The Vancouver Canucks won’t be in the Stanley Cup Final. But a little bit of Vancouver ice will be.
In an attempt to rally support from across Canada for the Edmonton Oilers as they head into the Stanley Cup Final against the Florida Panthers, Rogers aimed to make Rogers Place not just the Oilers’ home ice, but Canada’s home ice.
They went to six hometown rinks of Oilers players, where they honed their skills long before making it to the NHL, to gather ice from those rinks to take to Edmonton to incorporate into the ice at Rogers Place, calling the initiative "This is our ice."
Three of the Oilers’ skaters are from Metro Vancouver. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins played his youth hockey at the Burnaby Winter Club, Evander Kane played at the North Shore Winter Club, and former Canuck Troy Stecher is so associated with Richmond that Canucks fans would simply call him “Troy from Richmond.”
Rogers took ice from the Burnaby Winter Club and North Shore Winter Club, as well as four other hometown rinks: Confederation Arena in Edmonton, AB, for Stuart Skinner, The Rink in Winnipeg, MB for Calvin Pickard, Harry Howell Twin-Pad Arena in Hamilton, ON for Darnell Nurse, and Magna Centre in Newmarket, ON for Connor McDavid.
Ice from each rink was packed away into thermos-like containers and stored in coolers to transport to Edmonton, with each cooler signed and dated by a representative from each rink. Once at Rogers Place, the ice was added to the Zamboni and spread across the surface ahead of Wednesday’s Game 1.
"If they win the Cup and bring it home to Canada, we're a part of it"
Former NHLer Kyle Turris, who was born in New Westminster and trained at North Shore Winter Club, is now the director of hockey at the club, and was responsible for packing the North Shore ice and sending it off to Edmonton.
Meanwhile, at the Burnaby Winter Club, director of facility operations Kevin Wright prepared the ice for transport. He is excited that some of the ice he helps manage will be underfoot — or underskate — at the Stanley Cup Final.
“It’s very exciting,” said Wright. “If they win the Cup and bring it home to Canada, we’re a part of it.”
“When they called, I thought at first they were just filming a commercial of somebody scraping some ice,” he added. “But no, this was very authentic. I had to sign the cooler with the date and the address and everything.”
Nugent-Hopkins is still a regular at the Burnaby Winter Club in the summers, renting ice for his offseason training, which also means plenty of opportunities to interact with the next generation of players.
“It’s kind of hard to hide in our facility,” quipped Wright. “Once words gets out that he’s on the ice, he draws a pretty big crowd. And he’s very good that way in taking time to take pictures and sign autographs. It’s pretty exciting for the kids.”
Wright said that Nugent-Hopkins represents a great example for the young players, as the coaching staff are quick to point out how his work ethic, not just his skating and skill, got him to the NHL.
“He was the hardest worker,” said Wright. “He was first in line at every drill and that was what got him to where he is.”
Now the kids at the Burnaby Winter Club can even say they’ve skated on the same ice that the Oilers and Panthers will play on in the Stanley Cup Final.
“If you were on the ice Saturday night, then that ice is now in Edmonton,” said Wright. “We took it from the crease, so the goalie at that end of the ice spent the most time on it.”
Many NHLers have come from the Burnaby Winter Club beyond Nugent-Hopkins, including several Canucks, like Cliff Ronning, Steve Kariya, and Mike Santorelli, who is now the director of minor hockey at the club.
That extra connection to Nugent-Hopkins and the Oilers might sway some of the young players to cheer on the Oilers in the Cup Final. The question is whether the rest of Canada will follow.
Are the Edmonton Oilers actually "Canada's Team?"
Is this the year that Canada actually rallies around “Canada’s Team?”
It’s a tough sell for Canucks fans, who remember the opposite taking place when the Canucks were in the Stanley Cup Final in 2011, with articles blasting the Canucks for being “unlikeable” and even “loathsome." Really, it’s a tough sell for a lot of Canadian fanbases, as each team’s most hated rival is statistically likely to be one of their Canadian neighbours.
Still, a rinky-dink despot’s daft threats to the Great White North’s national sovereignty have stirred a renewed patriotic fervour in Canadians of late, with hockey fans lustily booing the American national anthem and raucously cheering on Team Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off.
If ever there was a time when Canadians could rally around bringing the Stanley Cup back north of the border, this might be it.
If the Oilers can pull it off, becoming the first Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup in over 30 years, the Cup will surely be making stops in the summer at the North Shore Winter Club, Burnaby Winter Club, and, of course, Richmond. That's not quite the same as a proper Cup Parade through Vancouver, but it might be the closest Vancouver will get for a while.
