A look back

What a week!
Two weeks ago I was in Dallas, excited for the 2018 NHL Draft. It's all been a blur since the Canucks picked me in the second round. I spent some time back home with my family after the draft, and then shifted my focus to Canucks Development Camp.

I knew a few guys coming in, but getting to know everyone was my first priority. That was easy because all the guys at camp were very outgoing and friendly and we bonded as a team in no time. I got to know Colton Poolman the most as he was my roommate. Great guy, lots of laughs and with him being one of the older guys at camp and a fellow d-man, I learned a lot from him.
There was a lot to love about this Canucks camp and it started with a trip to Whistler for some testing and team building. After Jarid Lukosevicius and I won the Spikeball tournament (no big deal!), we were split into groups and taken to the top of Cougar Mountain for some ziplining fun. It was my first time ziplining and it was awesome, easily one of the coolest things I've ever done. I'm lucky I had the Canucks TV crew following me so I can look back on the video, because I don't remember much from it. I was screaming the whole time!

Tuesday night we went to the restaurant Dirty Apron for a cooking challenge and for someone who knows little to nothing about cooking, it was a real eye-opener. It was neat to see how all the food was before, like the big halibut just sitting there, then to see how it was all prepared and how delicious it was. I was part of Team Chicken, my main duty was preparing the red thai curry sauce, which I thought turned out well. Unfortunately the judges voted dessert as their favourite of the five dishes, BUT we won the @Canucks Twitter vote about which dish looked best.

A major highlight of the week for me was visiting the Boys & Girls Club to spend some quality time with the kids there. There's no way the kids had as much fun as we did! We played floor hockey, basketball, Just Dance and laughed a lot. It's neat seeing how athletes have a chance to bond with people away from their arena and how it impacts them. The Canucks are a major part of the community in Vancouver and that's incredible to see and great to be a part of.

The main event of the week was the Summer Showdown, where Team White took down Team Blue 6-5. It was a fun night, one that started out a little awkwardly for me. When they called my name to go out on the ice, at first I thought they were booing me! Then I walked through the tunnel and saw the people by the bench were yelling my last name; they were WOOing, not BOOing thank goodness. Every time I touched the puck the fans were doing it too, so that was pretty neat. I've never had that happen before, that support means a lot. It was an unreal experience and hopefully one day I'll be able to play here for real.

Camp ended on an easy note, oh you know, just a hike straight up a mountain! The Grouse Grind was the final obstacle of the week and it was amazing and awful. I've never hiked up a mountain before, let alone doing it for time. It was literally a grind, both mentally and physically. I remember looking up a lot and seeing just trees everywhere with no end in sight. At the halfway point you're like wow, it's only halfway! In the end it was a good feeling getting to the top with all the guys and finishing off the week on a good note. My team finished in second place, so we're pretty proud of that.

Now I head back home and have about three weeks before traveling to Kamloops for Hockey Canada's World Junior Summer Showcase. It's an honour to get invited and have the chance to compete for a spot on Team Canada. I'm going to treat that camp the same way I treated this one, I'll play my game and learn as much as possible along the way!
Thank you Canucks for the outstanding week of camp and Canucks fans for the support, both in person and on social media. I'm very happy you we're WOOing and not BOOing!!
Jett