For all the intensity on the ice, the rivalry between the Vancouver Canucks and the Chicago Blackhawks extended beyond the rink during the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs. Former Vancouver Canucks assistant general manager Laurence Gilman joined Matt Sekeres and Blake Price on the Sekeres and Price show, where he shared an amusing yet tense off-ice encounter during Game 4 of their Western Conference quarter-final series.
The Canucks were in the midst of a heated battle with the Blackhawks, who were trying to claw back in the series after Vancouver took a 3-0 lead. The tension boiled over during Chicago’s dominant 7-2 win in Game 4, and it wasn’t just between the players. Gilman, alongside Canucks general manager Mike Gillis, found themselves in an unexpected verbal spat with Blackhawks fans while seated in the arena’s upper reaches.
“We were moved to this ancillary suite, which was right where the fans were,” Gilman recalled. Typically, the visiting team’s staff wouldn’t sit in such close proximity to fans, but an unusual setup forced the Canucks executives to share space with boisterous Blackhawks supporters. “Before the game started, they were joking with us, but as the game went on and it became nasty, the vitriol started to rise.”
The real spark occurred after a controversial hit by Canucks forward Raffi Torres on Blackhawks defenceman Brent Seabrook, which further enraged the Chicago crowd. Gilman explained that a fan beside him began to protest the legality of the hit. “One of the guys turned to me and said, ‘Seabrook didn’t touch the puck,’” Gilman said. “And I looked at him and said, ‘It doesn’t have to touch the puck for the hit to be real.’”
But the exchange didn’t stop there. The playful back-and-forth soon escalated when another fan hurled a barrage of insults at Gilman, prompting a sharp response. “I suggested that he go home to his mother’s basement,” Gilman recounted, laughing at the memory. “And that’s what set the whole thing on fire. I actually thought Mike Gillis was going to jump into the crowd to beat the living daylights out of everybody in sight.”
Reflecting on the heated exchange, Gilman admitted that he felt a little bad afterwards, but not entirely. “He turned 16 shades of purple,” he said, referring to the fan’s reaction. “But he wasn’t the one who really instigated the crowd.”
The anecdote highlights the intensity of the Canucks-Blackhawks rivalry during those playoff years. Vancouver would go on to win the series in seven games, ultimately reaching the Stanley Cup Final. However, for Gilman, that moment in the stands became part of the unforgettable lore surrounding one of the fiercest playoff battles in recent memory.
