Oilers’ season-ticket holders ‘playing with house money’

Frustrating years give way to sense of possibility

Blair Thornhill watched his Oilers lose to the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 4 of the 2006 Stanley Cup Final from an $89 colonnade seat in Rexall Place.

The fan beside him in row 35, section 233, said he paid a scalper $1,000 for the privilege.

Ah yes, Edmonton and playoff hockey: it is a complex relationship.

Thornhill, then 25, single and in receipt of some disposable income, had just bought his season tickets in the fall of 2005. In the wake of a lockout and four straight first-round losses to Dallas, there wasn’t a waiting list, so it was easier to take the plunge.

He had already held off since April 29, 1997, the day he officially became an Oilers fan. Todd Marchant’s overtime goal beat the Dallas Stars in Game 7 of the team’s first-round series that day and Thornhill disavowed the Leafs, an affliction he was born with in St. John’s, N.L.

“I was wholeheartedly an Oilers fan. There was no looking back,” Thornhill said Sunday from Celle, Germany, where he was on oil and gas business. He’d been getting up at 4:30 a.m. to listen to the Oilers-Sharks games on his phone.

On the night of Game 5, Thornhill was waiting for a taxi when David Desharnais scored the OT winner.

“I’m hooting and hollering, jumping around,” he said.

He wasn’t always jumping for joy. Thornhill hung onto those season seats — sometimes sharing them with a buddy — through the darkest days of a dreadful decade. The prices climbed, the team wallowed and frustration built.

“During the losing it was really, really hard. You’re kind of looking at yourself, thinking I’m just throwing away money. You thought you were in this never-ending cycle and it’s just not going to improve.”

But it did. Just as his life changed for the better — he and wife Lindsay have two young children — the Oilers parlayed lottery luck and better decision-making into their current state of affairs. six games and will meet the Anaheim Ducks in Round 2.

And that’s enough. For the season-ticket holders who checked in with me on Twitter on Sunday, that’s apparently plenty. Paid in full. Thanks very much.

Here’s a sampling of their sentiment:

“Family has had them since ’79, almost gave up until McDavid. Thought would get in this year and contend next year, so winning a round is a bonus,” said Bill Bowlen Jr.

“We are playing with house-money now,” said Colin Pon, who has had season seats since 2007 and minipacks before that.

“I thought 85 points and meaningful games in March would be a huge step in the right direction,” said Kevin Tercier, a season Great result this year so (it’s) a win but ask me when my tickets go up again next season,” said Jeremy McKain, who has had seats since 2003.

“Bought in 2010. They met my expectations when they made the playoffs. Of course now I want them to sip from Lord Stanley’s mug,” said Scott Empson.

No, it wasn’t a scientific poll, but you surely get the idea. At least some season ticket holders who had been starved for post-season hockey have been sated by the taste of Shark and the promise of Duck.

“The team has been so bad for so long that our expectations weren’t super high,” said Thornhill. “Of course, getting McDavid has changed a lot of things and the excitement this year was just unreal. You know, I’d say they met expectations. Yeah.

“But I also know that in 2006 we weren’t expected to do anything and went all the way to within one game of the Cup.”

He’s in gold seats now at centre ice, and not paying $89. The regular season tab was $220 per game and it climbed to $347 per game in Round 1.

The price of devotion can be very high indeed, so too the level. There were 18,000 fans in Rogers Place on Saturday night, for a game that was played 2,440 kilometres away at SAP Center in San Jose.

There must be a reward for that behaviour, and the patient season-ticket holders of Edmonton are getting theirs now. They will tell you it has been worth the wait. previous two starts this season.

And once they broke through with a four-run eighth, they kept it going in the ninth. After a Travis double, shortstop Ryan Goins hit his first homer of the season to pad the Jays lead to 6-1.

With the win, the Jays record improved to 5-13 and on Monday will have a chance at their first series win of the season. Lefthander Francisco Liriano faces the Angels’ right-hander, Ricky Nolasco.