-Kayla will be performing in her final preschool concert on Friday before she enters St. Paul School in September. Here’s Kayla hamming it up at her preschool Christmas concert from 2010.

-My latest blog for Canadian Youth Worker looks at my vocation as husband and father and my job of youth ministry.

-I’m excited to join the team of contributors of Converge Magazine.  Look for my first blog there soon!

-You can follow me on Twitter, find me on Facebook, and/or see my videos on YouTube.

-the four videos total over 19,000 hits on YouTube
-they’ve been featured on Puck Daddy, Global TV and Canucks.com
-my guests include an anthem singer, an actress, viral video stars, my sons, my church buddies, and a foreign exchange student
-we cover Michael Jackson, Katy Perry, Adele, Justin Bieber, Journey, and the incomparable Bruce Hornsby and the Range

I hope these compositions brought a smile to your face; we certainly enjoyed putting them together.  Thanks to everyone who took the time to listen to them and share them.  So without further ado, here are Clay’s Canucks Compositions for the 2011-2012 season:

1.  A Musical Medley (November 7, 2011)

I created this video to help inspire the Canucks to break out of their early season funk…so I brought in a ringer:  anthem singer Marie Hui.  Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror” became “”Men at the Rear”, Katy Perry’s “Firework” focused on new forward David Booth, and Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” became “Goalies in the Crease.”  Thanks to Marie’s powerful vocals, this video got picked up by the popular Puck Daddy hockey blog and also features a blooper reel.

2.  Under the Minneso (December 25, 2011)

Given the popularity of our 2010 Christmas song, I pulled a few friends together to parody Justin Bieber’s “Under the Mistletoe” for this year’s version.  Just two days after posting this, the Canucks passed the Minnesota Wild in the standings for good, almost rendering this song moot.  Regardless, we had fun with a group that included the Game Day Guys (Andrew and Chris), my friends from church, my sons Sean and Jacob, and our famous foreign exchange student Kevin.

3.  The Way It Is (February 23, 2012)

When I learned that the Canucks were named as the Most Overrated Team in the NHLPA Player Poll conducted by Hockey Night in Canada, I put pen to paper to write lyrics to the classic song by Bruce Hornsby and the Range.  I looked at some of the reasons why the Canucks might be deemed to be overrated and I brought in my buddies Joseph, Oggy, Jason, and Patrick (who provided the first-ever beatbox in one of my Canucks songs).

4.  Don’t Stop Believing (April 21, 2012)

As the Canucks faced elimination at the hands of the Los Angeles Kings, I invited the talented Arielle Tuliao to cover the epic Journey song.  Thankfully, Arielle took my first draft of the lyrics and gave them a minor facelift…and the result is quite good (if I may say so myself).  This video was featured on Global TV newscasts throughout Game 5 gameday.  Unfortunately, the Canucks lost that game, ending their season much too soon.  Also note that I played despite having a torn tendon in my finger.  Good thing the song only has 4 chords!

After drowning our sorrows in some beef sashimi and salmon cones, my son Sean and I made it home just after 10pm. There, I was met by my lovely wife Gail.

“I’m so sad, disappointed and frustrated,” I lamented, “and I’m not even on the team!”

To which Gail replied “Well, you think you are!”

Gee…thanks for the sympathy, honey. But it did get me thinking about just how consumed I became with the Canucks’ exciting playoff run last year. And how it will be a lot different this year.

Given that there have already been some good post-mortems on the Canucks’ season, I thought I would take a different approach for this blog. Thus, being a positive person, I present to you 5 good things about the Canucks’ early elimination from the Stanley Cup Playoffs:

1.  More Time With Family. This is without a doubt the most important one and one of the easiest ones to measure. It was also the basis for Gail’s remark about me thinking I’m part of the team. As a loyal fan, my mood often goes as the team goes which isn’t exactly fair to my wife and kids. In fact, last year I wrote a blog about it called “A Hockey Blogger’s Love Letter to his Wife” in which I thanked Gail for her patience, understanding and forgiveness. With the Canucks out of the playoffs, I won’t be in such a rush to check Twitter, make a Clay’s Canucks Commentary video, or write a post for CHB. Now, I can focus on the four people at home instead of the 20 on the ice. I guess asking the family to help me with my videos by being the camera people and lighting people didn’t count as quality family time.

