As has become an annual tradition, it’s time to put the spot light on YOU the fans and YOUR hockey stories! This is open to ALL Vancouver Canucks fans AND Utica Comets fans!

What does that mean? It means featuring YOU, the fans on the blog ALL summer long.  As we count down to the new season around the corner, it is time to share your Canucks/hockey stories and how you became a fan of this team, the game and what keeps drawing you back year after year. Over the past four summers, I have had the absolute pleasure of connecting with Canucks fans from all over the world and sharing their stories with all of you.

This year, I’m calling out to ALL Vancouver Canucks AND Utica Comets fans to share their stories. Whether you’ve been fan your whole life, or only a little while, whether you grew up in British Columbia or across the country or in the USA or across the globe, I would love to feature YOU and YOUR story as a part of this year’s series. Everyone has a different story of how this game captured them but through them we are all connected.

Fan stories and experiences are some of my favourite hockey stories to share!

Without further ado, here’s the first edition of True Blue 2018, brought to you from John Donato. This is his TRUE BLUE story, in his own words:

“Here are some of my hockey experiences. My daughter and I have been Utica Comet season ticket holders for the past 2 seasons. I have been a hockey fan since I was old enough to know what hockey was and throughout the years have attended hockey games at the Utica AUD going back to when the Mohawk Valley Comets played at the AUD in the 70’s and continuing through the Utica Devils and now with the Comets. We have made many friends that also attend the Comets games and share our passion for hockey. We frequently stay after the games and wait for the players to come up from the locker room to get their autographs and to take our picture with them. We have found them to be very friendly and always willing to pose for a picture. There are several players that we seem to chat with more often inlcuding: Carter Bancks, Michael Carcone and Richard Bachman. We seem them not only as athletes but also as people because we have gotten to know a little bit about their personal lives. We have met Carter’s girlfriend, Michael’s parents and we see Rich’s wife and children at many of the games. An interesting side note is hat during a conversation I was having with Michael’s dad, I discovered that he has relatives that live in Utica and his dad’s uncle used live right up the street from where I live. We have have also run into many of the players at the grocery store, the mall or at the gas station. We try to respect their privacy but almost always at least say hello to them. We ran into Michael Chaput at a Rite Aid drug store a few days before Christmas, shortly after he was returned to the Comets by Vancouver. Jalen Chatfield was waiting in the care in the parking lot so we knew that there was another player in the store and we spotted Michael in the card section. We went up to him and said hello, welcoming him back to Utica and the Comets. He was very friendly and thanked us for welcoming him back and said he was looking for a Christmas card for his mother. We chatted with him for a few minutes and my daughter asked if she could take a picture with him. He posed for a picture with him and we thanked him, wished him a Merry Christmas. The Comets were playing the next night at home so I had the picture printed so my daughter could get it autographed after the game. We waited after the game and when he came up, my daughter asked if he would sign the picture. He looked at us and said, “wow that was quick”, as he knew the picture had been taken the night before.

Myself with Nikolay Goldobin & Alexis D’Aoust

My daughter Nicole & Michael Chaput.

The Comets send a few players each week to the mall to sign autographs during the months of November and December. Through that experience, we have shad some interesting conversations with some of the players ranging from who their favourite hockey team was when they were growing up to what they think of the city of Utica. Nikolay Goldobin is my favourite Utica Comet, the night he was at the mall, he and I became engaged in conversation about his favourite hockey team and his favourite player. I asked him what he thought about our city and he said it was too small for him as he is used to his hometown of Moscow where it is very busy with a lot of people and traffic. I told him what my favourite hockey team was and he grunted and shook his head. We both laughed and exchanged some jabs at each others favourite team.

November of last year, my daughter and I took a bus trip to Madison Square Garden to see the Rangers against the Canucks. We had 2 buses loaded with Comets fans and we found out on the way down that the Canucks had recalled Nikolay and he arrived at the Garden just before the pre-game skate but was a scratch for the game. I was hoping that he was going to play as did come out for the pre-game skate but as previously mentioned, he was a scratch. It was quite a thrill for me to see him on the ice at the Garden. It was a my daughter’s first time at the Garden and also quite a thrill for us to see some of the former Comets playing for the Canucks including: Markstrom, Gaunce and Virtanen. The first game after the Canucks returned Nikolay to the Comets, I told him that we were at the Garden for the game and got to see him in Canucks uniform.

–John.”

Thank-you, John for sharing your story and some great Comets stories! Fan stories and experiences are some of my favourite hockey stories to share with you and since I’m asking for your stories, I will share a part of my story as well. Is this the year, that you and your story will be featured? Or do you know someone who would like their Canucks story featured? If you’d like more details on how YOU can be featured in True Blue 2018, simply send me a message on twitter (@nucksaid) OR send me an e-mail to: nucksaid@gmail.com with the subject line: TRUE BLUE 2018.

As always, until next time, nuck said.

Sarah E.L.