Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
The last time the Abbotsford Canucks played at home, it was June 21 and the Charlotte Checkers were in town for Game 5 of the Calder Cup Finals. And with the Canucks up three games to one in the series, the championship trophy was in the building ready for a celebration inside a sold-out Abbotsford Centre.
But the Checkers had other plans. Jesse Puljujärvi’s pinball goal at 15:22 of overtime prolonged the series and sent both teams back to North Carolina for Game 6, which Abbotsford won to give the Vancouver organization its first Calder Cup championship.
So this weekend brings the Canucks’ return to Abbotsford for the first time this season. It is also one last chance to celebrate last season’s championship run. Friday’s home opener against the Ontario Reign meant raising a championship banner and one more opportunity to savor last season’s memories.
A lot of last season’s faces are elsewhere; only five players in the Cup-clinching lineup four months ago skated in the home opener Friday. Largely it’s a new group that will need to learn some of the same lessons that last season’s team mastered. Head coach Manny Malhotra’s team split their first four games on the road before last night’s 5-2 loss to Ontario.
As the championship banner went to the Abbotsford Centre rafters, it brought memories flooding back.
“You get shivers thinking about it,” defenseman Jett Woo said in a video feature the team released this week.
Now it’s full-steam into this season. The Canucks have another match-up with the Reign on Sunday afternoon as this weekend’s set opens a six-game homestand. Two visits from the Calgary Wranglers, an Abbotsford nemesis, await next week. After a light schedule to begin this season, games like these upcoming home dates will fully bring the Canucks into this campaign and continue the process of building another team.
But lessons from last year can be carried into this season by those players who went through the ardors of the 2024-25 campaign.
“Every guy in there was pulling their weight,” captain Chase Wouters recounted, “and when everyone’s doing that it equals success.”