Green Men Blog: Checking in before Bruins-Canucks rematch

We meet again Boston.

With the Canucks in town for a rematch of the Cup final, we thought we’d check in. The fans back here in Vancouver are starting to think we retired after last year’s second place finish. It’s funny to look at message boards and see people asking if Force is actually a different person or if I [Sully] have a different suit. Nothing’s changed. We just haven’t had the chance to renew old rivalries yet.

Since September, Force and I have done quite a bit off the ice. We rappelled down a skyscraper in Vancouver and helped raise $10,000 for charity. We’ve travelled abroad to ECHL, BCHL and even NFL games and cheered on other teams as part of our training camp. We’ve paid a visit to a few friends in hospitals and we’ve wished everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. The fun good-willed seasonal spirit ends now though.

In 2011, Force and I picked up nearly a quarter million fans online, tickets to see every game of the cup final, met the Prime Minister, were spoofed by Letterman and were on ESPN almost every other day. Needless to say, it’s going to be tough to top what happened last spring. That doesn’t mean that we’re not going to do it, we’re just saying it won’t be easy.

So far, Force and I have been to only one game this season, between the Canucks and the Nashville Predators in early December. The crowd wasn’t quite as into it and you could tell each team in the rink wasn’t quite in playoff mode either. That was a whole year ago though.

Since then, the Canucks have been on a tear. [Roberto] Luongo‘s played his best hockey of the season. [Ryan] Kesler is back to beast mode and our young rook Cody Hodgson can’t be stopped. This team added a few pieces in the offseason, got focused again and hasn’t looked back.

Now, having to watch your Bruins tear it up in the east from over here hasn’t been easy. You guys have a good team this year, I’ll give you that. Since you cleared some space in the locker room by getting rid of Mark Recchi‘s walker and his lifetime supply of Bengay, you’ve looked refurbished. This will be your first test though. Who are we kidding? The East is always a cakewalk.

The better team won last year, we won’t question that. You guys played harder and you earned the Cup. While we still can’t stand your team, we’re happy and proud of our hometown boy Looch [Milan Lucic].

In fact, we took a bit of flack last year because of 17 in black. A lot of people thought he was giving it to us in the box, because of his hand gestures [in Game 5]. The guy was a beauty to us though, and was laughing the whole time. I had a fake witch’s nose on and he kept saying his was bigger. Though on TV, it looked like he was talking about Brad Marchand in the showers.

Everyone back here is congratulatory of your accomplishment last year, except for the few skidmarks of this city that unfortunately all showed up at Game 7 to riot. They don’t represent our city or country. In fact, we’re doing our best in Vancouver to put them where they belong, behind bars.

Our Green Men 2012 debut is inching closer and closer, much like your inevitable choking when it comes to defending your Cup. You have a great city and we really enjoyed our time there. When it comes to baseball, we don’t like the Stanks either, so we’ll leave that alone. When it comes to football, your glory days are behind you. When it comes to basketball, same thing. Hockey’s no different. You’re forgetting that this is our game. Consider what happened last year a gift, it won’t happen again.

See you in the final Boston,

The Green Men