Jason Fox wasn't hiding his love for the Vancouver Canucks.
He wore his pride on his shoulders, a bright yellow and red, '90s-era Canucks jersey, and joined the crowd at the CN Centre atrium Wednesday to show his approval once it became official.
For three days in September, the Canucks will bring their training camp to CN Centre, offering local hockey fans like Fox a rare, up-close-and-personal chance to watch the pros prepare for the upcoming NHL season.
"I grew up in the Lower Mainland and moved here five years ago and I've been a Canucks fan pretty much my whole life," said Fox. "I love (Trevor) Linden to death, ever since the '94 Cup run, and was with them the whole way and I'm stoked about the training camp. The whole organization will be here and I can't wait to meet more players. It's going to be great to see all the young prospects giving it their best. I'm going to come every day, I might have to take time off work at the pulp mill."
The training camp, Sept. 18-20, provides an opportunity for rookies to prove they belong in the NHL and for veterans to show the Canucks brass watching from the stands they've still got what it takes to wear the orca on their chests. The players will report to Vancouver for testing on Sept. 17, then fly to Prince George the following day.
The preseason begins right after the camp on Monday, Sept. 21 with the Kraft Hockeyville game in North Saanich against the San Jose Sharks.
The Canucks, who started out as an expansion team in 1970, have never staged their camp in Prince George. It was in Calgary for their first four seasons and has since been hosted in Victoria, Courtenay, Powell River, Duncan, Parksville, Kamloops, Vernon, Penticton and Whistler. In 2000, the camp was in Stockholm, Sweden.
"For me as a player, training camp was always about getting away and going to another city," said Canucks president Trevor Linden, who played 19 seasons in the NHL with the Canucks, Islanders, Canadiens and Capitals. "This is a real important time because we're going to set the structure for the team here and work off that structure we create here and this environment will be perfect.
"I don't want our players in Vancouver doing the same things they would do - taking the kids to school and picking them up - I want them to be focused on what we're doing. I want them to be around our younger players, interacting on a daily basis.
"That's why it's important to get away from Vancouver and get to a community that has so much passion for our team. I'm genuinely excited about bringing our group up here. I think of a young Bo Horvat who will come up here and has never been here and he'll realize these people really care about this team and that's important. I want our players to see how passionate the fans are in Prince George and how special the team is to them."
The Prince George Cougars will be near the end of their WHL exhibition season and will give the Canucks access to their dressing room, coaches offices and training facilities for the duration of the camp. The Cougars-Kamloops Blazers exhibition game, the only preseason game this year at CN Centre, will have to be rescheduled to accommodate the Canucks.
Cougars president Greg Pocock said the Canucks camp will provide a perfect lead-in to get local hockey fans enthused about the start of the Cougars' season in late September.
"The buzz is out there," Pocock said.
"People are so excited and the turnout today on a beautiful summer morning to get fans down here in this number to see Trevor and the big news is an indication how excited people are for it and I know September's going to be great."
Cougars business manager Andy Beesley, a former CN Centre manager, said the Canucks had discussions with the city several years ago about bringing their camp here, but until now nothing ever materialized.
"I think a lot of it had to do with the state of the Cougars a couple years ago," said Beesley.
"We're hoping our players will get a chance to watch and be part of this because obviously we want the pros to wear off on our guys too."
Between 50 and 60 players will be coming for the Canucks' camp. They'll be broken up into groups of three and each group will be on the ice once per day for a 90-minute session. All on-ice sessions will be open to the public. The rinks at CN Centre and Kin 1 will be used. Kin 1 will be left at Olympic ice dimensions for the camp.
The Canucks will also engage in off-ice training activities and will be available for autograph sessions during the weekend. An event which will involve the Canucks and minor hockey players is being planned for Sunday, Sept. 20.
