GAME DAY PREVIEW/THREAD: Canucks @ Seattle (in Spokane, WA) Sept 26, 2021

VANCOUVER CANUCKS (0-0-0) vs SEATTLE KRAKEN (0-0-0)

VETERANS MEMORIAL ARENA- SPOKANE, WA

6:00PM PST

TV: NOT FOR US, APPARENTLY. ROOT SPORTS NW IS SHOWING IT IN WASHINGTON STATE.

RADIO: SPORTSNET 650

OPPOSING BLOG: WELL, THIS IS AWKWARD...

A dress rehearsal in so many ways tonight as the hockey world gets its first glimpse at the NHL’s 32nd team. Well. some of the hockey world, anyway. If you live in WA, and get Root Sports, you’re covered. Or if you live in the US and have an ESPN+ account. As for this content hungry market, we’re to make due with a radio broadcast tonight (and tomorrow night as the Canucks take on the Flames in Abbotsford).

It’s funny that nothing was worked out to even get the Root broadcast shown on Sportsnet Pacific. I mean, yes it is just an exhibition game, but it’s their first, and the precedent was already there for the first game against Vegas four years ago.

So, let’s move past that and address the other thing you might have seen above: the opposition blog. Is there a Seattle Kraken SBN blog? Yes. Is it live? No. So til they make the announcement, it’s just gonna be awkward. I am sure we’ll get to banning their fans soon enough, but in the meantime if you are a Kraken fan, welcome. We’re excited for you folks as you start your journey into fandom for your hometown team, and look forward to a fun rivalry with you that begins tonight.

LINEUPS

The first thing that jumps out with this lineup is that Vasily Podkolzin is not going to be making his NHL debut tonight, meaning it will come at ‘home’ tomorrow night in Abbotsford against the Calgary Flames. The Canucks are dressing Brock Boeser, Nils Hoglander and Olli Juolevi, we do get the debut of Jason Dickinson in a Canucks uniform, Danila Klimovich’s NHL debut, along with new faces Brad Hunt, Phillip DiGuiseppe and the return of Luke Schenn. Definitely not a veteran laden lineup for the Canucks by any stretch though.

Looking forward to see (not literally, I guess) how Will Lockwood, Jett Woo, and Klimovich do tonight. The Canucks have 3 goalies listed, but I would bet that Michael DiPietro gets the bulk of the work tonight.

No sign of former Canuck Kole Lind here, but we will get a whole lot of Jared McCann tonight. This lineup is a tad more experienced than what the Canucks are icing, for sure so I guess the things to remember here are: a) it’s preseason and it doesn’t matter one bit, and b) see a). I’m more interested in personal performances than the outcome of this one.

GAME DAY CHATTER

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

As is tradition in these parts, our game previews throw a pump up song heading into the game, and one of the things I like to do with it is find bands from the city of the Canucks opponents. Today’s band is from Seattle, with a Vancouver connection.

Greyhawk are a traditional metal act from Seattle that have Vancouverite Darin Wall in their lineup. Darin was a member of a bunch of killer Van City metal acts (Entropia, 99 Mile Trip, Aggression and Mecha Messiah), and if his name sounds familiar it should, because the dude is a literal hero, taking a bullet in the leg stopping an active shooter situation outside a show the band played at Boise, ID recently. We hope he’s recovering well, and enjoy’s the game tonight.

It’s good to have hockey back, and good to have you all back, too. Enjoy the game. Go Canucks Go!