Canucks/Rangers Game 8 Never Officially Recognized

The Vancouver Canucks will host the New York Rangers tonight at Rogers Arena in what the team has officially dubbed “90’s Night”. The Canucks lost a heartbreaking Game 7 against the Rangers back in 1994 that awarded New York the Stanley Cup. It still leaves a sore spot in the memories of many fans, but there’s been an even more crushing loss since then. Living through 2011 in the age of Twitter made that run special because fans were able to connect with each other in a different way and create a different uprising.

(Not a riot. Although that also happened again.)

When the Canucks played the Bruins the next season after losing the Cup in 2011, fans nicknamed the first post-Cup Final rematch “Game 8”. The Canucks won the grudge match 4-3 in spectacular fashion. Cody Hodgson went bar-down. It was legendary. They didn’t award Vancouver the Cup that day, but it gave some fans a small sense of closure.

Now, unless I’m missing something, we’ve never properly recognized “Game 8” versus the Rangers. They’ve played each other 32 times since then and they didn’t even get an opportunity to have a proper rematch until a year and a half later where the Rangers took the next two games both in New York and the return game in Vancouver.

The games were split in waves over the next two decades, including the latest matchup back in October with the Canucks edging out the Rangers 17-12-0-3 since that June 1994 night. Vancouver had a -3 goal differential in that time with 92 GF and 95 GA.

Enough is enough. Saturday night ends all the waiting and the Canucks and Rangers will finally play the Official Game 8™ and Canucks Army is where you’ll find out why it’s so important.

Vancouver made their run back in ’94 as the underdog, but this time around, the Canucks may be in the driver’s seat. After the win against the Blackhawks on Thursday, the Canucks are the hottest team in the NHL with a six-game win streak. The Rangers, however, have lost their last two games and barely beat the Leafs in OT.

Will the Canucks be expected to win this one? Absolutely. Will the Skate jerseys be the reason? Maybe.

It’s kind of tough to drop the whole #game8redux when a ton of players in the game weren’t even alive when the ’94 series happened, so this grudge match for the unofficial Stanley Cup will probably have a tough time living up to the last Game 8.

Thankfully, there was a bit of ammo from the last game to carry over to this one:

Add to all of this the Skate jersey making its triumphant return and you’ve got a recipe for a strong rematch. It’s a shame Henrik Lundqvist can’t rock a Mike Richter combo, but that would probablybe asking too much.

In the aftermath of Game 8, we can finally allow 1994 to be put to rest and move on to the next great loss in 2023. Imagine needing to avenge a Cup loss against the Blue Jackets?

That would be something.

Until then, this will have to do.