New Arena Draws Sharks, Canucks Former Chiefs Stars Whitney, Falloon Will Play In Building’s First Sports Event
The National Hockey League’s San Jose Sharks and Vancouver Canucks will play the inaugural sports event in Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena.
The Sunday, Sept. 17 exhibition will match star right wing Pavel Bure of the Canucks with San Jose’s Spokane Connection.
Left wing Ray Whitney and right wing Pat Falloon went on to San Jose after leading the Spokane Chiefs to the 1991 championship of major junior hockey.
Whitney was on hand for Thursday’s announcement by Chiefs president Bobby Brett.
“With the local tie we have with Whitney and Falloon - probably the two greatest players ever to play junior hockey in Spokane - San Jose was the only team we went after and the only team we really wanted,” Brett said.
The Sharks will play an exhibition game here in each of the next three years, Brett said, with an opponent of their choosing.
The game is part of the arena’s grand opening weekend. Tickets priced at $30, $22 and $18 go on sale today at 10 in two locations, at the Chiefs ticket office at N908 Howard and at the G&B outlet in the Public Facilities District office at W720 Mallon.
There is a chance that the Sharks could lose half of their local flavor. Whitney has played out his option and is negotiating a new contract with the Sharks through his Los Angeles agent, Mike Barnette. If he’s not signed by July 4, Whitney, who played three seasons in Spokane, will be free to negotiate with other clubs.
“I’d like to stay in San Jose,” he said. “Hopefully we can get a deal worked out, but that’s easier said than done. Working on contracts is a lot more difficult than I thought it would be.
“When you sign your junior contract it’s pretty much, ‘There it is, go out and get ‘em.’ This is tough but it’s worth it in the end.
“I’m looking forward to playing here on the 17th,” Whitney added. “Patty (Falloon) and I hope we can put a show on for you guys like we did in the old days. Those come a little harder now in the NHL.”
The game in Spokane will be the Sharks’ first exhibition of the 1995-96 season. The team will break training camp in Brainerd, Minn., and come to Spokane, said Paul Turner, the Sharks assistant director of media relations.
That early in the season, fans will see young players on the bubble, trying to win a job, but Turner said the Sharks won’t hide the attractions.
“I’m sure they (Whitney and Falloon) will be an integral part of the night,” Turner said. “We want to make sure that fans here who love seeing them have a chance to see them.”
Whitney added, “They realize it’s a show. It’s preseason, when the records don’t matter that much. They’ll want to play the young guys, but I think they’ll put us on the same line and play us a lot.”
Whitney this season emerged on a forward line with Igor Larionov and Sergei Makarov, two of the best in the game.
“You learn a lot playing with those guys,” said Whitney, who had four goals and four assists in the Sharks’ 11 playoff games.
His overtime goal against goaltender Trevor Kidd, a teammate in Spokane, knocked the Calgary Flames out of the first round of the playoffs.
, DataTimes