EDMONTON — There’s much at stake for the Oilers in these Stanley Cup playoffs. Just ask their fans.
Thousands of them gather in droves before each game all around Rogers Place. Every side street is filled to the brim. There’s a formal — and free — tailgate party set up across from the arena, boasting live music, a massive screen on which to watch the game and a line to get in snaking around the block hours ahead of the puck drop for last Sunday’s Game 3 of the Oilers’ second-round playoff series against the Calgary Flames.
It’s excitement enough that the Oilers are on a real postseason run; even better when they’re up against the Flames. For 31 years, fans waited for another playoff chapter in the fabled Battle of Alberta rivalry that’s as ubiquitous to the province as cattle farms. But the on-ice intensity of this round might turn out to be no match for the passion it’s fostering among some supporters.
“I told my wife, when Edmonton beats Calgary and wins the Stanley Cup, we have to name our kid Darnell [after Oilers’ defenseman Darnell Nurse],” said one tailgater before the Oilers’ 4-1 win in Game 3. “She already said I can’t have an [Oilers] tattoo, so I’m pushing for the name instead.”
What would he want in a tattoo exactly, given the opportunity?
“Just like a massive Oilers logo and then like some of the players’ faces around it. Nothing crazy,” he laughed. “I want people to know: this team is in our blood. They’re already a part of your family almost.”
That sentiment could also be extended to the greater Oilers’ community.
There’s nothing but orange and blue sweaters in sight on game night, amid a smaller, but healthy swath of red-and-black clad Flames faithful. Strangers pat one another on the back to a sturdy chorus of “Let’s go, Oilers!” kicking every few minutes. And it’s all against a backdrop of a pulsing bass from each direction, working like the nervous heartbeat of hockey devotees.
One Edmonton fan shows off her custom sweater, emblazoned not with a player’s last name but her mother’s. The keepsake was passed down from one generation to the next, along with a love of the game.
Elsewhere, Calgary fans engage in playful taunting with their Edmonton counterparts, proffering bets on how quickly each side will end the series. One promises a round of beers if Zack Kassian and Matthew Tkachuk drop the gloves in Game 3.
Outside the tailgate, a pair of friends draped in Oilers flags are marching up 102 Street yelling “I love you, Connor!” with such fanaticism, Edmonton’s captain might actually hear them inside the dressing room.
It’s pandemonium, in the best way. The atmosphere crackles with anticipation as warm-ups inch closer. On this day, the series is tied 1-1. The tension outside is real. It’s everything out-of-towners hoped for.
“We drove like four hours to be here,” said a 20-something fan who came with her roommate to tailgate Game 3. “As soon as we knew it was Edmonton and Calgary, we were like, ‘we’re going!’
“It’s special, you know? We hate Calgary. Calgary hates us. Only one team is going on [to the next round] and you don’t know how long [a playoff run] will last or what’s happening next but we’re here now and it’s fun to feel part of it and be around all this.”
Calgary had grand plans for its own second-round watch party.
But perhaps Mother Nature is an Oilers fan.
The Flames had to cancel their Red Lot tailgate ahead of Game 2 after a windstorm damaged the outdoor facilities, and calls of inclement conditions — think snow, more wind and sub-freezing temperatures — were in the forecast on game night.
Welcome to the unpredictability of mid-May Canadian weather.
Calgary was…
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