Looking for a new pump-up video to get you ready for the Vancouver Canucks playoff run? Adam Kushner has you covered.
The Vancouver-based musician and die-hard Canucks fan, who performs under the name Noble Son, recently released his new single ‘Slapshot!’ which features the singer decked out in a classic ‘flying skate’ jersey, backed by a band of referees.
Unlike much of the hockey fan-made media that circulates around playoff time, Slapshot! is more about the love of the game, and the feelings associated with it.
“I just had this idea of being a little before you have money in cars or clouds or any of that kind of stuff, that all we could do to impress someone we had a crush on was be like, look how high I can jump, or look at, look how far I can throw this ball, look at my slap shot,” he told Global News.
“I’ve just been a Canucks fan since I was born, so there was no other angle, it was like I had to have the Canucks involved … And then once I started making content for it online, the song came out right before the playoffs started, so it was like, I’m just going to make a bunch of really, you know, driven content towards helping and or trying to boost the playoff morale for the Canucks.”
The song came out a month ago, but it wasn’t long before Kushner was making connections with the Canucks.
Ahead of Game 1 of Round 1 against the Nashville Predators, Kushner posted a video tagging Rogers Arena’s music man DJ Tom Fleming hoping to get the song played in the arena.
“Total Hail Mary just being like, who knows? But I got the idea at 10 p.m., you know, I finished, finished and posted the video are scheduled to be posted at 4 a.m.,” he said.
Dozens of people jumped in to tag Fleming, who followed Kushner back and asked for a copy of the song and hinted he could play it during the first period.
“I was half expecting it to be in one of those moments where they were drop the puck and then it’s like, take a look at another one and they blow the whistle because they’re like, you know, like they need to retake the face off or something.
“I got lucky. It ended up being played right during one of those like mini commercial Home Depot, six-second breaks. So you could like hear it on the live broadcast on TV and stuff too.”
Things with the club have ramped up since then, and Noble Son is now slated to perform Slapshot! in the fan zone outside Rogers Arena before the Canucks Game 1 matchup against the Edmonton Oilers.
Kushner, who was born in Fort St. John and has been living Vancouver for a decade working as an actor and a musician, said he’s hoping the ride doesn’t stop here.
He and his fans are mounting a campaign to get the song included in the EA Sports hockey video game soundtrack, and he’s hoping the Canucks attention will help him pack an upcoming June 1 show at Vancouver’s Fox Cabaret.
And while Kushner is unambiguous about his Canucks fandom (he’s picking Vancouver in six games over the Oilers), he said the song is for everyone.
“I want to hear it playing in every arena,” he said. “I just want to hear hockey fans enjoying it.”