Ducks flying into Kelowna
NHL team coming to Okanagan between games in Edmonton
Ryan Getzlaf spends his summers in Kelowna. He has an off-season home here.
Getzlaf doesn’t typically make appearances during the NHL playoffs, especially when his Anaheim Ducks are still playing. This week being a rare exception. With two days between games in Edmonton, Getzlaf and the rest of the Ducks were planning to fly into Kelowna last night, spending today and tomorrow here to escape the Oilers’ craze in the Alberta capital.
Anaheim will be practising at Prospera Place both days, but those sessions won’t be open to the public — as they were back in 2010 when the Detroit Red Wings spent a few days here between regular-season games.
The playoffs are a different beast and the Ducks are trailing the Oilers in that second-round series, so they will be trying to lay low and essentially hide out in the Okanagan before returning to Edmonton for Game 4 on Wednesday night.
As word spread on social media over the weekend of Anaheim’s scheduled arrival, Kelowna Mayor Colin Basran — a confessed and unapologetic Oilers fan — was quick to poke fun on Twitter.
“Time to direct staff to remove all ice in Kelowna arenas immediately! Ha!” Basran tweeted.
“I’m fairly certain that local hotels are due for their annual middle of the night fire drill,” responded a Twitter user dubbed ‘Roasted Mighty Duck.’ The comments kept coming . . . “I know a lot of oil fans in kelowna that fly back and forth from ft mac. They won’t escape anything!” tweeted @Fielderism.
“Last golf outing as a team before their schedule is wide open next week?” joked Jonathan Sharek.
All kidding aside, Getzlaf — the Ducks’ captain and a product of Regina, Sask. — will be trying to keep his team focused on the task at hand in mounting a comeback against Edmonton in hopes of reaching the Western Conference final.
Staying in Edmonton could have been problematic for Anaheim in terms of targeted hotel noise and other distractions. Kelowna should offer more privacy.