📝 WYATT'S BLOG

🏒 The Canucks 2000s: A Love Letter to the Naslund Era

There's a certain kind of pain that Canucks fans know well. The 2000s were a rollercoaster — Markus Naslund climbing the franchise scoring charts, Todd Bertuzzi at his terrifying best before everything fell apart, and eventually the Sedin twins weaving their way into franchise history.

But man, those jerseys. The blue and green with the orca logo — that's the one. BC Place rocking on a Tuesday night in November. The smell of wet pavement outside Rogers Arena (it was still GM Place back then). That's Vancouver hockey to me.

The 2002 and 2003 runs were cruel. The team was right there. Luongo arriving in 2006 felt like the start of something. And in some ways it was — the 2011 run to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final is still the greatest and most heartbreaking sports experience of my life.

But the 2000s foundation was everything. This post is for that era.

🏀 Vancouver Grizzlies: The Team That Got Away

Six seasons. That's all we got. The Vancouver Grizzlies arrived in 1995 as part of the NBA's expansion into Canada, alongside the Toronto Raptors. The teal and purple colour scheme was ahead of its time — honestly it still looks incredible today.

Bryant Reeves — "Big Country" — was the first franchise player, a 7-foot centre who showed flashes but never quite reached his potential. Shareef Abdur-Rahim was the real star: a smooth, skilled forward who deserved a better team around him.

The Grizzlies never cracked 30 wins in a season while here. The building was often half-empty. In 2001, they packed up and moved to Memphis. But Vancouver never forgot. The teal jerseys still show up in the streets of the Lower Mainland. The love never died.

There's talk every few years about bringing an NBA team back to Vancouver. The Rogers Arena is ready. The fanbase is hungry. Please NBA. Please.

⚽ Whitecaps FC: BC Place in the Blue & White

The Vancouver Whitecaps have been around in various forms since 1974 — longer than the Canucks' current run of success, longer than the Grizzlies' entire existence here. They joined MLS in 2011 and while they've had their ups and downs, there's nothing quite like a summer evening at BC Place watching the Caps work through the midfield.

The Cascadia Cup rivalry with the Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers is some of the best regional sports tribalism in North America. Vancouver vs. Seattle in soccer has an edge to it that feels authentic. The Lower Mainland soccer culture is real and growing.

Here's to the Caps finding their groove and making another deep MLS Cup run.

🏭 A New Chapter: From Sawmills to Seaspan

After years at Mainland Sawmills — from the green chain to the filing room — I closed that chapter in 2025 and stepped into something new: Production Controller at Seaspan ULC.

Shipbuilding is a different world from lumber, but the fundamentals are familiar: planning, scheduling, coordination, keeping complex operations moving. The scale is bigger, the stakes are higher, and I'm learning something new every day.

Metro Vancouver has so much going on industrially and logistically. I'm glad to be a small part of keeping it running.

Here's to what's ahead. 🌊

🌲 Why the PNW Has My Heart Forever

I grew up in the Lower Mainland and I can't imagine being anywhere else. The North Shore mountains visible from downtown. The way the rain makes the cedar smell in late October. The SkyTrain rattling across the bridges at night with the city lights reflecting in the Fraser.

People from other places complain about the rain. Fine. More space on the trails for the rest of us.

From Dr. Charles Best Secondary in Coquitlam to working the docks in North Van — the PNW has shaped everything about how I move through the world. This site is my small corner of it.

604 forever. 🌧️🌲