As playoff promotions go, this is a pretty good one: a sports bar is giving away free beer after every Vancouver Canucks goal during the team’s quest for its first Stanley Cup. And with an offer like that, you’d figure customers would be lined up out the door and around the block. But that’s not quite the case. The catch—and isn’t there always a catch?—is that Grinders Sports Bar is located in Beijing, China, where Canucks fever hasn’t exactly gripped the city of 22 million residents. However, on a small but steadily growing scale on the other side of the Pacific, there is most certainly interest in what the hockey team is up to.

Langley native Trevor Metz, 39, a former radio broadcaster in Kamloops and Prince George, is a documentary filmmaker in China who also owns and operates Grinders. Spotting a business opportunity and a chance to connect with those suffering from hockey withdrawal, he has seized the opportunity to turn his establishment into a hockey hot spot whenever the Canucks are in action.

“On game days, Grinders has pretty much become the Canucks headquarters here, and you are in the wrong place if you want to watch Ping-Pong or are looking for traditional Chinese culture,” Metz tells the Straight via e-mail after the third game of the Canucks’ opening-round series with Chicago. “We watch the games in full HD on ASN, which is a sports channel based in Asia. They just started broadcasting in Beijing about two months ago. Before that, I would get to work and put on the radio broadcasts and blare it through my sound system. Some customers would complain, but I would inform them that there was another restaurant down the road if they didn’t want to hear the Canucks game.”

Metz is one of thousands of former Vancouverites stationed around the globe who are following every move the Canucks make this spring during what could be a lengthy playoff push. Canuck Nation is spread far and wide around the planet, and that was evident following the team’s first playoff game as the radio postgame show featured phone calls from Canucks fans in New York City and Hong Kong and emails about the team from faraway places like Australia, Afghanistan, Guatemala, and Belize. You can take the hockey fan away from the Canucks, but, clearly, you can’t take the Canucks away from the hockey fans.

There is no question the Canucks brand is a powerful one; the hockey club’s reach expands well beyond Vancouver’s city limits. And the group that gathers at Grinders in Beijing is just one example of Vancouverites abroad bridging the distance by keeping tabs on the goings-on of the hockey team back home.

“We get mostly expats for the games, but we have managed to entice a few locals to join in the fun,” Metz—who has lived in China for more than six years—says of his hockey-watching clientele. “Between 30 and 40 Canucks fans will show up on weekends, and I expect that number to grow as the playoffs go on and the beer keeps flowing.”

With free beer as its hook, Grinders may soon be converting far more of the locals to our national pastime. Although with the difference in time zones (Beijing is 15 hours ahead of Vancouver), the games start mid-morning in China, when people may be more inclined to sit down with a cup of coffee. But Metz says the early starts don’t seem to be a problem for Canucks fans—and, just as you’d expect, the complimentary cold ones seem to be a hit with the hockey crowd.

“I wanted a full house for a long playoff run, as I feel this is, indeed, a special year, so I made a deal with Stella beer and we are giving away a free pint with every Canuck goal to every patron in Grinders for the game,” he explains. “Game Two was on a Saturday morning here, and we gave out almost two free kegs”¦The place was rocking, and it felt like we were home for a brief period. We high-fived and hugged people we didn’t know or just met because we were a united force. We were all Canucks. I may not be a smart businessman, but I am at my happiest pouring free beer for thirsty Canucks fans.”

If the Canucks get on the kind of run so many are expecting of them this spring, Metz will be a busy and happy bar owner. As the team progresses through the postseason, he’s putting out the welcome mat for any Vancouverites who just happen to be in his neighbourhood. And it seems like the word is already spreading among Canucks fans heading his way.

“It is actually funny, because a guy on business here in Beijing from Vancouver was sitting at the bar tonight and he told me he was listening to the postgame show on his computer in his hotel room and heard about Grinders playing the Canucks game and the free beer, so he asked the hotel staff how to find us and it turns out we were just down the street,” he says. “The guy came down and we had a pint and talked some puck.”

Two strangers brought together by their ties to Vancouver and their passion for the game of hockey. They may be a world away from Rogers Arena, but the next time the Canucks score a goal, Metz and his customers at Grinders will surely be raising their glasses and cheering the team that allows them all to feel connected to what’s going on back here at home as if they were in the middle of the action.

Jeff Paterson is a talk-show host on Vancouver’s all-sports radio Team 1040. Follow him on Twitter.