2.  Less Stress. Let’s face it: playoff time is stressful. Whether watching the game at Rogers Arena or at home or at a bar, tensions rise, moods swing, and relationships are tested. Earlier today, my good friend Mike relayed a story from Sunday night in which he and his buddies were at the Las Vegas airport waiting for their flight home to Vancouver. So they went to one of the sports bars to relax and catch some of the game. The bar was understaffed, management was rude, and many of the patrons were drunk. Overall, it was a very charged atmosphere that led to many testy exchanges between the patrons and employees…especially when the bar manager changed the channels on all of the TVs away from the Canucks-Kings game except for one. What should have been a couple hours of fun and relaxing viewing turned out to be a couple hours of stress. And back home, I’m sure productivity levels at work and school drop off while the Canucks are still alive…especially on game days.

3.  More Sleep. I already don’t get enough sleep. In fact, it’s 1:45am as I type this. On Canucks playoff game nights in particular, I’m usually up until 3am or so reading articles, editing and posting videos, or writing blogs. With the Canucks out, I can still do all of these things but I can start a whole lot earlier in the evening. Heaven forbid I actually go to bed at the same time as Gail. Now, this is made more challenging by the fact that she often goes to bed before sunset but that’s not the point here. Gail is a teacher and thus needs her 8 hours of sleep whereas I can function on 4 or 5 hours. Thus in 12 years of marriage, we rarely go to sleep together. I’m surprised we have three kids. :p

4.  Less Scheduling Conflicts. There’s simply going to be more free time to do everything. We won’t fret about whether or not the Canucks game will conflict with a church function, piano lesson, or family gathering. In fact, my work’s annual two-day rally for high school teens always falls on the first weekend of May. Thus, for the past few years there’s been a Canuck game on either the Friday or Saturday evening. Not so this year for the first time since 2008. It’s a blessing in disguise: the teens will be able to fully concentrate on the rally. Or perhaps I’m talking more about my own attention span.

5.  More Disposable Income. Bottom line is that I’ll have a bit more money to spend this year. Although I feel extremely fortunate to be a season ticket holder, it’s obviously quite an investment of both time and money. The cost of 16 potential home playoff games is equivalent to 45 regular and preseason home games. So instead of paying for 14 home playoff games last year, I (sadly) only paid for 3 this year. That’s a big difference, especially factoring in that costs go up per round.

Would I trade any of the above for a deep Canucks playoff run? Having lived through it last year, I would try my best to honour the family time but I’d be willing to sacrifice or endure the other 4 for sure: more stress, less sleep, more scheduling challenges and more spending.

I guess I better submit this for posting and get on up to bed. Not that Gail will notice.

With Game 5 Sunday night at Rogers Arena, the Canucks should be able to feed off a loud and raucous crowd. It’s time for Canucks fans to unite and get the behind the blue and green!

I brought in my good friend: the lovely and talented Arielle Tuliao to help me express this notion in song: Don’t Stop Believing!

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The Vancouver Canucks earned their first victory of the 2012 NHL postseason with a 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings. The Kings still lead the series 3 games to 1.

Inspired by the return of Daniel Sedin, the Canucks went 2 for 3 on the powerplay while goaltender Cory Schneider was solid again in net.

The Canucks have more confidence and a smidgen of momentum heading back to Vancouver for game 5 on Sunday night. However, it will still be an extremely difficult task to come back and dethrone the Kings.

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The Los Angeles Kings have taken the first two games of their playoff series with the Vancouver Canucks by posting consecutive 4-2 victories at Rogers Arena.

In game 2 on a freaky Friday the 13th, the Kings’ special teams play was indeed special as they scored 2 short-handed goals and 1 power play goal. Meanwhile, the Canucks went 0 for 5 with the man advantage.

Now the Canucks have the daunting task of winning 4 out of the next 5 games. Is it possible? Or course. Is it likely? Even as the most loyal (yet rational Canucks fan)…that ones’ tougher to answer.

Game 3 goes Sunday night in LA.

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Here’s my first playoff CCC…unfortunately after a 4-2 Los Angeles Kings victory over the Vancouver Canucks. The Kings played a very disciplined and smart game and were full value for the win.

Birthday boy Alex Burrows was quite prominent: he scored the game’s first goal and was also on the receiving end of a couple of massive hits.

I’ll be going to game 2 on Friday with my wife Gail and I’m looking forward to a better effort and positive result.

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We had been telling our 3 kids that our plan for Spring Break this year was to take a quick weekend trip down to Seattle. While it was easy to convince Jacob and Kayla, our eldest Sean found out (through some impressive sleuthing for a 10 year-old) that we were indeed going to Disneyland.

