Flying Skate jersey comeback? Canucks rock old-school colours at practice
Flying Skate, is that you? The Vancouver Canucks returned to practice at Rogers Arena this morning, wearing different colours.
Instead of their familiar blue and green, players were wearing black helmets, gloves, pants, and socks, with red and gold trim — shown below by Randip Janda of Sportsnet 650.
New Year, New #Canucks practice gear colours š”ā«ļø š pic.twitter.com/ko2taBlj3e
— Randip Janda (@RandipJanda) January 2, 2023
Here’s another look, courtesy of Canucks play-by-play broadcaster on Sportsnet 650, Brendan Batchelor.
Monday #Canucks practice lines
Mikheyev-Horvat-Boeser
Dries-Miller-Garland
Kuzmenko-Pettersson-Pederson
Joshua-Studnicka/Lazar-LockwoodOEL-Myers
Hughes-Bear
Dermott-Schenn
Stillman-Burroughs@Sportsnet650 pic.twitter.com/3ftdpmg3OF— Brendan Batchelor (@BatchHockey) January 2, 2023
In the past, this has been an indication that the Canucks were set to wear their wildly-popular black Flying Skate jersey in the near future.
There had been no plans to wear the Flying Skate jersey this season, at least not publicly. The Canucks have a complicated relationship with the 1990s-era uniform.
It doesn’t match the team’s current blue and green branding, yet it remains extremely popular with fans. So far, the Canucks have resisted the urge to wear it full time, or as a third jersey. But they sell loads of Flying Skate merchandise in the Canucks Team Store.
The Canucks have opted to bring the Flying Skate back periodically, as a throwback, often with little warning.
The Canucks planned to wear the jersey just once last season, but ended up wearing a second and third time, during their last two home games.
This season brought the introduction of a new “reverse retro” jersey, but there are no plans to wear the Johnny Canuck uniform again this season. The Canucks confirmed to Daily Hive in October that they will no longer be wearing the Stick-in-Rink Heritage uniform this season. It had previously been used as a third jersey.
Perhaps that opens up a spot for the Flying Skate?
A Canucks spokesperson told Daily Hive that the team is wearing the new equipment to auction off at the first post-pandemic Dice and Ice event. It would seem odd to auction off practice-worn equipment, rather than game-worn equipment, wouldn’t it?
It would also seem odd for Spencer Martin to debut brand-new Flying Skate goalie gear, just to wear in practice. Martin was wearing matching Flying Skate equipment in practice today, which is notable, because he wore blue and green coloured gear when he started the last two home games last season.
Spencer Martin didn’t have matching equipment when the Canucks wore the black Flying Skate jersey last season (Bob Frid-USA TODAY Sports)
So, when is it coming back? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Follow Channels and Categories