Hi there!

Welcome back, it’s great to see you again.

Frankly I wasn’t sure if this column would make it to week 2, it’s been rough for the Canucks optimists of the world this last little bit.

But unlike Dot Comedy, the side-splitting American sitcom that lasted all but one episode before being canned, Optimist Prime is back for more.

Since last week’s column was just an introduction, I’m treating the second week, well, like a second date. It’s time you found out what makes OP tick.

I was born in Hope, BC, to parents Faith and Felix. Growing up I was always taught that no matter how hard life gets, it’s important to keep things in perspective because at the end of the day, a lot of things don’t matter in the bigger picture.

Naturally, this led to the most optimistic upbringing you’ve ever seen. At age six I was bedridden with some mystery illness that routinely emptied my breakfast, lunch or supper onto the floor. Did this bother me? Heck no, I got to watch Thundercats all day.

When I was nine-years-old I got hit by a car while biking and broken bones aside, I was simply relieved it was a BMW that mowed me down and not a Ford.

I took the upside of getting worked over by a bully at age 16 as well. After his fists rearranged my ribs, he kicked sand in my face. Forget the gritty pebbles in my eyes, mouth and up my nose, the sand helped exfoliate my skin and clear up my ache. Goodbye pizza face!

You get the picture, I’m foolishly optimistic.

That’s why when the Vancouver Canucks start the season 0-3, I don’t freak out. If they were an NFL team then sure, it’s time to absolutely FrEak OuT. The Canucks are not a football team, which most local scribes (see left) have yet to realize. That makes what they were writing during this past week absolutely laughable. I heard after Vancouver’s loss to Columbus that one reporter wrote an open letter to Jim Balsillie begging him to end our misery and move the team to Hamilton.

Then the Canucks spanked the Canadiens and the optimist in us all resurfaced. Fans cheered, the players smiled and even the writers took it easy on the team, perhaps cluing into the fact that there’s still 78 games to go.

Having said that, over the next 78 games the Canucks are going to lose again, at least once. When that happens, let’s learn from the beginning of this season and just reeeeeeeeelax. Keep in mind that losing is struggling and some struggles are worth it in the end.

When Vancouver loses another game all us optimists need to unite, stand tall and look those pessimists in the eyes and say Baa-ram-ewe. Baa-ram-ewe. To your city, your province, your team be true. Canucks fans be true. Baa-ram-ewe.

If that doesn’t work, take a page from the book of the bombastic ladies who taught Ryan Kesler and Kevin Bieksa a thing or two about NHL 2K10 and threaten to bake the pessimists into a lemon bar and eat them.

Either way the optimists win.

Who is Optimist Prime? He’s an eternal Canucks believer whose glass is always half full, even when it’s empty.

Throughout the 2009-10 season, Optimist will take a lighthearted look at the Canucks while never losing the faith. It’s Cup time baby!

Now that we’ve had a good couple months in Vancouver, we’re all settled into life here and surprisingly, the transition has been very smooth. The whole family loves the city and the kids love the school so everything’s been great so far.

With the busy schedule it’s been a little difficult to really see the city but my kids and I have had some time to do a little bit of sightseeing via biking up and down Jericho Beach and Spanish Banks. I’ve got a baby seat on the back of my beach cruiser so Ella sits there while the other kids bike with me.

We tend to gravitate towards this woodsy area near the Yacht Club because there are rabbits running around everywhere and my kids just want to go rabbit hunting when we go out there. We go there and feed them and chase them around – Abigail has even started naming them!

Three of the kids are in school and everything’s been great so far except for an issue with the boys: their hair is too long. The school has a code where the boys’ hair has to be no longer than the top of their collar and our boys are California surfer boys so they’re just used to the long hair. In California, their hair is short compared to some of the other kids.

We got Mathieu Jr’s hair cut once already but it wasn’t quite short enough. I think she secretly (or not so secretly) is trying to hold on to it – she’s pretty much going to get it cut inch by inch until it’s short enough. I think the boys might be taking after me a little bit – well at least when I was younger – because I used to have long hair when I was a kid too but not as long as they have it. We’ll get that all under control shortly I’m sure.

