crusader was at Rogers Arena on Tuesday night for Game 2 in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs with his trusty sidekicks, the Canuckettes: Desiree Armstrong and Jillian Good.
A few things have changed since Captain Canuck and the Canuckettes helped raise the roof during the Canucks' 2011 playoff run.
Armstrong and Good, both former Felions — members of the B.C. Lions Dance Team — have replaced original Canuckettes Amanda MacDonald and Kimberly Perin.
Captain Canuck and the Canuckettes also have brand-new costumes.
Ticket prices have gone up: Back in 2011, Captain Canuck and the Canuckettes could work their magic from lower bowl seats.
In 2011, three lower bowl tickets set the trio back $750, so they could position themselves as close as possible to the opposing team's net to put their famous hex, the Canucks Curse, on the goalie.
“We throw the vibe on him, it's a big fancy thing where I wiggle my butt and throw my hands at him and the girls shake their pom poms,” said Horrocks, 36.
Despite the fact that Captain Canuck threw the curse on the Predators Tuesday night — a photo of him in action was already posted on the Canucks' social media this week — it was a disappointing loss.
They may have sat in the rafters last night — it's “drywall money” paying for the tickets, explained Horrocks — but for Game 5 of this series, they'll be right behind the Predators' bench “with a new and improved super hex.”
That's what heroes do: They come back stronger than before.
If the Canucks go deep, the Green Men, Ryan Sullivan and Adam Forsyth, may even be back in the arena. Known as Sully and The Force, the green spandex-clad superfans became famous for rinkside antics that included tossing waffles, doing headstands and once even taunting the Predators with a cardboard cut-out of Canucks centre Ryan Kesler's nude pose from ESPN The Magazine's The Body Issue.
In 2012, the duo was inducted into the ESPN Hall of Fans, and in February when they returned for a visit to Rogers Arena for the Bruins' return game, the crowd went wild.
“It was sensational. It was like we'd never left,” said Sullivan.
Sullivan said part of the magic is just how much the Canucks organization has ramped up the fun for fans. “It's not just about what happens on the ice. It's also about what happens in the arena,” said Sullivan. “There's a ton of fan interaction, great music, and the feeling like you are a part of something. It's really exciting.”
Sullivan, now a radio host in Saskatoon, has spent the last few years focusing on his career and family, so he's not sure when the Green Men will be back in action.
The father of two packed his four-year-old daughter off to nursery school in a Pavel Bure jersey after the Canucks made the playoffs, but he's not sure about whether his dad-bod is spandex-worthy.
“When I put on the spandex, it's not exactly a morale boost,” said Sullivan, 36. But he's not ruling anything out.
“If the stars align, I'd love to be there again,” he said.
Makeup artist Jennifer Little, of Gold Coast Studios, whose work painting Canucks jerseys on superfans during the 2011 playoff run has been immortalized on the Hockey Gods website, expects she'll be called upon to paint some faces — and possibly other body parts — should the Canucks go deep this year.
“I'm very excited,” she said. Horrocks doesn't want to jinx anything with a prediction, but this year it feels different.
“They are good enough to go deep,” he said.
And when they do, he'll be right there sending a hex down on their opponents, even if he has to do it from the nosebleeds.