NHL Vancouver Canucks On October 9, 1970, the Vancouver Canucks played their first game. Named after 1950’s super hero ‘Johnny Canuck’, Vancouver was thrilled to finally have a NHL franchise. It had fifty years since the Vancouver Millionaires’ had had their hockey heyday in the 1920’s. The Canucks blue and green uniform was marked by a hockey stick slashed ‘C’. For the 1978-79 season the Vancouver Canucks premiered a dramatic new orange and black uniform with a vibrant ‘V’ splashed over the chest. Accepted warmly by some in the NHL, most mocked the jersey, even calling it “the ugliest and most gaudy in all professional sports.” The radical ‘V’ logo was eventually replaced in 1985-86. The new Vancouver Canucks jersey featured a skate logo (taken from the arm of the former sweater). Still skating around convention, the Canucks replaced the traditional white colours of a jersey for home games with a vibrant orange on the ice of the Pacific Coliseum. After the team was sold to Orca Bay in the mid-1990’s, the new owners tried to change the name of the Vancouver Canucks to the Orcas. After a public uproar, a compromise was met through a new jersey. Orange was replaced by more marketable black and white with red, blue and silver, and the skate was changed to the current killer whale logo, nicknamed ‘Free Willy’.

1970 Jersey Hand Painted Polyresin 1985 Jersey Hand Painted Polyresin 1975 Jersey Away Jersey Hand Painted Polyresin Home Jersey Hand Painted Polyresin

Facts and Figures Official Web Site: www.canucks.com T.V. Stations: VTV (Ch. 9), CTV Sportsnet Radio: CKNW 98 (AM 980) Arena: GM Place Capacity: 18,422 Franchise Date: May 22, 1970 Team colors :   Deep Blue, Deep Red, Sky Blue, & Silver Minor League Affiliates: Syracuse Crunch (AHL) Stanley Cups: none 2002-03 Season: Finished 2nd, Northwest Division & 4th, Western Conference GP  82 W   45 L   23 T   13 GF 264 GA 208 PTS 104