Forgot how to be a fan in the post-season? Fear not
It’s been a long time for many of us, so here’s a refresher on springtime hockey
It’s been 11 years since the Edmonton Oilers last made the post-season. They’re a little rusty, but so are the fans.
There’s a big difference between a losing campaign and the second season, and things have changed since the last time the Oilers sidestepped the golf course. Here’s a guide to help Edmonton fans navigate this unfamiliar and potentially confusing territory.
Orange is the new copper: It’s tempting to dig out your old copper-and-blue sweater with the roughneck patch on the arm and “Horcoff” on the back, but really? Why not rock a mullet and a clamshell cellphone while you’re at it?
It’s a new era of winning hockey and safety-vest orange is what Connor McDavid and the cool fans are wearing these days.
Ninety per cent of customers go orange, says Ken Cookson, coowner of proamsports.ca, a local retailer of sports memorabilia. “There’s the nostalgic fan that still wants the blue and there’s the fan that wants to be a little different and wants to go blue, but by and large, it’s orange far and away,” Cookson says.
The tangerine hue symbolizes a break from the decade of darkness and it’s the colour most associated with the player leading the team out of the wilderness.
“Connor McDavid was the first Oiler to wear an orange jersey, and that was on the draft floor. That’s when they introduced it and Oiler fans saw him play for the first time and swarmed for orange jerseys,” Cookson says.
The Oilers are also asking their fans to wear orange so the throngs will resemble a breathtaking ocean of orange — much cooler than any sea of red.
Be loudly proud: In the regular season, the Oilers play in an arena
There’s the nostalgic fan that still wants the blue … but by and large, it’s orange far and away.
nicknamed the Morgue for its sombre atmosphere. In the playoffs, Oilers fans wake the dead.
In the 2006 Stanley Cup run, the roar in Rexall Place spiked to 125 decibels — equivalent to a pneumatic riveter a metre away. Wearing earplugs might be wise.
When fans in San Jose booed O Canada that playoff season, Oilers fans responded at home by cheering the Star Spangled Banner. They even belted out the Canadian national anthem after singer Paul Lorieau held the microphone aloft. Not only would singing this time around revive that short-lived tradition, it’d also be a fitting nod to Lorieau, who died in 2013, so brush up on the words and sing your heart out. Flag your ride: Oilers fans really only got to bedeck their vehicles with team flags the one post-season in 2006, so it’s not surprising the mobile banners are making a comeback.
“Our phones are off the hook and people are chomping at the bit,” says Cookson, whose business has just flown in 1,500 Oilers car flags and already pre-sold 500 of them. “We’re selling them to people who are putting them on every window. It’s rare that we sell just one: It’s more common that we sell two and not uncommon that we sell four.”
Go crazy — responsibly: Oilers fans still marvel at the 2006 playoffs when strangers high-fived each other and the streets echoed with horn-honking after each victory. Not so endearing was the Whyte Avenue hooliganism that sullied the city’s name and damaged public and private property.
With the move to Rogers Place, it’s not clear if the post-game celebrations will migrate downtown, but Ian O’Donnell, executive director of the Downtown Business Association, says he doesn’t expect a repeat of the vandalism and violence seen in the 1980s and 2006.
“We all want to celebrate the Oilers’ victories and where they’ve come from in the last decade,” O’Donnell says. “But we’re quite a different city in a lot of ways now and we’ve matured in some ways as well. We also realize that everyone carries a high-definition camera, so anybody doing anything irresponsible will probably get caught.”
When in doubt, ask what Connor would do.