Banner flying around Vancouver right now is making a Canucks jersey demand

Jan 5 2023, 10:07 pm

It’s a movement that can’t be stopped. #FreeTheSkate has gone from Twitter to the air in an apparent demand for the Vancouver Canucks to wear their beloved Flying Skate jerseys again.

There’s a plane flying around Vancouver today carrying a banner that reads #FreeTheSkate.

free the skate plane

A #freetheskate banner flies above Vancouver (Megan Devlin/Daily Hive)

It’s not the first time we’ve seen a Canucks-themed banner in the sky. A #FireBenning banner flew from the sky on April 21, 2021, while an #AquiliniOut banner flew a month later.

It comes just two days after a fan was shown on the big screen at Rogers Arena with a #FreeTheSkate sign.

And it comes years after Wyatt Arndt (@TheStanchion) started the hashtag on Twitter in an effort to encourage the team to bring back their 1990s-era jersey.

 

Canucks players have been wearing black Flying Skate equipment at practice recently, but the team hasn’t said that they’ll be wearing them this season.

There is room for the Canucks to add a third jersey into their rotation this year, though that would need to be approved by the NHL well before the start of the season. Perhaps it already has, secretly.

The Canucks ditched the Heritage jersey as their official third uniform prior to this season. They unveiled a new reverse-retro uniform but wore it for the final time this season in December.

The black Flying Skate jersey was worn in back-to-back home games at the tail end of last season, which raised suspicions for yours truly. If it were a uniform they were going to use going forward, it would make perfect sense.

Until a fan claims responsibility for the sign in the sky, it remains possible that this is an elaborate marketing stunt by the Canucks. Even the apparent fan shown on the Rogers Arena video screen Tuesday seemed suspicious, given how many times fake fan plants have been in the arena in recent years. There wasn’t anyone seated next to him, and he was shown on the big screen for a long time, particularly if the sign wasn’t approved.

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