Canucks: Games to look forward to in the 2021-22 season
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.
December 18: home vs Toronto Maple Leafs: A 4:00 P.M. on a Saturday start for a game against the Maple Leafs is tradition. The folks back at Toronto don’t want the Leafs to play a late game in Vancouver, it seems. The Leafs don’t have the best record in Vancouver which sits at 12-15-3 per HockeyReference, in 33 games at Rogers Arena. Toronto didn’t win any of their games in Vancouver last season and hopefully the Canucks continue that streak and an angry Steve Dangle video shortly after.
December 19: home vs Arizona Coyotes: The very next night, (at 7:00 P.M.) Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Conor Garland will face their former team for the first time since the draft day trade. Jay Beagle, Antoine Roussel and Loui Eriksson also make their return to Vancouver. Maybe they will get a tribute video or maybe not. If they do, they should use the shot of Eriksson’s face after he scored on his own net in the video. Too harsh? Yeah, too harsh.
December 27: home vs Seattle Kraken: The Kraken will make their first visit to Vancouver. Expect the atmosphere to be a good one and expect to see some fans wearing Kraken jerseys at Rogers Arena. The two teams meet again in Seattle on New Years Day, thankfully at 7:00 P.M.
January 15: away vs Carolina Hurricanes and January 16: vs Washington Capitals: Set your alarms for these games. The game against Carolina starts at 10:00 A.M. and the game against Washington starts at 11:00 A.M. So grab your milk and cereal (or whatever you eat for breakfast.) and be ready to watch the Canucks take on Andrei Svechnikov and the Canes on Saturday and Alex Ovechkin and the Caps on Sunday.
January 23: home vs St. Louis Blues: Ryan O’Reilly and the Blues will faceoff in the first of three meetings against the Canucks. These two teams will play each other for the first time since their six game series in the bubble. Canucks fans love to poke fun at Jordan Binnington and surely they will remind him of that playoff series. That is, if he starts.
January 29: away vs Calgary Flames: Not sure why we have to wait until late January for the Canucks to play the Flames but better late than ever, I guess. This is the first of four meetings. Vancouver and Calgary are without a doubt, big rivals and games between them are usually must watch. The Canucks will hope to get the better of old pals Jacob Markstrom and Chris Tanev at the Saddledome. Maybe Markstrom will try the Dominik Hasek move on Tanner Pearson again but hopefully this time Pearson gets the better of him.
Feburary 28: away vs New Jersey Devils: This will be the Canucks third game after the Olympic break and second of a four game eastern road trip. The game in New Jersey will be the second of a back-to-back with the first game being across the Hudson River against the New York Rangers. It will also feature Quinn Hughes facing off against his brother Jack for the third time in their careers. Jack and the Devils are 2-0 against Quinn and the Canucks and this is the first of two meetings this season with the Devils making the trip to B.C. on March 15. Let round one of the Hughes Bowl commence!
March 9: home vs Montreal Canadiens: Tyler Toffoli and the Montreal Canadiens make (thankfully) their only visit to Vancouver this season. Rogers Arena will have tons of fans wearing Habs jerseys so hopefully the Canucks don’t give those folks much to cheer about.
April 7 : away vs Arizona Coyotes: This will be an emotional one for Ekman-Larsson as he makes his return to Glendale after spending 11 seasons there. Expect a video tribute and some tears from OEL and from the fans not dressed as empty seats.
April 28: home vs Los Angeles Kings: The Canucks final home of the season and hopefully this game isn’t the last home game of the season.
What other games are looking forward to this season? Let us know in the comments below!