Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Vancouver’s Green Men draw Brad Marchand’s ire, sponsored trip to Boston for Games 3 and 4

Canucks Green Men

Vancouver Canucks’ fans The Green Men, Force and Scully, cheers on fellow fans during a rally in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Friday, June 3, 2011. The hockey fanatic duo announced they’ve secured a sponsor to pay for their trip to Boston next week for the Stanley Cup Finals games 3 and 4 where the Canucks take on the Boston Bruins. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Geoff Howe)

AP

While the origin of their idea wasn’t very original (it came from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”), Vancouver’s Green Men provide plenty of off-the-wall antics. Hockey isn’t always a serious game in the first place, but the body suit-wearing oddballs have a way of adding absurd humor to almost any trip to the penalty box.

Naturally, the 2011 Stanley Cup finals will likely provide the largest platform for the two wacky fans yet, something that’s evident after just one game. (For one thing, they continued their tradition of referencing their opponents’ local celebrities, holding up a cardboard cutout of Beantown’s Ben Affleck in a Canucks jersey in Game 1.)

To the surprise of almost no one, the Green Men’s various antics drew the attention (and ire?) of Boston Bruins pest Brad Marchand, according to Joe Haggerty. Marchand reportedly gave the two fans a squirt from his water bottle during a trip to the box and didn’t deny that they caught his gaze (although he claimed that they didn’t affect him or his teammates).

“I tried to squirt some water in my mouth and might have missed a bit – and it got on [the Green Men],” said Marchand.

That quick exchange was enough for the 23-year-old Bruins winger to drop a few bombs on The Green Men during his meeting with the media on Friday afternoon following a full day of practice.

“They probably paid about ten grand for those seats, so they can do whatever they want,” said Marchand. “They’re not a factor. They’re just trying to seek a little piece of fame. For the most part you just ignore them. You can’t hear what they’re saying. They look like fools anyway.

“I think it’s all dumb. What are they even doing? I’m not really paying any attention to them. I’m not gonna be wearing that suit in public. People have done that forever. I don’t know why they’re anything special. They like to yell through the box. I think they’re a little embarrassed about the way they look, so they’ve got to wear those masks.”


Marchand was reportedly glad to hear the news that the Green Men will make a rather courageous trip to Boston when the series shifts to Massachusetts for Games 3 and 4. The Green Men have traveled to other playoff locales before - most notably to the guffaws of Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman in Nashville - but this time around,
they’ll receive sponsorship for their journey.

The pair, also known as Sully (Ryan Sullivan) and Force (Adam Forsythe), announced Friday at the UBC Robson Square skating rink — in what may have been the first press conference ever held by sports fans — that Travelzoo will foot the roughly $3,700 bill for the games in addition to airfare and hotels.

“Travelzoo was the first company that was really cool about it,” said Force of their first official sponsorship deal. “They wanted to make sure we got to Boston.”

The Green Men want fans who think they are selling out to realize up until this point the two have paid for everything on their own, with a few $200 or $300 appearance fees thrown in.

“There’s very little money out of this, all of it’s gone toward tickets so far,” Force said. “We paid $700 for the tickets for round one, so we did a bar mitzvah.”


The Green Men said that they might retire their act if the Canucks win the franchise’s first-ever Stanley Cup, although Force owned up to the possibility that they might “Peter Forsberg and completely flop back on that answer.”

It’s easy to wonder how many tricks the two diehards have left up their sleeves, so “retirement” might be wise after this year. Then again, it just won’t be as thrilling to watch away teams enter the penalty box without their distracting, hysterical presences if they do retire their skin-tight outfits, hand-stands and other routines.