Vancouver Goldeneyes prepping for record-breaking PWHL debut

Inside Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum, things are whirring back to life.

It’s been a decade since the rink had a major hockey tenant, and three decades since the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks vacated.

Now, Pacific Coliseum is home to the PWHL’s Vancouver Goldeneyes, a transformation that's been underway for the last few months. Vancouver is the first team to have its own arena, a major perk for players who can have their own space and get to spend extra time on the ice whenever they want.

There’s a new logo at centre ice, a brand-new video board hanging from the rafters, and a fresh gym for players to use.

On Thursday, staff draped rally towels over every seat, ready for the more than 15,000 people expected to come through the doors. The sold-out crowd will set a new attendance record in a PWHL team’s home arena.

Others unpacked boxes of jerseys and sweaters for a new merchandise store near an entrance. Fans will be able to buy a jersey with their favourite player's name on it from day one, something that's always been a challenge in women's pro sports.

It all begins on Friday at 7 p.m. PT/10 p.m. ET, when the Goldeneyes host the Seattle Torrent to kick off the beginning of two new franchises, and most likely, the start of a new west coast rivalry.

For the Goldeneyes' head coach, Brian Idalski, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime kind of game.

“You only get a first chance to make an impression like that once,” Idalski told reporters at the rink this week. “Close your eyes, smell the smells. It’ll be a memory.”

As arena staff prepared the building for its debut, Idalski has been doing his own kind of building.

His roster was constructed from scratch starting with an expansion draft process earlier this year. Under his watch, the players are forming chemistry and systems and concepts all at once, with a sense of newness that will take a while to wear off.

“I like our core group,” Idalski said on Wednesday. “I think that it’s just a matter of now putting together combinations that click and work, and hammering down on some of our structures and details in how we want to play. That’s going to take a little bit of time, but [with] two days, we’ll make it happen.”

Sarah Nurse was one of the first players to sign with the Goldeneyes, after she was left unprotected by the Toronto Sceptres.

There’s some familiarity among this group, people who have played together here and there, and many who’ve played against each other. But you can’t replicate being together as one big group, something that’s happened over the last two weeks.