My kids are something I will never get tired of talking about so I’ll give you a breakdown of each of them so you kind of know them a little bit as I talk about them in the coming year. Like all kids, they are all very different and have very unique personalities. Here’s the pecking order:

Mathieu Jr is a bit of a mama’s boy and a typical boy – he’s kind of scatterbrained, a little sloppy and he loves hockey. He just started with the Thunderbirds out at UBC and he’s pretty excited about that.

My oldest daughter, Abigail, is the diligent one – she’s left handed, very detailed, studies hard and loves to read. We think she’s going to be our doctor or lawyer.

Neither my wife or I are left-handed but we think our second son, Micah, might also be left-handed too but actually we’re not sure – he might be ambidextrous. He writes with both, throws with both but I’m not sure if he’s scatterbrained or if he’s just able to use both hands. He’s our wildcard, you never know what you’re going to get with him. He’s go, go, go all the time but when he crashes, he’s down hard and he can sleep 12 hours straight.

And Ella, the three year-old runs the house – she’s the princess. Whatever she wants, everyone (me, my wife, and the kids) jumps and tends to her need and she knows it.

Getting to some hockey… the rehab has been going great and I’m feeling really good and practicing with the team everyday. I haven’t been able to get out of the rink in under three hours too much these days so I’ve been putting in a lot of time here, which is good. I’m looking forward to getting into the lineup soon, hopefully by the end of the month.

Right now, it’s really about taking it one week at a time and I haven’t had any setbacks, everything’s been really positive and I’m getting stronger so there’s no reason to believe I can’t be in by the end of the month but it’s something I’ll discuss with the doctors and the trainers.

The practicing can be monotonous and there have been stages where at the beginning I wasn’t on the ice with the rest of the guys and that was frustrating. Once I got back on the ice, I was skating double sessions and doing two practices at the end of training camp. On the positive side, I’m in great shape and on the negative side, I have been getting a little antsy. I wanted to get into that first game but I want to be able to have an impact when I come in so it’s a good thing that I’m taking this time to really get better before I come back.

Sorry it’s been so long since the last time I wrote, as you can tell, it’s been very busy here with everything that’s happening.

I want to take some time to reflect on my time here and hopefully not the last of my time here but being my first training camp and NHL preseason, everything has been great.

The preseason games were a lot of fun and I felt really good out there. I remember the game in Anaheim, I was just skating in warmup and I wasn’t really paying attention and then all of a sudden, I looked across and Scott Niedermayer was standing right beside me. He’s one of the guys I grew up watching and looking p to so it was pretty weird. During the game, I didn’t notice too much when or whether we were on the ice together but I know he was there at some points. He didn’t say anything to me but I didn’t say anything to him either – not really sure what I would say but I know that was one of the moments that I’ll definitely remember.

My first game at GM Place was against the Oilers and I noticed a difference playing on home ice for sure. All Canadian arenas have great fans and are loud and a huge part of coming to Vancouver is seeing the fans so it was a great experience. I’ve never seen a game as a fan at GM Place but playing here is amazing and it’s such an experience seeing the fans and being part of the team. Getting a taste of it – even if it is in the preseason – is motivation for me to keep working harder so I can be part of this everyday.

The biggest difference between life in college and the NHL is all the time off. At school, I would have practices and games, but then I would have to go study and go to class so all that time is constantly filled. We have practices and games here and we work hard at it but after practice, we often get the whole day off so that’s nice and it’s good to have that time to recuperate and rest up for the next day.

Something else that’s noticeably different is the travel in the NHL. There are a lot more luxuries traveling with the Canucks – that’s for sure. In college, I got really familiar with the stinky bus, where we’d travel within Minnesota and Michigan and fly to Colorado but it’s nothing like the Canucks plane, as I’m sure you can imagine.

But I think the best part of being here is playing with all the NHL players. I’ve learned so much from the d-men in the locker-room and I know that it’ll be invaluable for my growth as a player. They’re great players and a lot of them have been around for a while so I’ve learned a lot from those guys, just watching them, seeing their habits in practice and in games, it’s helped me a lot.

Finally, I want to thank everyone for reading the blog – especially everyone in Forestburg – and all the support. Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep everyone updated somehow throughout the year.