Canucks & Beyond
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Canuck-For-A-Day
by Alanah McGinley on 05/15/08 at 01:47 PM ET
Comments (5)
Geez, time flies, doesn’t it? I can’t believe this happened nearly 5 years ago, but I think Vancouver fans will remember this story. From Marc Weber at The Province:
Chris Levesque lived every man’s dream when he suited up for the Vancouver Canucks in 2003, but that brush with the bigs also made it tougher to forget his own.
For all the fun and fanfare surrounding that day of real-life fantasy—plucked from studying on the UBC campus and thrust into the NHL spotlight—there was also an element of “what if?”
Levesque wasn’t just an emergency backup, after all. He was an emergency backup who came within a whisker of playing—famously working his gum on the bench while Johan Hedberg lay motionless after a first-period collision.
He’s now a sous chef in Vancouver with fond memories of that surreal experience. Back December of 2003, I wrote about Levesque’s brush with hockey fame, and with some envy…
From Vancouver Canucks Op Ed:
Anyone who pays any attention to the Vancouver Canucks already knows about Chris “Eddie” Levesque and his miraculous bench-warming assignment for the team last night. Undoubtedly one of the coolest Canuck stories of the season - even though he didn’t get to play.
Judging from comments all around the internet and tv-land, it seems that everyone had a smile for the good fortune of this university player. Let’s face it, he basically won the lottery and the prize was “NHL Player For A Day”.
The whole thing triggered our ‘inner hockey player’, not unlike the experience of watching the Heritage Classic a couple weeks ago. Both occasions, though different, made us think about childhood hockey dreams.
Don’t you remember when your earliest career ‘plan’ was to actually be Paul Henderson or Gordie Howe or Wayne Gretzky? The harsh realities of making it to the NHL (and the fact that we couldn’t actually deke our way out of a paper bag) were not remotely considered in this plan.
Eventually we grew up and faced the mind-boggling fact that we might actually not be very good. Or at least not good enough. And so, ‘Professional Hockey Player’ came off the career checklist. The childhood fantasy still exists though. When watching the game last night, didn’t everyone think (for a brief moment) what it would be like if Brian Burke had called us?
Tuesday’s circumstances were clearly risky-business for the team, given the prospect of an utterly unqualified netminder in the wings. But we’re glad it happened the way it did: through Chris’s eyes, we got to imagine what it would be like to run off and join an NHL team… even for just one night.
Chris Levesque won’t be buying his own drinks anytime soon. Living in Canada, you can safely expect to dine for free on a story like Chris gets to tell. And while he may struggle in his geography final exam tomorrow, it’s a safe bet that he wouldn’t trade his name on an NHL roster sheet for anything.
We should all be so lucky.
Filed in: vancouver canucks | Canucks and Beyond | Permalink
Tags: chris+levesque, johan+hedberg,
Comments
Awesome story, thanks for the reminder...I need all the help I can get these days get me past the 1994 season.
Posted by Devin from Victoria on 05/16/08 at 10:55 AM ET
I’m glad you guys remembered the story and enjoyed it, too. I also just found this, an article that posted the sequence of events that led to Levesque’s game that night:
Dec. 9, 2003: Starting goalie Dan Cloutier goes down in the morning skate and the Vancouver Canucks—set to host Pittsburgh that night—scramble for a backup to Johan Hedberg.
The club’s other three contracted goalies—Alex Auld, Tyler Moss and Rob McVicar—aren’t able to make it to Vancouver in time, so the Canucks call UBC coach Milan Dragicevic for help.
Chris Levesque, UBC’s third-stringer at the time, is the only choice, as former Canucks prospect Kevin Swanson and Slovakian Robert Filc aren’t eligible as amateur call-ups.
Teammate Casey Bartzen finally tracks down Levesque on campus at 4:30 p.m., studying for his geography exam. It takes a phone call from the Canucks’ Jon Wall to prove to Levesque it isn’t a prank.
Such a cool story.
Posted by Alanah McGinley from British Columbia on 05/16/08 at 01:05 PM ET
Chris Levesque, UBC’s third-stringer at the time, is the only choice,
that is crazy… the Hockey gods sure wanted this guy to play!
Posted by LOUiE from Cowtown on 05/16/08 at 09:06 PM ET
“It takes a phone call from the Canucks’ Jon Wall to prove to Levesque it isn’t a prank” Even with the phone call I would have been oh so suspicious...it’s such an amazing story.
Posted by Dev from Victoria on 05/16/08 at 09:44 PM ET
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About Canucks & Beyond
Alanah McGinley has been blogging hockey since 2003, sharing opinions, rants and not-so-deep thoughts with anyone who will listen. In addition to writing Canucks & Beyond and helping manage Kukla’s Korner, Alanah is one of the founders and co-hosts of The Crazy Canucks Podcast, as featured at Canucks.com.
She has contributed pieces to FoxSports.com and the New York Times Slapshot blog, as well as other stray destinations in cyberspace.
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I remember thinking that after that game, he must have had the coolest dorm room on campus. I heard a bit from an interview with him afterwards, and he was talking about how strange it was for all the members of the Canucks to come up to him and introduce themselves, and all the while he was thinking, “Uh, I know who you guys are - I’ve seen you on TV!”
Thanks for the update.
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 05/15/08 at 07:37 PM ET