Here's An Awesome Story About A Seattle Kraken Fan Saving The Life Of A Vancouver Canucks Equipment Manager And How Both Teams Came Together To Thank Her
Christopher Mast. Getty Images.There will come a time when the Seattle Kraken and Vancouver Canucks become heated rivals. It makes sense geographically, and it also makes sense considering both of their mascots are aquatic beasts. But you think of some of the all-time rivalries that have played out throughout the course of history. Tom and Jerry. Batman and the Joker. Light vs Dark, death vs life. On the surface, sure, they appear to be adversaries. But at the core of their relationship? Both sides need each other. One simply would not exist without the other. There's a razor thin line between your biggest enemy and your best friend.
Which is what we recently saw transpire between the Kraken and Canucks when they came together for something that means much more than a game. For something that means way more than 60 minutes of hockey and 2 points in the standings. It all started back at the Kraken's first home game in October when they hosted the Canucks.
Red Hamilton is Vancouver's assistant equipment manager. During the game, a fan sitting behind the Canucks bench noticed that he had a mole on the back of his neck and alerted him that it was cancerous. Now typically I can't stand fans who bang on the glass at hockey games. But when it comes to trying to get the attention of a member of the staff so you can tell him to get that mole checked out, well that was the biggest play of the game that night.
So the Canucks played in Seattle again last night and Red Hamilton wanted to thank this fan who ultimately saved his life. Luckily the internet did it's thing and they found at that fan was Nadia Popovici.
And obviously getting a chance to thank Nadia in person was great for Red Hamilton. This is someone who went out of their way and made sure he still gets a full shot of life. But that wasn't all the Canucks and Kraken had for Nadia. She's a future medical student, so both teams came together to give her a $10,000 scholarship towards that tuition.
Awesome story. Awesome gesture. It's crazy to think about how this world works. It just so happens that the Seattle Kraken joined the league this year. It just so happened that Nadia Popovici was sitting in those seats that night in October. It just so happened that she had the persistence to make sure she got the message to Red Hamilton. Who knows where this story is at if everything didn't like up perfectly like that, but it's incredible that they did. Just one of those moments where you realize there's a little more to life than a bunch of guys flying around a sheet of ice with razor blades attached to their feet trying to put a little black rubber disc into the back of a net.