“I’ll never forget stepping out on the ice at Roger’s Arena playing for the Vancouver Canucks for the first time. I think majority of kids dreamed of getting the chance of putting on that jersey and play. I remember scoring my first goal as a Canuck player, it was surreal. The whole cliché saying is you get those goosebumps but it’s true. Having family and friends in the stand was awesome. It was the best time of my life, it was awesome. It’s something that I wished everybody had the chance to experience. You get treated first class, your job is doing something you love which makes it that much more exciting. You get to play against the best player in the world, there’s only a selected few people in this world that get a chance to play. It was unbelievable.
I think a lot of people, some players wouldn’t like the pressure of playing with their home town. When I played here I felt like the pressure wasn’t really there, I had so much support from my family and friends. I was fortunate to have such a huge family. Every night there was some type of family member at the game and coming downstairs after the game to see me or go out to dinner after. It was just surreal.” – Mike Santorelli, Retired NHL Player. (3/11)