How B.C.'s New Time Zone Will Change Canucks Games and Sports Across the Province
The Vancouver Canucks' 4 p.m. home game against the Toronto Maple Leafs could be a thing of the past as the province switches to a new time zone Sunday.
The 4 p.m. local start against the Toronto Maple Leafs has long been one of the most dreaded puck drops for Vancouver Canucks fans. This weekend, it’s the last one for months as British Columbia enters a new sports calendar.
In March, outgoing B.C. Premier David Eby announced that B.C. would not fall back an hour in the fall, like much of North America will Sunday, instead keeping permanent daylight time and aiming to give people more afternoon daylight rather than an earlier sunrise.
While some expected widespread changes across North America—there was even a pre-mid-term push from the U.S. federal government to adopt permanent daylight time—B.C. remained one of the few to make the switch.
Now, being one hour ahead of Seattle, two hours behind Toronto and in the same time zone as Denver, sports will become one of the most significant lifestyle changes in the new “Pacific Time.”
“Nobody asked,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said about the league’s scheduling in the new BC time zone, which offers similar challenges to Alberta's time switch, impacting the Canucks, Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames of the league’s 32 teams. “Not that they should have...we’ll deal with it.”
In practice, it means Saturday night’s Canucks vs. Maple Leafs matchup will be the final game until April 9 to start at 4 p.m. local on Vancouver’s schedule, a puck-drop time that will become increasingly rare until other provinces and states make the shift.
For the Canucks, that means 14 games through the rest of the season will start at 8:00 p.m. local to align with national TV schedules, while one will shift to 6 p.m., largely abandoning the traditional 7 p.m. starts and disrupting routines for fans across the province.
Other untraditional start times for Canucks games will include 7:30 p.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.
Online Schedules Struggling to Change
The Canucks are far from the only impacted team in this realm. On Sunday, the Vancouver Whitecaps will host Seattle Sounders for their final home game of the season at 1:30 p.m. PCT—a new, untraditional kickoff time.
According to some apps, including Google, the game kicks off at 2:30 p.m. instead- the time it will be in Seattle, but not local. It forced the club to clarify, but it could have passed off fans who trust online systems that have yet to adjust to BC’s new time zone.
Other elements on the first weekend that could confuse fans include the Skate Canada International event in Kelowna and the Vancouver Rise’s home NSL Playoff date against the Montreal Roses, set for 5 p.m. PCT but 7 p.m. ET in Montréal.
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View post ↗The WHL, which features teams across B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, also faces unique adjustments, with Alberta and Saskatchewan now in the same time zone, Manitoba aligning with Toronto and Blanc-Sablon, Qué., the easternmost point of Québec, on the border of Newfoundland and Labrador.
The habits around local games will provide confusion and adjustment, but the NFL’s consistent game times for top games will force major consumption changes for BC fans. Sunday’s NFL slate will now start at 11 a.m. instead of 10 a.m., with Sunday Night Football kicking off at 6 p.m. instead of 5 p.m.
When the clock strikes midnight in Seattle, sports fans in B.C. will wake up to a very different sporting world. Sunday football starts an hour later, national TV games stretch deeper into the evening, and that familiar 4 p.m. Leafs game? It may soon become a 5 p.m. tradition instead.
But don’t lose track—it’s back to the “normal” three-hour difference to major eastern markets in the spring.
