The arena formerly known as 'The Garage.'

Actually, an NHL arena has a new name; and it’s the rink formerly known as GM Place. As of yesterday, GM Place will now be known as Rogers Arena; and will be for at least the next 10 years.

General Motors was the first sponsor of the arena when it opened as the brand new and gorgeous home of the Vancouver Canucks in 1995. It was to be a 20 year deal extending to 2015; but as we all know, times have been tough all over and especially in the auto industry. So, GM will still be a sponsor, but will be moving to in-arena activities. Rogers is Canada’s largest wireless company that also owns radio and television stations, magazines; and they also own the Toronto Blue Jays and Toronto’s Rogers Centre, which used to be the SkyDome. That means they have lots and lots of money; so I’m very interested to see what, if any, changes will be made to the arena over the summer as they re-brand.

And the workers are going to have to work around a bunch of the players as Canucks Prospects Camp opened yesterday. 36 players, including draft picks, invited players and two of my boys: former Tip Taylor Ellington and current Tip Kellan Tochkin. As with most camps, they will spend this week doing the normal things like strength training and on-ice work but they also do yoga to build strength and flexibility as well as the Canucks said that they will be getting to do some dragon boating on False Creek.

The final activity will be the annual trek up the Grouse Grind, a very popular hiking trail, located at Grouse Mountain which is north of the city. It is an extremely steep and mountainous trail that takes you up 2,800 ft over a distance of 2 miles and the grade goes up 30 degrees. Most people reach the top in about 90 minutes although some who are very fit can finish in under 30 minutes; and even though the boys hate it, they love it too. I know that the last couple of years the Nuck prospects have been split up into teams and each hike up together with a mini plastic Stanley Cup that they try to steal from each other then deliver them to the coaches who meet each group at the top.

Once the hike is over and they’ve ensured that no one is dead or missing, the boys also receive an actual Canuck jersey with their names and number on them; and the smiles on their faces when they slip those on is just amazing to see. Even though some of them got one on draft day, it’s something different when it’s your name and you receive it from the GM.

The 2009 Vancouver Canucks prospects proudly don their new sweaters.

The appearance of prospect camps makes me all kinds of happy because not only does that mean that the new hockey year has started; but it’s just about a month or so before WHL camps open up and that is a glorious thing. Life without hockey is like peanut butter without jelly… just not right. :)

Photos:  From Wikipedia commons and Canucks.com.