The biggest losers of the start of the NHL season are undoubtedly the many college and junior teams that won't have the benefit of NHL players skating with them at practice. It must have been incredible to skate alongside real NHLers, participating in drills with them, working out with them, and seeing exactly how much better they are than you.
The largest mass assemblage of Vancouver Canucks during the lockout skated with the UBC Thunderbirds, along with sundry other NHLers and free agents, even playing a charity shinny game against the college team as Bieksa's Buddies. I have reason to believe that the Thunderbirds were grateful to the Canucks for the time they spent skating with them. That reason? They made a video stating that they were grateful to the Canucks for the time they spent skating with them. I'm pretty quick on picking up things like that.
Every single player on the Thunderbirds got a chance to express their thanks, which was a good move by UBC, as some of them are absolutely hilarious.
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