UPDATE — In a tweet posted Friday night, TransLink confirmed that the “Go Canucks Go” message will soon return to buses around Vancouver.
A barrage of Canucks fans took to social media after the initial Daily Hive report on Friday to call for the Canucks-centric slogan to return to the LED signage that adorns the front of Vancouver’s transit vehicles.
Well, it seems TransLink heard them all loud and clear — and they showed a willingness to poke fun at themselves in the process.
“Go Team Go! (Don’t worry, we’re changing it.)” The official TransLink news account tweeted Friday night.
It remains to be seen exactly when the “Go Canucks Go” message will return or if it’ll show up on all buses in the city. In any event, Vancouver hockey fans got their way on Friday night in more ways than one — the Canucks punched their ticket to the second round with a 1-0 win over the Nashville Predators in Game 6.
The Vancouver Canucks may be the biggest sports team in town, but they aren’t getting the same shoutout from the city’s transit authority that they once did.
According to a new report by Daily Hive‘s Rob Williams, Vancouver’s TransLink service has discontinued the use of the “Go Canucks Go” message that used to adorn the LED screens above the windshields of buses around the city.
In a conversation with a TransLink official, Williams learned that TransLink made the decision “years ago” to replace the Canucks-themed message in favour of a more generic (or, as they put it, “inclusive”) slogan: “Go Team Go.” Some Canucks fans aren’t too enthused about the change.
“Driving around Vancouver today, I saw a bunch of buses with ‘GO TEAM GO’ on the display,” Canucks fan Walter Siu tweeted back in April. “We all know it’s the Canucks. Is there really a need for this to be generic?”
Vancouver, of course, has many sports teams: the Canucks, Lions, and Whitecaps, among others. But the Canucks are clearly the top dog, and it wasn’t long ago that Vancouver city buses did read “Go Canucks Go” on the front.
Well, as TransLink explained to Williams, the current fleet of city buses can only be programmed with a limited number of pre-set messages. Evidently, “Go Canucks Go” didn’t make the cut.
The Canucks-themed message last appeared on TransLink buses during the 2011 Stanley Cup Final, back when LED screen technology was apparently more advanced. The messages did not reappear when the Canucks faced off against the Calgary Flames in the first round of the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
It remains to be seen whether Canucks fans will erupt in a chorus of “Go Team Go” chants if and when their team’s current Western Conference quarterfinal playoff series reverts back to Vancouver for Game 7 — or, of course, if the Canucks advance to face the Edmonton Oilers in the next round. Game 6 between the Canucks and Nashville Predators goes Friday at 4:00 p.m. PT.