[Ed. note: Jamie Benn, Ryan Garbutt, Ali Lucia, Vernon Fiddler and Ralph Strangis have answered the bell as of late afternoon. Their videos have been added at the end.]
The Ice Bucket Challenge was designed to go viral, a video campaign that takes only a few minutes of someone’s time to raise awareness of (and hopefully research for) ALS. And gone viral it has the past few days, particularly among NHL players.
Like we mentioned yesterday, the Dallas Stars part of this daisy chain started Thursday with Rich Peverley, who was tagged by his old teammates with the Boston Bruins. Peverley tagged Tyler Seguin and Antoine Roussel, and the Stars were off to the races.
(To answer the obvious question, no, we won’t post an update on this challenge every day it’s going on. But given that it’s the weekend, it’s August and there’s a large amount of comedy going on social media because of this, you get at least this one more).
First to join was Seguin, who went full shirt-off at the Stars practice rink for his video.
The nature of the video led to I think the greatest Twitter summary of how this thing has moved through the hockey world so far:
Sid keeps doing the ice bucket to perfect it, Marc-Andre did it dressed as a banana and Seguin did it shirtless. #NoneOfThisIsSurprising
— Jess (@glitter4goals) August 8, 2014
Sometimes, 140 characters is all you really need.
Seguin called out Jamie Benn, Kevin Connauton and Dallas Morning News beat reporter Mike Heika, adding that he hoped Mike would also go shirtless for his video.
That led to many fun comedy bits on Twitter about if Heika would rise to the task, with suggestions involving a blur edit or possibly a velvet blazer. But Heika went with his most traditional accessory –
Poor puppy.
For his part, Heika called out Ralph and Razor. Ralph, for one, seems a little hesitant to answer the bell.
@MikeHeika @tseguinofficial @Razor5Hole except I don’t own a sweater vest or have a little doggie. So there’s that.
— Ralph Strangis (@RalphStrangis) August 8, 2014
You know what to do, Stars fans.
Connauton also had an impressive turnaround time for his response and got some assistance with his bucket from an adorable dog.
The nod at the end is the best. He tagged Brenden Dillon, Jordie Benn and sideline and website reporter Ali Lucia.
Roussel also answered Peverley’s original challenge late on Friday afternoon, and although he didn’t quite match the “go hard or go home” effort of Craig Doremus from New York, it was epic in its own right with very enthusiastic guest stars and even a bit of choreography.
Roussel has tagged Alex Burrows, Ryan Garbutt and Vernon Fiddler as the next participants. We eagerly await their entries, as well as all of the others who have been tagged.
On a more serious note, the whole point of this campaign is to raise awareness of and research dollars for ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. The campaign has been working as well, as the ALS Association has seen a surge in donations this week.
If you haven’t yet been tagged to do the Ice Bucket Challenge, if you are like the Wicked Witch of the West and might melt from the water, or even if you’re just enjoying the videos, I urge you to check out the following sites and consider donating if you have the ability. We saw on the comments yesterday there are several in the DBD community who have been touched by the disease, and any money put toward research is well worth it.
By mid-day Saturday, Jamie Benn and Ryan Garbutt had also thrown their videos into the mix. Benn was up first and handled his in his usual business-like fashion.
He tagged Brenden Morrow and Alex Goligoski as well as one of his buddies from Victoria.
Garbutt’s video is a touch short, but he participated and it’s really all that matters. He called out several people, including Cody Eakin.
Finally, Ali Lucia also came through in very timely fashion with this entry, tagging Bob Sturm, Stars intern Reilly Barnes and Stars video coach Kelly Forbes. She also made a great point of mentioning the donations aspect of the campaign as well.
And Vernon Fiddler snuck in just under the 24 hour mark with some assistance from his family members:
He wants to see videos from Shawn Horcoff, Keith Yandle and Stars owner Tom Gaglardi.
Ralph appears to be lacking ice in his little tiny bucket, and he also hasn’t continued the chain by calling out, say, Darren Pang or another PBP guy. I think this calls for the “Boo this Man” GIF.
There may be more video in the Stars hopper – notably, the team’s YouTube channel doesn’t have either of Benn’s or Garbutt’s videos up yet as they were likely busy with what looked to be a very large crowd for the Seguin autograph signing at the new RallyHouse store. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few more show up later.
But still, Razor, we’re waiting…