Arena Gets Major-League Welcome From Nhl Today

The super facility will open with a superstar.

The other Bure is in town.

Pavel Bure, star right wing of the Vancouver Canucks, will play in tonight’s inaugural event in Spokane Arena.

It’s the National Hockey League exhibition featuring the Canucks and the San Jose Sharks. The puck drops at 6 p.m.

Bure is the older brother of Valeri Bure, who for three years in Spokane made his mark in junior hockey. From the fall of ‘91 through the spring of ‘94, Valeri Bure ran up the Chiefs career scoring ladder, eventually settling for the No. 4 spot behind Ray Whitney, Pat Falloon and Travis Green.

Whitney and Falloon are back tonight with the Sharks, giving 10,000 Spokane fans something to see after they’ve settled into their $60 million building.

The game is on KGA radio. Craig West is on at 5 with a pregame show.

Unstoppable when he’s on his game, Pavel Bure posted consecutive 60-goal seasons but slumped a year ago, to 20 goals in 44 games.

Perhaps partly because last year’s lockout-shortened season is best forgotten, Bure is putting the past behind him, going so far as to trade in his familiar No. 10 for No. 96.

There is a story that Bure is wearing 96 to mark the year that he becomes an American citizen.

Not so, a Canucks spokesperson said.

Bure has always wanted a higher number. He just wants a change.

That’s the club’s story, anyway. In any event, showcasing No. 96 is not the Canucks’ priority in this opener of the exhibition season.

It’s a chance for coach Rick Ley to judge the talent on the bubble.

A candidate for promotion is right wing Scott Walker, who last year amassed 334 penalty minutes with Vancouver’s American League team in Syracuse, N.Y. Walker turned heads at training camp.

Although Bure will play, Canucks left wing Alex Mogilny will not. Captain and center Trevor Linden is unsigned and not with the club. And No. 1 goaltender Kirk McLean will not suit up.

Neither will left wing Rod Stevens, who as a former Kamloops Blazers is no stranger to Spokane ice. Stevens reportedly played well in training camp.

Link Gaetz is another who won’t see action here, but the former Spokane Chiefs tough guy is still with the Canucks.

Gaetz, a left winger, is trying to rebound from the affects of a 1992 car accident.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: THE ROSTERS The San Jose Sharks No Name Pos 2 Jim Kyte D 3 Gord Roberts D 13 Jamie Baker C 14 Ray Whitney C 17 Pat Falloon RW 31 Wade Flaherty GK 35 Larry Dyck GK 36 Jeff Odgers RW 39 Jeff Friesen LW/C 41 Tom Pedersen D 42 Shean Donovan RW 44 Jeff Batters D 47 Viktor Kozlov LW 48 Jan Caloun RW 49 Dean Sylvester LW 51 Sergei Bautin RW 54 Alexei Yegorov C 56 Fredrik Oduya D 67 Peter Roed C 68 Vaclav Varada RW Head Coach: Kevin Constantine Assistants: Drew Remenda, Vasily Tikhonov Trainer: Tom Woodcock

The Vancouver Canucks No Name Pos 3 Bret Hedican D 5 Dana Murzyn D 6 Adrian Aucoin D 7 Cliff Ronning C 19 Tim Hunter C 20 Denny Felsber RW 21 Jyrki Lumme D 24 Scott Walker RW 25 Jim Sandlak RW 28 Roman Oksiuta RW 29 Gino Odjick RW 36 Matt Ruchty LW 39 Larry Courville LW 42 Josef Beranek C 49 Bogdan Savenko RW 52 Libor Polasek C 56 Leif Rohlin D 66 Dean Malkoc D 96 Pavel Bure RW Head coach: Rick Ley Assistants: Glen Hanlon, Stan Smyl Trainers: Larry Ashley, Mike Burnstein