When I won the Every Kid's Dream contest and went to the game on January 21, I had so much fun. I can remember it all like it was one second ago. One of the things I remember is Cody Hodgson, the first hockey player I saw that day, saying "hi" to me as though he had known me before. It was very magical.
I also remember getting on the ice and having to dodge all the Canucks because they were going both ways. I almost crashed into Manny Malholtra. One of my favourite parts was standing on the blue line; Henrik Sedin brought me into the middle of the blue line in between him and Kevin Bieksa and they both started to talk to me. It was all so amazing and fun!
Three other cool people I met were Murph, a hockey announcer whom my dad and I really like, the coach of the Vancouver Canucks and Dan Hamhuis, another Canuck!
When I met Dan Hamhuis, I was walking down the hall by the Canucks' dressing room waiting for a lady to give me the signal to let me on the ice. Right when I passed the dressing room, Dan Hamhuis came out and said, "Good luck out there," and then we fist-punched each other for fun. That's how I met Dan Hamhuis! It was so great because all the Canucks were so nice.
There was one funny thing: the name of the host who helped us was Aaron. When my dad and he met, it was funny because they had the same name.
Another great thing was the Canucks won that game 4-3 against the San Jose Sharks. It was a great game because the Vancouver Canucks and the San Jose sharks are rival teams; it was an exciting and very fair game. I had such a great time doing this.
RYAN HANEN
special to the Undercurrent
