Oilers down, but fans not out
Diehard Oilers fans refuse to give up on team that hasn’t made NHL playoffs since 2006
Edmonton was a different city in 2006.
Mayor Stephen Mandel had just decided he would run for a second term, Anthony Henday Drive was far from completion, the downtown arena was merely a proposal, and the Edmonton Oilers were a successful, winning National Hockey League club.
“I remember 2006,” says Ryan Batty, a lifelong Oilers fan and avid hockey blogger with Copper and Blue. “For two months, I don’t think I got any work done. I was either thinking about the last game, thinking about the next one, or it was a game day and I was utterly useless.”
Diehard Edmonton sports fans hadn’t had as much to cheer about since the glory years, when the Oilers won five Stanley Cups in seven seasons between 1984 and ’90.
“Just going out to the bar to watch a game was great,” he said. “The atmosphere, the connection to the city, it was remarkable.”
The year after the impressive underdog run to the 2006 Stanley Cup final, where Edmonton took the Carolina Hurricanes to Game 7, Batty managed to score Oilers season tickets at Rexall Place.
He hasn’t seen a playoff game since.
Fans across the city were hopeful that this season would be a good one for their beloved Oilers. They expected 2014 to finally be the year that the team snapped its seven-year playoff drought and provided the dedicated fan base with some post-season action. At the very least, the team was expected to be playing meaningful games well into March. They weren’t expecting a Stanley Cup winning team, but fans were expecting progress — and a push to the playoffs.
Instead, it looks like this season will mark the eighth in a row that the Oilers have missed the playoffs. Many had written the team out of the race for a playoff spot as early as December.
It’s left Batty — and thousands of others—feeling frustrated and cynical about the team and its organization.
“Here, there’s not much else to distract you,” he said. “The winters are cold and everyone begins to wonder why they chose to live here. So you focus on this team and you look at them, but then you ask yourself, why did I just spend three hours of my life watching that piece of garbage?”
It’s certainly not an easy time to be an Oilers fan. You can ask Batty — or any fan, for that matter. Although how each individual is handling — or as some would phrase it, coping with — another disappointing season will depend largely on the person, says Dan Mason, a professor of sport management with the faculty of physical education and recreation at the University of Alberta.
“Everyone has a different makeup, a different way in which they follow sports, teams or certain athletes,” Mason said. “That experience is specific to the individual.
“There are some fans that, when it comes to the Oilers, will be able to weather this better than others. That’s a function of what they get out of their fan experience.”
Some, however, aren’t taking another losing season too well. Some have had enough. Fans are frustrated with a rebuild that hasn’t seemed to improve over the last four years.
That frustration is the reason why, during a 6-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues at Rexall Place on Dec. 23, the team was booed out of the rink and a disgruntled fan chose to take off his souvenir jersey and tossed it infamously onto the ice.
That frustration, whether others agree with its rationale or not, is the reason why a Facebook group entitled “Kevin Lowe Has To Go, ”has attracted close to 14,000 followers — and counting — in just over two weeks. Searching for accountability in the organization, the group is targeting the former Oilers general manager who was promoted to club president — a consistent presence with the team. Excluding a fouryear sojourn as a defenceman with the New York Rangers, with whom he won his sixth Stanley Cup in 1994, Lowe has always been an Oiler. He was the club’s first NHL draft pick in 1979 and retired from playing with the Oilers in 1998.
That frustration is the reason Bill Day held a quiet protest of his own on Jan. 22, parking in front of the Oilers administration office with a “Kevin Lowe Must Go” sign on his attached trailer.
That frustration — and particularly the backlash against Lowe — even prompted owner Daryl Katz to send an open letter to fans, asking them to “hang in there” while the organization finishes rebuilding the team.
The letter did little to comfort frustrated fans.
“It was about as grey man as you can get,” said Scott Rosen, a lifelong Oilers devotee. “It said absolutely nothing in a lot of words. What else are we supposed to do but be patient? We know we aren’t going to be winning any time soon.”
