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The first year the NHL came to our city, teenager John Shannon would line up for a $3.25 standing-room ticket, then sprint to centre ice where he’d watch the game come to life which had existed only in his dreams.

In those early days it was mostly about the visitors — Bobby Orr came in with Boston in the Canucks’ third-ever home game — but the new team carved out its own identity.

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The original Canucks — who were competitive until the moment Orland Kurtenbach blew out his knee in Toronto on Dec. 23 — were a motley assortment of journeymen, has-beens and never-quite-weres.

But there was one player who captured the fans’ imagination that first year — one man who rose above the expansion detritus and gave the fans something to cheer about.

“He was ours,” says Shannon, now working for Sportsnet in his fourth decade of covering the game. “He was our star.”

And if the star is gone, his memory endures.

Andre Boudrias wasn’t the best player in Canucks history. He wasn’t the most productive, the most exciting, the most charismatic or the most popular. But he was the franchise’s first star, an undersized playmaking centre who led the team in scoring four of their first five seasons while playing with a style and flair that captivated this market.