Author Archives: Tyler Asaoka

FAN EXPO Vancouver Sunday Experience

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Today, I visited the FAN EXPO Vancouver event that occurred this Sunday to experience what all the hype about this event would be like.

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I, unfortunately, was only able to get tickets for the Sunday event after 2 pm, so I feel I missed out on a decent bit and didn’t get the full experience. However, I will say for the amount of time I was at the event, it did not disappoint.

I encounter many people dressed up as characters I recognized from the video games I play and animations that I watch. I encountered 2 cosplayers (people who dress up as characters) and was very intrigued by their costumes, so I asked if I could take a photo of their costumes and they agreed for me to do so.

I thought it would be awkward if I just take a photo of their costumes and leave, so I thought it would be a good idea for me to kind of interview them and see why they like dressing up as characters. The photo I took of them is posted below:

Jason (the one on the left with the bucket hat) and Liam (the one on the right with the yellow mask).

Jason is dressed up as the popular K-Pop idol Jungkook. I sort of guessed that was his costume but I wanted to make sure. When I asked him why he decided to dress up as him he said while chuckling, “I’m a pretty big fan of BTS, to be honest. I also didn’t have a super unique costume like most of the people here, but I also didn’t want to just show up in normal street clothes, so I tried to at least make it seem like I wore something different.”

Liam was dressed up as Mikoto Yuki, or some fans just call him the Persona 3 protagonist since the protagonist can be named anything, but Mikoto Yuki is the default name. I recognized his costume right away and had to ask what inspired him to make wear this costume and if he made the costume on his own, in which he said, “I’m a big fan of Persona 3. I love all the Persona games, but Persona 3 was always my favourite, so I thought it would be fun to dress up as Mikoto. I’m glad you recognized my costume because I’ve been here for like 4 hours and no one has seemed to recognize it or ask for a photo, so thanks for that.”

To end the day, I went looking around looking for some cool merchandise to bring home to make my trip worthwhile, and I found some posters that looked cool. I took a photo to send to my friends to see if they wanted any, but they were good. I decided not to buy any since I’ll be coming back tomorrow (Monday), but it was nice to see what this event had to offer.

It was overall a really fun experience and am really glad I went! I would recommend anyone to go if they enjoy animations and video games. It’s a fun community, but it’s hard to find people who are a part of it. So this is your opportunity to find people who have the same interests as you and make new friendships, and hey, maybe you’ll see me there too!

Fan Expo Vancouver Event Occurring Once Again This Year from Feb. 18 – 20

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Are you a huge nerd for Sci-Fi, Comics, Horror, Anime, and/or Gaming? Do you like dressing up as well as if every day was Halloween? Then this is the perfect event for you to attend this upcoming long weekend. It’s called FAN EXPO Vancouver which will take place this Family Day long weekend. 

The event will start at 10 am on all 3 days, but end at different times per day. It will end at 7 pm on Saturday, 6 pm on Sunday, and 5 pm on Monday. 

One of the biggest events for nerds like myself will take place at the Vancouver Convention Centre. There’s a lot planned for this event that you might have to come in for all 3 days to get the full experience.

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Some of the main events include meeting celebrities, buying exclusive merchandise, meeting celebrities, meeting voice actors (my personal favourite), and getting photos with other people who are cosplaying as some of your favourite characters.

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Some of the top guests include Anthony Daniels, Sean Astin, Ashley Eckstein, Max Mittelman (my favourite), Dante Basco, Jason Fabok, and Jillea to name a few. The entire roster of guest appearance can be found on their website under the “Guests” tab.

There are still chances for you to attend one or all of the dates as tickets are still available, but very limited. The 3-day pass is already sold out and a single-day ticket costs $38 for Monday’s event and Saturday’s and Sunday’s dates are only available after 2 pm. The tickets are at an increased price too, as tickets cost $48 for Saturday’s event and $43 for Sunday’s event.

Come to this incredibly fun event and meet new people who have the same interests as you! Embrace your inner nerd and have a fun time this long weekend!

What to Make of Arturs Silovs First NHL Win – Is this Good or Bad?

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21-year-old Canucks goaltender, Arturs Silovs, just got his first NHL win in only his 2nd NHL game. While this is very impressive and a very happy moment for him, should Canucks fans be worried that he might start costing the Canucks a shot at the 1st overall pick?

Now one thing is for sure, teams do not tank; management does. The players on every team, no matter what sport, will never tank, as players are playing to win, get new contracts, have a spot on the roster next year, etc. By tanking and getting the 1st overall pick, that superstar projected player will take the spot of someone on the current roster, and there’s no way any player would want to put their job in jeopardy.

