This one is for LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!

Are LU ready for it? You’ll be hearing MANY of those classic thunderous chants rain down in Rogers Arena tonight.

OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST x2. FRANCHISE GOALIE. HALL OF FAMER.

Roberto Luongo will probably never see this, BUT if he ever does, I just want to say thank-you. To say that you were my favourite player (and still are) is an understatement, you inspired me in countless ways. Your jersey is the first hockey jersey I ever owned because when you joined the team, and it was clear that my love of hockey was not just a fad but here to stay, my parents bought it for me. I loved hockey before but when you joined the team, something specifically clicked. Don’t ask how many jerseys I now own…but let’s just say the collection has grown considerably. When you joined the team, it was during a time that we had just moved to the city and hockey really truly became my escape and happy place. I became a walking encyclopedia of hockey knowledge, every stat and the franchise history was soon about of my everyday vernacular. It was your journey with the team from that first game all the way to your last game in Vancouver that really solidified my love for the game.

There are countless favourite moments of mine from your time as a Canuck but seeing you win OLYMPIC gold on home ice AND what you did in game 7 against Chicago will always be legendary. LUON-GOLD is what our family officially called you after that win. AND we have to talk about THAT point blank stop on Sharp and then the EPIC celebration when it Burrows buried it?! Chills every time I think about both.

Beyond your incredible journey on the ice, you gave your heart to this city through your work in the community. You wore your hear on your sleeve and it made all of us love you even more.

Your journey through it all, the good and the bad was nothing short of legendary. It broke my heart the way things went down in that last season. It hurt in a real tangible way, Mostly I hated that it seemed like you blamed yourself and didn’t really know just how much you had meant to this city, to the fans, to the team. It felt cruel that things just ended and you never got to hear or feel just how much you really were appreciated. You deserved so much better than how things went down.

Tonight, we finally get a chance to change that and for you to hear from all of us. Enjoy all of it, take it all in, you deserve every second of celebration. It is long overdue. Thank-you will never really be enough for what you gave me and this city but tonight we will try to make sure you hear and feel it.

Here’s looking at LU kid, you really did change everything.

And just because I can, one more time: LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!

As always, until next time, nuck said.

Sarah E.L.