It’s quite a hike from the Douglas firs in Stanley Park, snow-capped Grouse Mountain or a Pacific Ocean sunset.
But Toronto-based Vancouver Canucks fans who’ve been squeezed on all sides by Leafs Nation, now at least have a team-themed watering hole of their own. Score On King, which opened 10 months ago downtown at Church and King St. East, is declaring itself sovereign Canucks territory, in the spirit of Leafs bars established in other Canadian NHL cities.
Hogtown has many proud transplants from British Columbia and with the Canucks making their only Toronto stop of the season on Saturday, it’s time to ‘whale’.
“We’re trying to build a Canucks’ community,” said Score on King’s manager Dan Skokan, a native of North Delta, B.C. “I think there are Canucks fans here starving for something such as this or who are travelling through Toronto and want to see their team.
“I’m more than happy to get it going, for selfish reasons as a fan and because there are lots of people I know who want to do the same, if they’re not already at the game itself.
“We’re committing to show every Canucks game on TV the rest of this season (he sees only one or two conflicts when Vancouver and Toronto play at the same time). I think the Canucks are going to make the playoffs and create a buzz.”
Skokan, who partnered with the original Score bar in Vancouver, says the T.O. location will add some Canucks memorabilia to the wall and by next hockey season hopes to arrange a large promotion around the Canucks visit when the 2020-21 schedule is released in June.
“We’re not a full-on sports bar, so we’re not going all out with flags and things like that. But we have several TVs and if people ever want to watch another team, we’ll be respectful.”
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2020
