In what has been an awfully dreadful season with lots to be discouraged about surrounding the Vancouver Canucks, the youngsters in this organization are still finding ways to keep things light around the rink.

As we touched on in today’s Scenes from morning skate, I witnessed young defencemen Zeev Buium, Tom Willander and Elias Pettersson having some fun following Monday morning’s practice.

Those three players stayed well after the practice session wrapped up and were still out there when I concluded media and headed upstairs to finish writing Scenes from practice.

At first, the three were just doing a bit of a shoot around. In the offensive zone, Buium set up at the net front and tipped home a Pettersson point shot. He put his arms up in celebration, head to the corner boards and yelled, “And the crowd goes wild!” In a wholesome moment, the three actually celebrated and hugged each other along the boards as if they scored in a real game.

After that, they were trying to flip pucks back into the bag in between the benches. But then the fun began, and the three dropped their gloves at centre ice.

First up, it was Buium vs. Willander. Buium pumped up the fake Rogers Arena crowd, and then the two squared off. The two would exchange fake punches before they split apart. Then Pettersson, acting as the ref, grabbed Buium. But it didn’t end so well for Pettersson, as Buium scored the takedown and proceeded to celebrate his fight victory.

You can watch the full video below!

At the end of today’s morning skate, I went into the locker room to ask them if it was okay to share it with the fans, to which they were eager about.

Willander and Pettersson were both in their stalls when I first confronted them about it. Willander said, “Oh no, we got clipped.” But by the time the video ended, both players were laughing hysterically. While laughing after the video, Willander said, “That’s what one lunch with Kevin Bieksa will do to ya!”

Shortly after, Buium came off the ice and into the Canucks locker room. He came over, and the guys were excited to show him, too. Once Buium saw the video, he waved Linus Karlsson over and said, “You gotta watch my takedown on Junior.” A crowd formed, all watching the video, and once the takedown came, there was a big “Ohhhh!” roar, followed by laughter and some guys chirping Pettersson.

This new wave of young players is breathing some character and personality into the team. The players are forming a bond in the locker room, aside from hockey, which is something Buium said after Friday’s practice was something that he was trying to bring to the team:

“Me and Tom hangout a lot. So we’re on the ice together, and I see him succeed, I’m happy for him, and he’s happy for me. We want to see each other succeed. With this group, I think that’s what it’s becoming: everybody just wants to see each other succeed. There’s no odd-man out, and everyone’s kind of in it together. That’s what I’m trying to bring. I’m trying to be connected with everybody and make it feel like we’re not just a team, we’re best friends, brothers. You spend so much time with each other, 8-9 months of the year, it’s a lot of time. If you aren’t close with each other, it’s just going to be miserable.”

With 13 games remaining on the Canucks’ schedule – all but being against a team currently in the playoffs or in the playoff hunt – there may not be a lot of wins down the stretch, but at least the youngsters are still finding ways to make hockey fun again for the Canucks.