Watch Sean try to play along as we told Jacob and Kayla of our plans to take them to Disneyland. Jake in particular was hilarious….check out how happy he was!

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Here’s the final minute of the Vancouver Canucks’ 2011-2012 regular season; a season that saw the Canucks finish with 111 points to clinch their second consecutive Presidents’ Trophy.

The Canucks defeated the Edmonton Oilers by a score of 3 – 0 and look ahead to their first-round playoff opponent: the Los Angeles Kings.

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I’m always fascinated by the national anthems at sporting events. A good anthem can get the crowd engaged and excited even before the opening face-off, kick-off, or tip-off. Conversely, a poor rendition can leave both players and fans distracted and confused.

Starting tonight, for Canucks games that I’m at, I will be scoring the national anthems in 5 key categories:

1. Tone/Pitch
2. Pace
3. Ending
4. Appearance
5. Crowd Involvement

I’m looking forward to having some fun with this. Follow me @canuckclay and look for #clayanthemanalysis

This CCC also includes bonus footage of my sons Sean and Jake singing O Canada back in 2006.

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This isn't what we ate at Pizza Hut but it sure looks yummy!

It’s funny how a simple dinner never turns out simply for our family.  Last night, we were looking forward to going out for a nice meal together courtesy of the school that I had spoken at on Friday night (they generously gave me a gift card as a thank-you).  One of the restaurants listed on the gift card was Milestones.

It was 8pm by the time we got out of the house and we made our way to the London Drugs complex in Richmond.  After parking the car on the second level of the parkade we excitedly made our way to what we thought was the restaurant.  To our collective surprise, the former restaurant was vacant with “for lease” signs plastered over the windows.  Needless to say, we were quite disappointed.

Embarrassed, we went into London Drugs to buy a few things and as we were paying for our items, I asked the employee how long Milestones had been closed for.

“At least a couple of years,” he replied.

“Oh…that proves we don’t get out enough,” I exclaimed.

“Where are you guys from?” he asked.

“We live in Richmond…the Steveston area,” I said sheepishly.  “Been living here for 37 years.”

The employee chuckled and dutifully completed the transaction.  As we were walking out, Gail noticed that it was already 8:30pm.  “Only half an hour until late-night at Matsuyama,” she suggested.  We decided against it given that Gail and I had already been to Fukuroku (say that 5 times fast) for lunch.

So we made our way to the van, still undecided, and I sent out a quick tweet.

“Obviously we don’t get out enough. How long has the Milestones in Richmond been closed?”

To which my dear friend Megan replied:  “umm…a LONG time!”

It turns out (in speaking to Megan later in the evening) that Milestones closed its doors on October 31, 2009.  So we were exactly 29 months too late.

Once in the van we quickly decided to go to Pizza Hut.  The kids rushed to the front door, happily proclaiming that the restaurant was open.  As we took our seats we ensured that at least one side of the table had a view of the Canucks game on the TV.  That’s when Gail noticed the sign:

“Wear your Canucks jersey on a Canucks game day and receive 20% off your bill…dine-in only.”

They say when you’ve been married long enough that you can read your spouse’s mind.  Well, one look in Gail’s eyes and I knew we were on the same page.

“Individual Hawaiian” was all I said to her as I left the restaurant as quickly as I entered it.  She knew what she had to do.

I made my way across Richmond to our house and I picked out the blue Luongo jersey over my white Booth jersey.  Not because Luongo was playing in goal…but because I know how messy I am when I eat.  Twenty minutes after I had left, I re-entered Pizza Hut and took my seat facing the TV.  Our wings had arrived just a minute prior to my return, and our pizzas came a couple of minutes later; the timing was excellent.  I scanned the restaurant and noticed that no one else was wearing a Canucks jersey.

As we finished dinner, Kayla (and not Jake!) fell asleep while Jake, not to be outdone, started to fade.  I obtained our bill and noticed that they did not apply the discount.  Questions started racing through my mind:  did they see me leave to get my jersey?  Did they have a no re-entry policy?   Had they discontinued the promotion but forgotten to take the sign down?  Or were they jealous of my good looks and decided to make me pay for it?

Thankfully it was none of the above as they applied the discount once I pointed out the error.  Thus, a whopping $7 came off the bill, making the trip home to get my jersey well worth it (including factoring in the approximately $2.25 I spent in gas on the extra trip).

Lost in all of the bill kerfuffle was the fact that the Canucks and Flames were going into overtime as we were leaving.  I’m sure it looked great: the only person in the whole restaurant wearing a Canucks jersey was leaving with the game hanging in the balance.