While it is easy to jump to conclusions about Silovs, you have to remember he’s only played 2 NHL games, but what happened in those 2 games is what might make Canucks fans a little worried, as the fanbase is fully devoted to losing the rest of the season to increase their odds of landing franchise-altering talent and local BC boy, Connor Bedard.

You see, Silovs got the start against the New York Rangers and the Philidelphia Flyers. While he lost his first NHL start against the Rangers, he put up a good fight, only allowing 5-goals against a stellar offensive core that the Rangers have, as well as the very lackluster defense that the Canucks have. He faced 27 shots, but to only allow 5 goals against a top 5 NHL team right now? It’s no wonder he got the start the very next game. And then guess what? He did get the start and then won the game. He faced 37 shots for a 35-save first NHL win.

While it is a very happy moment for him and is something that Canucks fans should definitely celebrate, it’s not something we should start getting excited about on a regular basis. Even though teams do not tank, the fans will surely grow restless if they start seeing the Canucks go on an unnecessary win streak, as their playoffs are already long gone.

We shouldn’t panic yet, but hopefully he can just get some NHL experience for the rest of the year and not bring too many points to the club!

Vancouver Giants Vs Saskatoon Blades Postgame Analysis

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The Vancouver Giants took their 2nd straight loss tonight to the Saskatoon Blades on Saturday night in a final score of 2-1 in regulation.

The Giants had the lead of 1-0 heading into the 3rd period, but the Blades scored 1 goal halfway through the 3rd to lie the game and then scored another goal 4 minutes later which would eventually be the game-winner.

Giants leading point and goal scorer, Ty Thorpe, got the lone goal tonight, bringing him to 27 goals and 54 points on the season. He scored almost 14 minutes into the 2nd period with the assists coming from Langley BC’s Dylan Anderson and Skylar Bruce on the powerplay. The Giants had 4 powerplay opportunities tonight but were only able to capitalize on one chance. 

The Blades leading point scorer and Vancouver’s own, Trevor Wong, got a secondary assist on Jayden Wiens’ powerplay goal. The primary assist went to Port Coquitlam’s own, Brandon Lisowsky. The game-winning goal went to Conner Roulette, with the assists going to Abbotsford’s Jake Chiasson and Ben Saunderson.

Blades goaltender, Austin Elliott, continues to dominate the WHL this season. He was the 2nd star of tonight’s game and faced 20 shots tonight. He currently is ranked first in goals against average for all goaltenders in the WHL this year. His 1.97 goals against average is an impressive display of consistency, as the next best goaltender has an average of 2.15 goals against average. Elliott stayed true to that average as he only let in 1 goal tonight.

It was a sold-out crowd tonight at the Langley Events Centre as tickets were sold out a week before tonight’s game. The Giants will be back in action on Monday in a Family Day showdown against the last-place Western Conference team, Spokane Chiefs. Tickets are still available and the game will start at 2 pm (PST). 

The game on Monday will be country themed, so come dressed in your best country attire if you want to look the part.

Vancouver Canucks Vs Philadelphia Flyers Postgame Analysis

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The Vancouver Canucks snapped their 3-game losing streak tonight with a dominating 6-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers are now on a 4-game losing streak thanks to their loss tonight.

A strong 3-goal 3rd period helped the Canucks get their first win at home since January 27th when they took down the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-2.

The main highlights from tonight’s game was Elias Pettersson’s 5-point night and the first career win for Canucks goaltender Arturs Silovs. It only took Silovs 2 games to get his first NHL victory. It must be a nice feeling for him to get it at home too.

The Canucks got goals from 4 different players tonight. Pettersson and Beauvillier both netted 2 goals, while Kuzmenko and Di Giuseppe added 1 each. 

Canucks defender, Luke Scheen, also had a strong game today, as he 3 assists tonight. This is great to see as it will further raise his trade value as it’s very likely the Canucks will trade the 33-year-old veteran defencemen at this year’s trade deadline. 

Flyers goaltender, Carter Hart, was in net for all 4 of the goals, while the other 2 were empty netters. He faced 21 shots in tonight’s game.

The Canucks will now hit the road for a 2-game road trip starting on Tuesday when they face the Nashville Predators and then the St. Louis Blues on Thursday. The Canucks will then come back home on Saturday for an earlier game at 4 pm (PST) against the top team in the NHL right now, the Boston Bruins.

