Canucks: Games to look forward to in the 2021-22 season
By Joshua Rey
Training camp for the Vancouver Canucks is less than two weeks away and games will be played sooner before you know it.
It’s been a long summer filled with heat, humidity, drinking water, and being cautious since we are still in a pandemic. Perhaps with no Canucks on you watched other sports like the Olympics, the Euro soccer tournament, tennis or the Women’s Hockey World Championships. Maybe you went to the movies (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was great. Go see it if you haven’t.) or stayed inside watching Netflix.
Whatever you did, you are likely itching for Canucks hockey to return.
It’s back to an 82-game season and normal divisions for the NHL and there is also a break from Feburary 7-22 because a handful of players will be going to the Beijing Olympics and will be competing for the respective countries.
Here are some Canucks games to be looking forward to in the 2021-22 season.
Games to look forward to:
October 13: away vs Edmonton Oilers: The Canucks will open their 2021-22 campaign at Edmonton’s Rogers Place against Connor McDavid, Leon Draisital and the Oilers. The Canucks will opening their season in Edmonton for the third straight year.
October 26: away vs Seattle Kraken: What’s Kraken, Seattle? The Canucks open the season on a six game road trip and their last stop will be in the birthplace of Starbucks Coffee and grunge music. The Kraken will be playing their first ever home game and it’s fitting that it is against Vancouver. The two teams will be playing each other for the first time in regular season play and hopefully this game has some fireworks to it and marks the beginning of a great rivalry.
October 28: home vs Minnesota Wild: After a six game road trip to start the season, the Canucks will be playing seven straight at home. The first will be against 2021 Calder trophy winner Kirill Kaprizov (That is, if he signs of course.) and the Wild. This will also be the first game at Rogers Arena with fans (that are fully vaccinated of course.) for the first time since March 10, 2020 in a game which saw the Canucks beat the New York Islanders in a 5-4 shootout win. It will be good to see and hear an actual crowd at Rogers Arena again instead of seeing tarps and hearing fake crowd noise which sounded like the screams of tortured souls in hell.
November 13: away vs Vegas Golden Knights: The Canucks will play the Golden Knights for the first time since their second round series in the bubble which saw Thatcher Demko almost single-handedly drag them to the conference finals kicking and screaming. The Golden Knights will definitely have flashbacks if he is starting. Vancouver has a 2-7-1 regular season record against Vegas and they have a 1-4 record at T-Mobile Arena. Their only win in Sin City came on October 24, 2018 which was a 3-2 shootout win. In fact, the Canucks other win against Vegas was a 5-4 overtime win at home on December 19, 2019. Maybe the Canucks can get their first regular season win against Vegas on November 13th.
December 6: home vs Los Angeles Kings: The Canucks and Kings will meet for the first time all season but this one is significant because Alex Edler will make his return to Rogers Arena for the first time since signing with LA in the offseason. Edler spent 15 years with the Canucks and is arguably the best defencemen in franchise history so expect a video tribute, a loud standing ovation and some tears to be shed. Edler still hasn’t scored his 100th career goal and it would be so fitting if he scores it in his return to Vancouver. You’ll laugh, then you’ll cry if that happens.
December 8: home vs Boston Bruins: It’s been ten years since the 2011 Stanley Cup Final but the atmosphere at Rogers Arena should be hostile and full of bitterness, especially with Brad Marchand still on the Bruins roster. The boos will come down heavily on him every time he touches the puck. When the Bruins come to Vancouver, the games are usually pretty entertaining so expect some rough stuff and some goals. This is also one of three home games that start at 6:00 P.M. Pacific and all three are on a weekday. This one is on a Wednesday and the other two are on Wednesday November 11, against the Colorado Avalanche and Monday, April 18 against the Dallas Stars.