After a bit of an auspicious start, the night ended up about as well as it could have:  the Canucks won the game in overtime and I successfully filled up our 18.9 litre water bottle at Safeway without spilling it all over the floor (as I did on Wednesday night).

And when we decide to use our gift card I’ll make sure to check to see if our desired restaurant still exists.

No Kayla dancing in this one but it’s still awesome.  :p

And while a couple of blogs have done a decent job of presenting and analyzing what happened, I can offer you a perspective that they can’t:  a first-hand account as I was present at the event. Not only was I in attendance at the Passion event, I also attended a pre-event dinner hosted by Louie.  But more on that later.

As part of my job as the Director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry of the Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver, I sat on the Advisory Team for Passion Vancouver.  Per the official website, “Passion exists to glorify God by uniting students in worship, prayer and justice for spiritual awakening in this generation.”

We had been meeting and praying for the success of the event for months prior to last Friday and as a gracious gesture of appreciation I was invited to the pre-event dinner held in the Rogers Arena Captain’s Room.  I met a lot of great people including Miss Canada 2011 Tara Teng.

One of us seems a tad happier than the other.  But I digress.

During the dinner, Louie Giglio went out of his way to thank all of us for our work and service in helping bring Passion to Vancouver.  He mentioned that Vancouver is the only city outside of the United States where Passion has held events three times – largely in part to the willingness of the Aquilini family to host the event in Rogers Arena.  Louie thanked Paolo Aquilini (who was in attendance at both the dinner and the concert) and then segued into talking about the Vancouver Canucks and their massive popularity here.  He then reflected on how his hometown of Atlanta was particularly good at grooming NHL teams to move to Canada (the Flames and more recently the Jets).  I chuckled as Louie said “So once we get another team we’ll get them ready and ship them back up to you.”

As dinner completed we hastily made our way to our seats in the Arena…but not before I snapped my picture with Tara.  Okay…I’ll stop mentioning that now.

After worship leader Chris Tomlin opened the event, Louie made his way onto the stage with a couple of items in his hands.  One, we quickly learned, was a Canucks jersey signed by the entire team  – a gift to Louie from Paolo and the Vancouver Canucks.

The other was the helmet of injured forward Daniel Sedin.  Louie didn’t announce how he obtained the helmet; needless to say it was likely with the permission of Paolo Aquilini after the Passion organizers held their pre-event prayer time in the Canucks’ dressing room.

After publicly thanking the Aquilini family in front of the 12,000 people in attendance, Louie shared a few words about the Canucks and Atlanta’s knack for losing their hockey teams to Canada (similar to what he shared with us at dinner).  Then, he suggested that we pray for Daniel’s recovery from his concussion.

After allowing for 35 seconds of spontaneous prayer, Louie led the attendees in a prayer of thanksgiving for the Aquilini family and for the arena, the city and team.  He ended off by praying for Daniel’s recovery.  At the time, I felt that it was a very powerful and genuine gesture.  It didn’t feel out of place for the main reason that this was a gathering of Christians praying for a Canuck player AND NOT a gathering of Canucks fans with some Christian prayer in it. There is a HUGE difference.  If people were not interested in praying for Daniel’s recovery then it was their prerogative not to join in…much like any other element of the night.

Also, Louie didn’t pray for the Canucks to win their next game, to win a playoff series or two, or to win the Stanley Cup.  He didn’t pray for Daniel the hockey player; he prayed for Daniel the human being.  For full healing and recovery.  For goodness and fullness of life.  For his heart, and everything going on his life.

You’ll hear from the video Louie saying “And we pray God that You just him know…there are people praying for him tonight – not for what he can do, not for how he can score, not for how many assists he has, but we just love him tonight God because he is Yours.”

Immediately after the prayer concluded, I was happily surprised at what had just transpired.  It was quite moving to be among 12,000 people praying together.  I went to both Twitter and Facebook with a simple post:

12,000 people at Rogers Arena praying for the health of Daniel Sedin…powerful stuff.

Unbeknownst to me, my buddy Joseph posted the video up in the Canucks.com message boards and in 24 hours it had accumulated over 13,000 views and 300 replies.  Everyone seemed to have an opinion as to its appropriateness, its effectiveness, or its relevance.  It’s come to be expected when talking sports and faith.

Was the prayer genuine?  Absolutely.  Was it a way to show Vancouver that Passion was in tune with the city and culturally relevant?  Without a doubt.  Was it a strategic and smart way to engage the crowd?  Certainly.

And I loved every minute of it.