It’s always more fun in a crowd, even when no players are actually on the ice, and are beamed in on the arena video board.
The Victoria Royals of the Western Hockey League will be hosting a viewing party Saturday evening at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre for Game 6 of the second-round NHL playoff series between the Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers. The major-junior Royals’ ultimate aim is to produce NHL players, for whichever team drafts them, but the organization also knows which NHL team its Island fanbase mostly supports and follows. Here’s a clue — this is the capital of sa国际传媒, not Alberta.
Tickets are $10 with proceeds going to the Moose Hide Campaign, a non-profit organization helping raise awareness about gender-based violence on the Island and across the country. Moose Hide Campaign Day is today, with supporters and advocates wearing moose-hide pins.
The Memorial Centre doors will open at 6 p.m. Saturday with puck-drop in Edmonton still listed as TBA, although the previous two games in the Alberta capital began at 6:30 PT. Most of the Memorial Centre amenities of a regular game night will be available, including alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and a variety of food options.
The best-of-seven series between the two remaining Canadian teams in the 2024 Stanley Cup tournament is tied 2-2 heading into Game 5 tonight at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.
The last Canadian team to hoist the Stanley Cup was the Montreal Canadiens in 1993. The Canucks have never won the Stanley Cup. The last sa国际传媒 team to do so was the Victoria Cougars in 1925. The Oilers, a former dynasty, won their last of five Stanley Cups in 1990 and are hoping the Connor McDavid-Leon Draisaitl era breaks that drought, so the storylines are compelling.
The Canucks, long in the hockey wilderness since a run to the Stanley Cup final in 2011, have again suddenly ignited puck passion across the province among fans from Duncan to Dawson Creek and Sooke to Salmon Arm. Big-screen viewing parties in Vancouver, for the two games in Edmonton this week, have sold out Rogers Arena with the $15 ticket price going to the Canucks for Kids Fund.
The Abbotsford Centre, home rink of the AHL Abbotsford Canucks, has also been hosting arena viewing parties, as have smaller venues in Delta, Maple Ridge, New Westminster, Burnaby and Coquitlam.
Because of the downtown riot that erupted following the Game 7 loss to the Boston Bruins in the 2011 Stanley Cup final, outdoor viewing parties for the Canucks in the City of Vancouver this year are restricted to 2,000 people or fewer and only in prescribed parks.
• Hockey fans in Campbell River may want to head to the courtyard between the Tidemark Theatre and the Campell River branch of the Vancouver Island Regional Library tonight.
An 85-inch screen will be showing Game 5 between the Canucks and the Oilers.
Viewers are welcome to show up — with their own comfy chairs — at 6:30 p.m. to cheer on the team. The game begins at 7 p.m.
Additional games may be streamed as playoffs progress.
