Photo Credit: Anne-Marie Sorvin/USA TODAY Sports

The Vancouver Canucks will celebrate the 20th anniversary of their home rink – formerly GM Place, now Rogers Arena – this season, and they’ll do so with a variety of themed nights. 

We already knew this, and already knew that the retro 90s skate logo would be part of the festivities, but the full gamut of the club’s plans was revealed on Thursday and from Vancouver Grizzlies night to a celebration that name-checks Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton, there are some eclectic choices to say the least.

You can see the full list here, but we’ll offer some thoughts on the other side.

Beyond the obvious celebratory days: the home opener, the regular season finale, and the game against the Toronto Maple Leafs at which the retro skate will be worn; one of the more heavily advertised themed nights at Rogers Arena this year will be on Nov. 2nd against the Philadelphia Flyers and will celebrate the first time an NBA game was played in Vancouver with Vancouver Grizzlies night. 

Hopefully this guy makes an appearance:

(Courtesy: Sammy Jonas Samey)

Or even better (there’s really no chance, though):

(Courtesy: @JamieOGrady) 

On December 7th, in what’s sure to be a somewhat more meaningful night for hardcore Canucks fans, the club will celebrate the accomplishments of the West Coast Express line (Markus Naslund, Brendan Morrison and Todd Bertuzzi) during a game against the Buffalo Sabres. Very few figures get Canucks fans rowdy and excited like Bertuzzi does, so you’d have to think that could be a boisterous crowd. Hopefully the team will honour the West Coast Express era appropriately on that evening by manufacturing five goals and still finding a way to lose.

On Nov. 22nd against the New Jersey Devils the club will celebrate Rogers Arena’s ‘greatest guests’ including Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton and the Vancouver Voodoo roller hockey team. Okay. Sure.

On Dec. 3rd the club is celebrating their rich history of goaltenders with an evening titled “Mac to Miller and everyone in between.” That’s not playing with fire in the slightest, especially with the club facing the legitimately fearsome Dallas Stars offense that night…

Perhaps a safer play was the club’s decision to celebrate the gold medal that Team Canada won at Rogers Arena (renamed something generic during the Olympics for advertising reasons) during Roberto Luongo’s return to Rogers Arena on January 11th. That could be a cool moment, actually. You know for sure that it’ll be a loud moment.

It’s also probably worth noting that ‘Cult Classic’ Canucks like Jeff Cowan and Rory FIrtzpatrick will be celebrated on Mar. 1st against the New York Islanders. Fingers crossed that the club decides to also invite Eric Weinrich to the event, and to hand out yellow visors to the first 5,000 fans that show up.

It’s a rich list of festivities, with some touching evenings thrown in (a night that pays tribute to Rick Rypien, Luc Bourdon, Pavol Demitra and company could be particularly emotional), and significant potential for unintentional comedy. The only thing missing, really, is a night celebrating Mark Messier’s unforgettable contributions to the franchise.