Wotherspoon Wired For Vancouver Homecoming

Parker Wotherspoon's got plenty of memories inside of Rogers Arena.
The Surrey, BC, native figures he's been to upwards of 150 Vancouver Canucks games in that building, since his family's had season tickets for over 20 years. He was at Game 7 in 2011 when the Canucks lost to the Boston Bruins and remembers skating with Sami Salo during a meet the team event.

Growing up, Wotherspoon was a big Canucks fan, idolizing the likes of Kevin Bieksa, Dan Hamhuis, Alex Edler and more. Count Cory Schneider, his teammate in Bridgeport, as another on those dominant Canucks teams and Wotherspoon has already asked the goalie, and Johnny Boychuk, for their perspectives on Game 7.
On Monday, Wotherspoon made another memory skating at Rogers Arena for the Islanders practice. On Tuesday night, when the Isles take on the Canucks, he'll unlock a core memory, with about 30 family and friends in the building.
"It's definitely special walking out there and finally being on the ice instead of watching," Wotherspoon said after Monday's practice.

For Wotherspoon, this is the latest in a series of wow moments of late.
The 2015 fourth-round pick said his heart was beating out of his chest as he went to take the rookie lap for his NHL debut against the Florida Panthers. Another one was seeing Sidney Crosby across the ice in a 5-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. The sound that's stuck with him was Anders Lee's clink off the post a split second before the roar of the UBS Arena crowd in that game was another. That moment gave Wotherspoon chills.
"It's been exciting. I mean, this is one of the best times of my life," Wotherspoon said. "Just getting the opportunity to play here, it's been special."
Wotherspoon grew up in Surrey BC, which is about an hour outside of downtown Vancouver, where he currently lives. While he's spent the past six seasons across the continent in Bridgeport, he comes back in the summers and skates with a group that includes Mathew Barzal, Edmonton's Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jujhar Khaira.
The defenseman was aware of the trip to the Pacific Northwest (he played junior in Tri-City, which is about three hours away from Seattle), but didn't want to get ahead of himself and assume he'd be on the trip or in the game. He's been taking it shift by shift.
"I've been taking it day to day," Wotherspoon said. "Every city in this league is really nice. It is obviously a little bit more special to be back at home and but my focus is shift to shift."

Wotherspoon has been solid since his recall, playing a steady game alongside Pulock. The pair has played 41:45 together at five-on-five and have been on the ice for 17 high-danger chances for compared to only three against.
"He's just been steady," said Ryan Pulock, who's been paired up with Wotherspoon. "He's playing with poise, playing with confidence, making the right play and just being hard defensively. He's just kind of doing a little bit of everything, he's not trying to do too much, he's playing within himself and you know he's doing a really good job."
The nerves are calming down a little bit after that first game, but there's a different type of adrenaline for Tuesday's homecoming. Barzal can relate, since the Coquitlam, BC, native was in this situation back on March 5, 2018.
"It's pretty exciting," Barzal said of a homecoming. "You grow up watching the Canucks as a kid in Vancouver and one day coming here and playing against them so I'm sure he's going to have a ton of family and friends out. I know he's super excited and I'm excited for him."