With Silovs’ first NHL win coming in only his second game, it is very likely that he will get the start for the team’s next game in Nashville. While Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko is out injured indefinitely, this is a big opportunity for both Collin Delia and Arturs Silovs, as whoever is the goaltender that Canucks management prefers will likely get the backup role for next season when Demko is back to being fully healthy.

Upcoming Chinatown Storytelling Event to be Held in Vancouver

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There’s a brand new art exhibit that you can visit every Sunday. A storytelling Chinatown exhibit is occurring to showcase how Chinese-Canadians created their identity during a period when Chinese-Canadians were heavily discriminated against.

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One of the main pieces being shown here will be an emerald green, stain uniform, with silver sparkly threads embroidered into the uniform. The uniform was created by Donna Chan, a currently 84-year-old Chinese-Canadian who created a girl’s drill team was the pride of Vancouver’s Chinatown back in 1959. During a parade at the PNE, the team took home the top trophy of that parade. 

All members of that team had the exact same uniforms. All of them will now be displayed at a new art exhibit called “Raised in Chinatown”. The event will continue up to mid-June, with the exhibit occurring every Sunday. 

Next week Sunday on February 26th, Chan will publicly speak about the experiences she went through to create this identity and how she went about gathering her trophy-winning team. There will also be special guest appearances from Elwin Xie and Peter Joe.

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The whole purpose of this event is to story-tell the memories that these 3 individuals went through while growing up in Vancouver.

The event is already sold out, despite the event occurring 1 week from today. The exhibit is taking place at the Chinatown Storytelling Centre from 4 pm to 5 pm. Tickets were $10 per person or $5 per ticket if you are a Chinatown Storytelling Centre member. While the 3 guest speakers will only appear for this date specifically, you can still visit this upcoming event next Sunday if learning the history of Chinese-Canadians in Vancouver intrigues you. Tickets will still be $10 per person or $5 per person if you’re a member. Since this event goes on until mid-June, you still have lots of time to plan a Sunday aside for this amazing storytelling event.

What do the Canucks do at the Trade Deadline?

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Now I don’t run the Canucks, but I’ve been a fan of hockey for 15 years and feel that the Canucks aren’t making the right moves right now. Heck, they haven’t made a lot of good moves in the past 10 years. It’s been a tough few years being a Canucks fan, so today, I’m going to pretend like I’m taking over the Canucks general manager position and tell you what I would do to fix the mess the Canucks are currently in.

First things first, let me clarify: The Canucks need to blow it up and go in a full-on rebuild! No more of this “re-tool” bogus. You can’t win the Stanley Cup without home-grown talent. How many Canucks players can you name that are GOOD home-grown talents? I can only name 4, which are, Petterson, Boeser, Hughes, and Demko. Maybe we can throw in Podkolzin and Kuzmenko if we want to be generous.

But the point is, you can’t win without raising your own talent. Overpaying to trade for players or overpaying to sign someone in free agency won’t magically solve all your problems.

So here’s what we do, we trade players that will get us good returns that will not cost us in salary. What that means is we shouldn’t trade players like Garland, Ekman-Larsson, or Myers if we’re forced to retain salary at the same time. It’s just not worth it to retain salary or give up draft picks to a team to eat their salary at full, as it would likely cost the Canucks a 1st or 2nd round pick.

Instead, we trade players like Scheen and Boeser, who could yield good returns while not having to retain salary or some at the very worst for Boeser. What’s the return? I would take any young prospect who the Canucks can develop or take a draft pick. I personally wouldn’t take anything lower than a 2nd round pick for Scheen and Boeser. Both are proven to be good players in our lineup and could be amazing depth pieces for a contending team.

Anything can happen at the trade deadline, and with the Canucks trading away their captain Bo Horvat a couple of weeks ago, it shows that anything is possible, and it’s very likely the Canucks aren’t done selling their roster. Hopefully, this leads to them getting the 1st overall pick, which is the ultimate prize to give Canucks fans at least a little bit of hope after this awful season.

Vancouver Giants Vs Saskatoon Blades Pregame Analysis – February 18th

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The Vancouver Giants are set to play tonight against a top team, the Saskatoon Blades, this Saturday. 

The Giants have been off for one whole week following their loss to the Victoria Royals in brutal 6-2 loss.

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This will be the Giants’ 2nd home game of their 5-game homestand. While the Giants’ are already out of the playoff race, the Blades are not and are looking to clinch closer to a playoff birth with a victory in Saturday night’s game.

The Blades just won their most recent game against the Victoria Royals (ironically) in a 6-4 win. 

