Canucks and NHL Preseason Announced; Rival Intensive

The NHL released the details of its entire preseason schedule, as did the Vancouver Canucks. There’s a heavy influence on the Pacific Division as you might expect, with one visit from those 2022 hockey nomads known as the Arizona Coyotes.

Because of rink considerations at their temporary mini-home on the Arizona State University campus, those desert doggies play 20 of their first 24 regular season games on the road after playing preseason games in Wichita Kansas, Tucson Arizona, Tulsa Oklahoma, Anaheim, Las Vegas, Boise Idaho, and Vancouver. Curious to see what their record looks like on December 1st.

The Vancouver Canucks meanwhile will start the preseason right after training camp with a little home and away split squad venture on Sunday, September 25th. Four nights later they start the straight up exhibition schedule with a game at Rogers Arena against the Seattle Kraken on the 29th.

October sees a road game at Seattle on the 1st, followed by a visit to the Edmonton Oilers two nights later. The Oilers follow the Canucks back to BC for a game on the 5th in Abbotsford, and the preseason schedule wraps with a game at home on the 7th against those nomadic Coyotes.

Not that it matters because it’s all about giving players a look, but the Vancouver Canucks went 2-and-5 last preseason before starting the regular season with a 3-2-and-1 record on their opening roadie. This year just six preseason dates followed by a five-game opening regular season road trip starting on October 12th in Edmonton followed by stops against the Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Minnesota Wild.

The Canucks open their home season on Saturday, October 22nd against the Buffalo Sabres. We threw out some of the niftier dates on the calendar earlier this summer for both Vancouver and Abbotsford with a quickie look at the Canucks schedule.