Throngs of fans showed up last night for the first of two FREE scrimmage games that the Vancouver Canucks put on as a thank you to all of us for our support, and for being patient throughout the painful NHL lockout. Laurin gave you the HEADS UP for free tickets earlier this week and hopefully you were there last night or signed up for tonight’s scrimmage which just “sold out” around 18,000 general admission seats.

Last night at Rogers Arena

Tonight’s game will likely be the same format where half of the Canucks will be on the Grey team and half on the Blue team, making it a little difficult to choose who to cheer for but delivering a great teaser for what’s to come in this shortened season nonetheless. This photo I shot of my son inside the team store holds a parallel to the scrimmages in that our number one goalie is in one net versus our goalie who wears the number 1 on his jersey in the other. I kept wondering how much tension really existed between the Blue and Grey teams, and if it made Schneider at all nervous that Luongo’s Blues won not only the match against his Greys but also the bonus shootout at the end. Cory’s got some big shoes to fill and we’ll see what this upcoming season brings with him as our starting goalie!