In less than two weeks, Vancouver will play host to its first NHL playoff game in eight years, and the city’s fans are already getting in the mood.
“So excited I can’t believe it,” Joyce Garrison told Global News Wednesday after buying a Vancouver Canucks jersey for her grandson, Linden. And yes, he’s named after the team’s former captain.
But while fans are ready for the games to begin, there’s been no word from the city about plans for public viewing events.
The City of Winnipeg unveiled its plans Wednesday for its traditional “Whiteout” playoff street parties.
The events come with a $10 admission price, with proceeds going to local charities, and draw thousands of people to the downtown core.
Edmonton is expected to host public events in plazas outside Rogers Place, as it has done in previous years.
Looming over the prospect of Vancouver public viewing parties is, of course, the city’s famously chequered past.
Riots following losses in the 1994 and 2011 Stanley Cup Finals still weigh heavy in Vancouver’s collective memory.
Vancouver police have only said they are working with a variety of stakeholders, including the city, but do not have any specific information to share yet.
The city says it is in “early” conversations with the Vancouver Canucks and others.
“That was a long time ago. We’re done with that, we’re not going to do that. That was 13 years ago, we’re not going there anymore, it should be fine,” Fan Trina Haan, who was in Vancouver Wednesday to catch late-season games said of the city’s 2011 riot.
“If (the police) think they can get the officers down here to control the crowd, then I think let them go to whatever size they think because it’s them that’s going to be stuck with a problem if anything happens.”
Garrison said she’d like to see an event in the plaza outside Rogers Arena, or in a nearby parking lot.
“We need to do more, we don’t have enough events and we don’t have enough fun things to do for the kids especially,” she said. “I think anything is possible, clowns, circus, fun.”
The Canucks organization is also keeping tight-lipped about what’s to come, saying only that it is still working on its plans.
The Vancouver Canucks, who sit in first place in the Pacific Division, have clinched home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
The team faces off against the Arizona Coyotes Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m.
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