Welcome Matt: Home opener has potential to get uncomfortable for winless Canucks
Has there ever been a must-win home opener?
Asking for a fan base, particularly the 18,000 or so who will attend Saturday.
The Canucks (0-3-1) have the opportunity to get in the win column Thursday night in Minnesota, the final game of this season-opening five-game road trip, but can you imagine what Rogers Arena will be like if they don’t?
As our friend Brock Jackson of Bounce Radio in Osoyoos tweeted today: “Has a team ever been booed ONTO the ice for their home opener?”
Has a team ever been booed ONTO the ice for their home opener? 🤔 #Canucks #saturday
— Brock Jackson (@BrockTalk) October 19, 2022
We’ll leave that one to the historians, but you have to think the coaches and players are awfully nervous about their reception when they are individually introduced to the paying public Saturday.
In past years, there was hope the Canucks would be competitive. The blue-sky factions of the fan base had them as a playoff team. The realists thought they’d be close.
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But this year, expectations were raised. Very few subtractions, lots of additions, especially on the wing. The young core getting better, breaking out.
This is a team that is supposed to make the playoffs.
I answered our poll question that ‘yes’ it is too early to make major changes. One of the reasons I did so was because they’ve yet to play a home game and we’ve yet to see or hear the reaction from the paying public.
We know that angry crowds at Rogers Arena preceded the firing of Mike Gillis in 2014, and the dismissals of Jim Bending and Travis Green last December.
I’m not sure this crowd will be calling for the heads of Jim Rutherford, Patrik Allvin, or Bruce Boudreau, but who knows what kind of influence it could have with a rabbit-ears ownership group.