BURST
Alas, the Vancouver Canucks aren’t going to win the Stanley Cup this year — the 2024-25 team didn’t even make the playoffs.
This makes it 110 years since the Vancouver Millionaires won the city’s one and only Cup in 1915. Even Victoria has had a shorter Cup drought — the Victoria Cougars won the trophy in 1925.
But there is a place for local hockey fans to work out their B.C. Cup dreams: a new bubble-hockey game at the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame.
The customized Super Chexx Pro game was unveiled at a Family Medicine Forum on Nov. 6-9, 2024, at the Vancouver Convention Centre, where it was used in a recreation area at the event.
“They painted (the players) in Vancouver Millionaires and Victoria Cougars colours, so that you have the 1915 Stanley Cup champion playing the 1925 Stanley Cup champion,” explains Jason Beck of the Hall of Fame. “Player names and numbers are on each player, so you’ve got (Millionaire) Cyclone Taylor facing (Cougar) Frank Frederickson. It’s really cool.”
It is really cool, with customized sounds and lighting that make it unique.
The uniforms are beautiful: royal maroon jerseys, white pants and striped socks for the Millionaires, sky-blue jerseys, gold pants and striped socks for the Cougars.
Radio personality Matt Price adds commentary (“The B.C. Historical Classic is underway!”). ‘O Canada’ plays before the start of the game. A siren goes off after someone scores.
A Jumbotron scoreboard above centre ice reads “Patrick Arena,” after the Patrick family that started up the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, where the Millionaires and the Cougars played.
A history and photographs of the two teams are displayed on the base of the game, which is labelled: “British Columbia Historical Classic, Electrified Ice Hockey Simulator Machine.”
It also lists some of the innovations that Frank and Lester Patrick introduced into their league (“Blue lines! Penalty shots! Jersey numbers!”)
The historical classic is the brainstorm of Robert O’Connor, a family doctor in Metchosin, a Victoria suburb. Last year, O’Connor wanted to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Victoria’s Cup victory. So he bought a bubble-hockey game and customized it in his garage.
“It’s a team effort,” he said. “I did the art design and the direction and the concept, and we had some carpenters make a nice custom-cut oak base that you could roll around.
“My next-door neighbour Gaye had painted these little rocks and stuff for something to do. I said, ‘Hey, did you want to paint some hockey players?’ She said, ‘Yeah sure, let’s do it.’
“There’s a sign shop down the street. You can make these tiny little jersey numbers for the backs, so we cut them all out and clear-coated them all and popped them back on.”
Changing the sound meant a bit of “ripping out the guts” and putting in new code for the commentary and sounds. But it was all done in a couple of months for the medical conference, which loved the idea.
“They have these things to kind of keep the docs and their kids occupied during the conference,” he explained. “We said, ‘Hey, do you want something different?’ ”
It proved very popular during the conference.
“It’s something everyone can play of every generation and skill ability,” he said. “It’s a game of skill, but there’s still a bit of luck involved. It’s just fun, safe, family friendly. You see a family of kids and parents all playing together.”
When the conference was over, he gave it to the Hall of Fame, where it can be seen and played by the masses — it’s set up for visitors to play for free. It also travelled back to Victoria in March for a celebration of the Victoria Cougars winning the Cup.
O’Connor was among thousands of people who lined up to get their picture taken with the Cup, which had been brought to Victoria for the 100th anniversary. Standing in line, he realized the bubble-hockey game would have been perfect for the occasion — and to his surprise, turned a corner and found it was already there, being played by kids.
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