OILERS NATION
This city got behind its team: Terry Jones
It won’t be like this again the next time, of course.
If the Oilers win the first two games of a second-round series on the road and don’t win the series, it’ll go over like a lead balloon.
If Edmonton loses a Game 5 by blowing a 3-0 lead on three goaltender-pulled-in-favour-ofan-extra-attacker goals in the last three and a half minutes, there will be outrage.
And if the team with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and a line of $6 million-a-year players can’t create a single, solitary goal after the Oilers get a 1-0 lead early in a Game 7 on a softie, the storyline will be sour.
But the Oilers headed into the off-season after exit interviews Friday, give or take a Benoit Pouliot or a Jordan Eberle, as an almost entirely positive story. In a way, it was almost like graduation day after going from 29th place to 13 games of playoff education they weren’t projected to experience.
“In Washington, St. Louis and New York, there’s probably more pain than there is here because we hadn’t experienced it in so long,” said coach Todd McLellan.
In the end the real champions in the City of Champions weren’t the Oilers. The champions were the Edmonton fans. And when city council meets May 30 to discuss putting the signs back up, the people are the champions they ought to be focusing on, not the players.
Hardly ever in sports does a town end up as being as big a story as the team. That happened here this year. In the end, the Oilers didn’t win. But Edmonton sure did.
When the playoffs began, people wondered if Edmonton could replicate the scenes from 2006 when the city became co-star to the team in the Oilers remarkable run to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final. It ended two series too soon in 2017, but there was no question the city not only managed to meet 2006, they beat it.
The spectacular scenes from Rogers Place were telecast around the hockey world and highlighted by the microphone failure for Brett Kissel’s singing of the Star Spangled Banner. What a wonderful statement was made about the community and the country when the crowd took over and sang every word at full volume.
Then there were the poorly named viewing parties. They’re normally held in bars. In Edmonton, all seven away games were shown on the on the largest true high-definition scoreboard in the NHL or NBA in the ultimate new building in either league.
They drew a total attendance of just over 100,000!
The $5 tickets for Game 7 sold out in TWO minutes.
That hasn’t happened anywhere in the sports world, ever.
Also a first anywhere, ever, were the 50-50 payouts (and most importantly equal sized sums produced for charity).
Winners took home an astounding $1,108,183.50 from the six home games and another
I think the fans are more important to us than we are to them and they’ve proven that for 10 years.
$162,655 more when the 50-50 was added to the watch parties for the Anaheim Ducks series.
Over the seven away games, there were between 500 and 800 Edmonton fans walking in the streets, partying in bars and wearing jerseys sitting in the stands singing ‘Lets Go Oilers’ at full volume in San Jose and Anaheim.
There were the flags on the cars, some of which featured elaborate Connor McDavid paint jobs, the fan who had the Stanley Cup tattooed on his back, and thousands of other snap shots from a city that embraced the team and made not only Edmonton but also San Jose and Anaheim come alive without damage or incident.
McLellan was asked if the perception of the city was changed for the players by what happened in the playoffs.
“No,” he said. “The reason I answer that question ‘no’ is that, for the prior 10 years, they were there for us. They didn’t go anywhere. They showed up every game at Rexall when it wasn’t going good. I think the fans are more important to us than we are to them and they’ve proven that for 10 years.”
McLellan said one thing that definitely happened this year is that Edmonton became a place to play.
“There may be some (free agents) who decide to look for a new home and I can’t think of a better one than here,” he said of Rogers Place and the Ice District.
“When you look at the management team, the players that have been assembled and the drive that they’ve shown, if that all continues, we have a bright future. If you see the building and feel the fans, it’s nice to come into that type of environment on a nightly basis.”
Connor McDavid added his voice.
“It was fun to see the city get behind us like they did. After 10 years of being a bad hockey team and still having the fan base that we do, I think the players really appreciate that ... It’s great here.”