Seniors say team’s return to playoffs has ‘knit this city together’

Senior citizens at Meadowlark Place held their own watch party for Game 5 of the Edmonton Oilers versus Anaheim Ducks series on Friday night.

Going into the game, the series was tied 2-2, with the Oilers playing at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

Some residents watched with their banners and jerseys out in the common room, while others tuned in to their TV sets in their rooms.

Oilers super fans Cheryl Hall, 73, and Jack Silvester, 77, said nothing brings the city together like cheering for the Oilers.

“Every time a car goes by with the banners, I think, ‘Thank God the enthusiasm is back,’ ” Hall said.

“There’s nothing like being in the playoffs of hockey to really knit this city together.”

Silvester played for the Oil Kings at the old Edmonton Gardens in 1955, while Hall remembers when 25 cents would get her in to see two games.

Legendary Detroit Red Wings star Gordie Howe once bumped Silvester into the boards, hitting him in the nose.

Decades later, when Silvester was driving a Red Arrow bus, he met Howe again and the NHL star asked him how his nose was feeling.

That was the night Wayne Gretzky broke his points record.

Hall said she was a tomboy who loved playing hockey as much as watching it. When Gretzky turned 21, she and four of her friends held up a banner wishing him a happy birthday.

Hall said she doesn’t want to see a repeat of the 2006 riots — win or lose.

“Let’s turn mob rule into mob pride,” she said.

The Oilers will face the Ducks again on Sunday at 5 p.m.