Music: {allcanada} Canucks to celebrate the 'Heart of a Canuck'

Vancouver, B.C. – The Vancouver Canucks announced today their season long initiatives to celebrate the 'Heart of A Canuck' - Courage, Honour, Humility, Integrity & Passion. This celebration will begin on opening night, Thursday, October 6th when the reigning Western Conference Champions host the Pittsburgh Penguins at Rogers Arena.

Beginning on October 6th the Canucks will honour local heroes and community leaders who uphold the same values embodied in the game of hockey. Throughout the season long celebration, the Canucks will share the many stories of Courage, Honour, Humility, Integrity & Passion displayed by their players, alumni, community partners and loyal fans on Canucks TV, Canucks.com and in-arena.

Opening Night
The 'Heart of A Canuck' season long celebration will begin with a pre-game ceremony prior to the Canucks vs Penguins game when the team will host many of their local heroes who displayed courage and passion for our great city on the night of June 15th. Representatives of local law enforcement, firefighters, paramedics, first responders and citizens will join players on-ice to acknowledge the record-setting 2010.11 Canucks season along with the many individual and team awards won by the club and its players.

On opening night the Canucks will also unveil newly installed on-ice projectors that, when partnered with the 40-foot display scrims, HD big screens and 360 degree LED display, will significantly enhance the dramatic story telling capabilities in-arena each game night.

'Heart of A Canuck' - Rick Rypien Night
The Canucks are proud to announce that they will honour the life of longtime Canucks forward Rick Rypien on Tuesday, October 18th versus the NY Rangers. Rypien was a valued member of the Canucks family for six years before his sudden passing this past summer. The organization will host the Rypien family this evening and celebrate the life of a great friend, teammate and family member of our hockey club and our fans. The Canucks organization is dedicated to building awareness and supporting children and young adults who suffer from the same challenges that Rick did.

Rogers Arena Fan Experience
In addition to the on-ice projectors installed this past off-season, Canucks fans will also enjoy several other significant upgrades to Rogers Arena for the 2011.12 season. The organization is committed to providing an exceptional fan experience and has re-invested over $45 million dollars in Rogers Arena since 2004 to develop a world class facility. This summer 480 digital LCD display monitors have been installed on both concourse levels to allow fans the ability to view live game footage from any vantage point on the concourse. In addition, the NHL's most successful fundraising 50/50 program, which generated over $1.4m for children's charities in BC last season, has been enhanced with Bump 50/50's electronic 50/50 draw displays featuring real-time jackpot updates in-bowl and throughout the concourse. Also, digital menu boards at all concessions and banner message boards have been installed to enhance the overall fan experience for all of our guests at Rogers Arena.

Local Heroes Program
Throughout the 2011.12 season long celebration, the Canucks will share the many stories of Courage, Honour, Humility, Integrity & Passion displayed by their players, alumni, community partners and loyal fans on Canucks TV, Canucks.com and in-arena. The organization is launching a Local Heroes Program that encourages fans to nominate a local hero who has displayed the Heart of A Canuck from their communities across BC. Each month a nominated hero will be chosen and provided the opportunity to attend a Canucks game. Further details on this program will be announced at the appropriate time.

Celebrate Responsibly
Canucks Sports & Entertainment is dedicated to building awareness about the importance of respecting your fellow fan and insisting others do the same to ensure responsible and passionate fan behavior. Following the independent review of the events that surrounded public viewing parties, Canucks Sports & Entertainment announced a number of initiatives planned for the 2011.12 season (Internal/External PSAs, Poster Campaign).

In keeping with the recommendations of this report, our organization plans on broadening its "Celebrate Responsibly" message external of the arena to help support future public events. We will continue to support this message in-arena and will also develop a campaign to showcase messaging of responsible fan behavior and respecting others and public property, through PSAs and a poster campaign. Further information and details about upcoming programs will be released at the appropriate time.

New Partners
Canucks Sports & Entertainment strives to provide fans with world class experiences at Rogers Arena and our partners are committed to this same initiative. We are pleased that several new partners have joined our team this off-season that are all dedicated to providing our loyal fans a first class experience and product at all times. These new partners now include Budweiser, PepsiCo. and Rona.

Canucks Family Nights
Canucks Family Nights presented by QM/FM and Cineplex give families an affordable way to watch Canucks games live. To allow more families to take advantage of this opportunity, Family Nights packages will be available for all Canucks home games this season. A Family Nights package starts at $195 and includes four tickets, a Cineplex 'Family Fun Pack', an Aramark food and beverage concession coupon and 10% off at the Canucks Team Store. Since Family Nights packages are limited in inventory and high in demand, tickets will be sold online only through ticketmaster.ca on a monthly basis with a limit of one package per household for the season to give more families the opportunity to access tickets. More details can be found at canucks.com/familynights.