It will be a fun battle between the top stars on each team. The Giants’ top player, Fabian Lysell, is a Boston Bruins prospect and one of the best ones in their system. He was originally in trade rumors when the Boston Bruins expressed interest in former Canuck Bo Horvat. The Bruins allegedly offered a package with Lysell in other pieces for Bo Horvat. Whether the trade was denied by the Canucks or was never actually offered was never confirmed. 

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On the other side of the ice lies Vancouver’s own Trevor Wong, an undrafted prospect who is having a stellar season for the Blades. He’s in his second year playing for the Blades and currently has 20 goals and 46 assists for 66 points, leading the way for a Blades team looking to make the playoffs. He is currently crushing his previous highs in all categories. His previous highs all came last year with 17 goals and 25 assists for 42 points.

The game will be held at the Langley Events Centre at 7 pm (PST). Tickets are already sold out for this game, likely because of Trevor Wong, who will likely have lots of family and friends in attendance. While tickets are sold out, you can likely still find someone trying to sell on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, etc. If not, watching on TV is always free if you’re looking to just enjoy some Saturday night hockey.

How Did the Canucks Turn into a Dumpster Fire?

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In case you’ve been living under a rock in the hockey world this season, the Vancouver Canucks have had an abysmal season this year. In a season that brought high expectations for the team, the Canucks have fallen short of almost every expectation this season.

Last season, the Canucks had an awful start to the season as well, which resulted in the long overdue firing of former general manager, Jim Benning, and former head coach, Travis Green. When a season starts going south, those are the first 2 people to blame, but it took a while for the Canucks to finally take action and fire them. They would then bring in Bruce Boudreau as their new head coach and the Canucks magically turned their season around, so much so that they almost made the playoffs in the process.

The Canucks were only 6 points away from a playoff birth but fell short in the final few games of the season. This ultimately brought high expectations for this season seeing how they dominated under Bruce Boudreau, re-signing 99-point player, JT Miller, to a 7-year extension, and signing Russian star Andrei Kuzmenko. 

In the very first game of the 2022-23 season, they would blow a 3-goal lead to the Edmonton Oilers, blow more leads and their next games, and would be the last NHL team this season to get a win, meaning bad teams this season like the Blackhawks, Blue Jackers, and Coyotes all got a win this season before the Canucks did… yikes!

More drama of originally planning to scratch Brock Boeser during the Hockey Fights Cancer night when his father passed away from cancer, Tanner Pearson’s hand injury saga, JT Miller being rumored to be a locker room cancer, disrespecting Bruce Boudreau and dragging him to coach this team until he was rendered useless just so how classless this organization is starting to look. Not to mention the way they lowballed former captain Bo Horvat, and choosing JT Miller over him was not a good idea and hasn’t sat well with Canucks fans.

It’s been a long season that Canucks fans just want to end. Heck, they wanted this season to end 30 games ago. Nothing has gone their way and the way they’ve treated their coaches and players is a horrible look for other teams and players around the league. They are not looked at as the joke of the NHL and a laughing stock.

Here’s to hoping they turn it around next year…

Vancouver Canucks Vs Philadelphia Flyers Pregame Analysis – February 18th

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The Vancouver Canucks are set to face the Philadelphia Flyers this Saturday in a Hockey Night in Canada battle.

The Canucks have lost their last 3 games in brutal fashion, allowing 5-goals in 2 of their games and 6-goals in the other. Whether it’s goaltending or defense that’s the core issue is up for debate, but the reality is, they should not be allowing this many goals in one game, let alone 3 games.

The Flyers are also in the same boat as the Canucks, having lost their last 3 games as well. The Flyers most recently lost to the Seattle Kraken in a dominating 6-2 loss on Thursday. 

The Canucks will start goaltender Arturs Silovs for tonight’s game. The original plan was to have All-Star goaltender, Thatcher Demko, backup the starting goaltender of tonight’s game, but he reaggravated his injured knee in practice and is not out indefinitely when he was originally expected to return sometime this month. This hurts, as even the Canucks season has been lackluster (for a lack of a better word), Demko’s return would have been something to look forward to for Canucks fans despite his awful 3-10-2 record. 

The dark cloud over the Canucks organization continues to rain over them. Whichever team wins tonight will have their 3-game losing streak come to an end, while the losing team will make their losing streak come to 4 games.

After tonight’s game, the Canucks will make their way to Nashville for a road game against the Predators on Tuesday.

Former Vancouver Canucks head coach, John Tortorella, will make another return to Vancouver on the opposing side. He was the head coach for the Vancouver Canucks for one season and had a 36-35-11 record which wasn’t good enough for a playoff spot. He was replaced the next season by Willie Desjardins.

The game tonight will be on at 7 pm (PST).