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Everybody loves the epic JumboTron at hockey games.

Free fun at a Canucks' Game

Fresh off my first Canucks’ game experience at , I decided it would be a good idea to catalogue the top…

By Hilary Atkinson , in Icing: A women's guide to hockey culture , on March 21, 2010 Tags: , , , ,

Fresh off my first Canucks’ game experience at , I decided it would be a good idea to catalogue the top six free things you can do while at the home of the .

Everybody loves the epic Jumbo Tron at hockey games.

Let’s face it, going to the game you’ve already paid at least $90 for the ticket. When you add food, drinks and souvenirs it all adds up.

Here are six free things you can do while enjoying the game.

6) Try your best to translate what other fans are saying.

Once the game begins, you may notice that as it progresses the understandability of what people are staying becomes near impossible.

There are three possible reason for this: the people dancing while screaming;  people  may be a little intoxicated;

your hearing may become compromise. It’s probably a combination.

5) Learn to spell “Canucks”.

Up in the , there are massive signs with letters. If put together properly, it will spell “Canucks”.

If put together improperly, it will spell “OG CUKS NOG”, “GO CAKS” and “KUCS GON AG”.

Canucks fans get a spelling lesson.

4) Sign up for a fan credit card to get a free Canuck’s gift.

Every intermission you have 20-minutes to wander the concourse area, trying not to spend money.

Good Luck.

Everything costs. Beer costs $8, the most basic t-shirt costs $24.99, a burger costs $8.50.

Personally, I am a souvenir junkie. I love the random trinkets you can buy and then regret five-minutes later. I would just like them better if they were free.

I have done this many times at various venues. My credit card application booty thus far has been: a Montreal Canadien’s t-shirt, a Toronto Maple Leaf’s woven scarf, a Barrie Colts’ hockey puck and stick, a Bishop’s University sweater, and my newly acquired Vancouver Canucks’ fleece blanket.

3) Wait in the the beer line and have a stranger (from the  visiting team) buy you a drink.

When buying a beverage from the concourse, the key strategy is not to buy as soon as the period ends.

It is much better to mingle in the crowds and line up at the drastically shorter line about five-minutes before the period begins.

The next part of the strategy is for you and your friend to line up behind young guys wearing jerseys and to laugh and smile.

I can almost promise you the guys wearing the jerseys, will talk to you to burn time and by the time you reach the front of the line you will here those fantastic words, “What are you drinking? Let me buy you your drink.”

2) Get your picture taken with.

If you have ever been to any sporting event, you will have noticed that the laws of team passion overrule crimes of fashion.

Make sure to bring your camera because you are guaranteed to see: some guy dressed like superman, another dressed entirely in spandex for no good reason, someone wearing some kind of fruit, like a hollowed out , someone dressed as a gorilla and someone wearing mostly body paint.

What I like to do is walk around getting my picture taken with these people and then post them on and .

Make sure you get one with the team mascot too.

Canucks' mascot, Finn, is always in the crowd.

1) Watch your home team pummel the visiting team, while sitting behind visiting fans.

The important part is picking the right games.

If by some stroke of luck you get the pleasure of sitting beside the opposing team’s fans, even better!

Fan has the ability to do wondrous things, like make grown men cry for instance.  There is simply some thing about profession sports and fan loyalty that compel people to tie all their emotions to the final score of a hockey game.

Every fan knows what it’s like to be on the losing end. When your team crushes the visitors 5-1, and you get to jump around, sing, chant, taunt and act outrageously all while watching the visiting fans sit solemnly, quietly in their seats, it’s sweet and it’s priceless.