Daniel Huber, co-owner of the Pour House bar on Whyte Avenue, which has turned into an unofficial headquarters for the Facebook group, couldn’t believe the letter.
“The losses don’t necessarily bother me,” he said. “It’s the way the team is handled. That letter blew my mind, considering (Katz) threatened to move the team.”
Huber said he has seen many people coming into the Pour House to pick up bumper stickers that have been spotted across the city saying, “This is as Lowe as we go.”
Many fans seem to be taking this particular losing season more personally, and that’s not all that surprising, says Susan Krauss Whitbourne, a psychology professor from the University of Massachusetts Amherst who has done research on sports fans.
“As individuals, people identify with professional sports teams and that identification becomes part of their sense of who they are,” she said, which — although some Edmontonians may not believe it right now — can actually be a good thing.
“Studies have shown that identifying with a team is beneficial to your mental health,” she said. “People who have strong fan identification score lower on measures of depression and often have higher selfesteem.”
When your team is struggling, however, Whitbourne advises fans should probably stay away from making significant life decisions.
“Peoples’ moods are affected by the negative outcome of the game,” she said. “You don’t want to make major financial or emotional decisions following a loss. You are more likely going to make a poor decision, because your mood is altered.”
“Yes, I like going to games, and I’m lucky enough to be able to afford it. ... That’s just where I choose to spend my entertainment dollars, and I’m as much a part of the problem as anyone else.”
O ile r s fan Ryan Bat ty
Mason says the group of fans that heavily identify with the team, to the point where a lack of competitive success can have a huge effect on them, is still a “pretty small group” of the Oilers fan population.
“You have fans that cheer for teams because they cheer for the hometown, fans that cheer for certain players, and fans that will cheer for the Oilers regardless,” he said.
Batty falls into the latter category. The choice for him to become an Oilers fan was a simple one.
“It was either cheer for the Oilers or live in the backyard,” he said.
For many, both inside and outside the city, Edmonton is synonymous with the Oilers. The team undeniably represents a significant part of the city’s identity. The history of success — after all, this is the city of champions — may be a factor in how deep the team resonates in the city.
“We went through the good old days with (Wayne) Gretzky, and they were just awesome,” recalls Doug Munch, who along with his wife Pat has been a season-ticket holder since 1982.
“But now, I was just saying to Pat, don’t you remember the days when we would go to games and get genuinely excited?”
The Oilers are undeniably the alpha sports team in Edmonton, which creates extra pressure and higher expectations that players and management can’t help but feel.
The team’s seemingly endless rebuild has been a particular sore spot for fans. In his letter, Katz says “this is only year four of the rebuild which started with Taylor Hall,” something that despite his intent, may have actually served to further crush fans’ spirits.
Oilers supporters had high hopes that by this point, the team would look more like successfully rebuilt teams such as the Chicago Blackhawks or the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Instead, it appears the Oilers still have a long way to go to become contenders.
“I grew up in Edmonton, so I’m in this for the long haul,” said Rosen. “I’ll live and die by this team. That’s a little unfortunate at times, I guess, but for better or worse, they are my team so I’m going to stick with it.”
Michael Neumeyer, who brought his son Keith to a game for the first time this season last week, knows the team is weak, but sees “spurts of glory” among players on the roster. But when Keith began to talk about his impatience with the team, his father cut him off.
“Hey, hey, hey, this is entertainment,” he said. “It’s hockey. It’s not life and death. Yes, we are used to winning, but this is not the end of the world. I enjoy hockey because I like hockey. Whether they win or lose, I’m still going to be an Oilers fan.”
So is all that frustration, all that heartbreak, enough to discourage fans from renewing season tickets?
It doesn’t look like it. When asked whether he will purchase season tickets, Batty responds without a moment’s hesitation.
“Yes,” he says. “I like going to games, and I’m lucky enough to be able to afford it. People are going to ask me why, and I’m not going to have a good reason. That’s just where I choose to spend my entertainment dollars, and I’m as much a part of the problem as anyone else.”
But Batty remains confident — along with legions of other fans — that the Oilers will reach the post-season again soon.
Playoff hope spri ngs eternal.