Fort Nucks: The starting line-up

Jay Beagle was feeling the pressure.
Big moment. All eyes on him. No room for error.

"I didn't want to let my team down," he said. "I'd do anything for these guys."
Beagle, the Stanley Cup winning veteran forward signed this past off-season, has played in front of scads of people in his eight NHL seasons. That doesn't make him nervous, however.
Give him the Canucks starting line-up and ask him to read it out pre-game. That's when the butterflies start partying in his stomach.
Coach Travis Green asked Beagle to read the starting line-up Sunday before the Canucks played the Blues in St. Louis. He did it with style, he did it with pizzazz and it led to one of Vancouver's best games of the season, a dominating 6-1 win.

"I had never done that before," said Beagle, adding that he's never heard of it either.
Well, it's a thing and it's been a thing in Vancouver for quite a while.
Alain Vigneault began starting line-up reads, although he did it himself. Columbus coach John Tortorella introduced a player reading the starting six and Willie Desjardins kept it going. Coach Green liked it as well, seeing it as a fun tradition that loosens guys up pre-game.
There's no rhyme or reason as to why Beagle was chosen Sunday, said Green. The player he picks is random, and despite the win and Beagle's unreal read Sunday, a new player will read the starting line-up Tuesday before Vancouver tries for its third straight win, in Columbus.
That's a relief to Beagle.
"That's a lot of pressure, it's tougher than you'd think!"