Good Riddance Day: What I want to say goodbye to from 2025

As one year is welcomed with hopeful greetings, positive vibes, and a warm atmosphere, another year is sent off with goodbyes and good riddance.

Plenty of people are thankful to be moving forward from 2025, including residents and tourists in New York City, who, every year, take part in the tradition of Good Riddance Day in Times Square. There, participants write down their bad memories from the past year on tickets and rip them up.

While I wouldn’t say 2025 was the worst year I’ve experienced, there’s plenty I’m hoping to leave behind, such as some connections, a few interests fallen out of favour, and expensive groceries.

Nevertheless, here are a couple other things I want to say good riddance to — but Metro Vancouver edition, of course.

Canucks chaos

We can say bon voyage to the Vancouver Canucks’ chances of being Stanley Cup contenders any time soon. Surely, this won’t cause a lot of emotional responses from people reading this story. 

After what happened last season, I think it’s safe to say we should move on from thinking the Canucks are going to win a Stanley Cup this season or next — and I’d even argue for the rest of the decade with how the team has been performing. 

With J.T. Miller being traded at the start of 2025 to another stint with the New York Rangers, the Canucks lost some talent with the swap — despite some of his baggage. Considering Miller was the player the Canucks originally chose to keep over former captain Bo Horvat, the trade looks even worse with that knowledge.

With Quinn Hughes traded to the Minnesota Wild in December, he’s probably going wild about being able to compete again for a Stanley Cup. I’m assuming Hughes is happy on the inside — on the outside, it looks like a few ghosts followed him to Minnesota. For all anyone knows, his next stop may be New Jersey to join his brothers on the Devils. 

Vancouver’s latest trade of Kiefer Sherwood to the San Jose Sharks has only cemented the incoming rebuild era.

All things considered, I think it’s best for Canucks fans’ mental health to move on from this team. It’s time to start cheering for the other Pacific Northwest NHL team: the Seattle Kraken. They seem to be doing better anyway. 

Mark I SkyTrain cars

I don’t know how many people feel about it, but I always hate boarding the Mark I model whenever I use the SkyTrain. 

It doesn’t feel comfortable to board, with the awkward seating positions and poor ventilation inside. I sometimes feel like I lose a bit of my hearing whenever I’m on this train car, because it’s so loud due to being the oldest SkyTrain model. It doesn’t even have any public Wi-Fi, which, personally, I don’t mind too much.

The latest model, the Mark V, recently rolled out — and any public transit user can definitely see and feel how much of an upgrade it is compared to the Mark I trains. There are even notable differences between the Mark V and Mark III models for those who’ve taken the SkyTrain long enough. 

No fun city

I’ve always felt like there should be more going on Western Canada’s biggest city.

Considering the Honda Celebration of Light is gone indefinitely, it would be nice to see some more activity happening in Vancouver. With events like Anime Revolution, Fan Expo, and Battle of BC 8 on the horizon this year, at least there’s some events to look forward to in 2026.

But it shouldn’t stop there. I hope there’s more exciting events in store, such as watch parties for the 2026 Winter Olympics, as well as more pop-up markets and competitive events.