Last night, after 16 long years, my Edmonton Oliers defeated the Anaheim Mighty Ducks to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals. While it is nice to see Oilers jerseys and t-shirts all over the place, it is pretty much the same sort of thing that occurred a couple years ago when Calgary made a huge run and all these closet Flames fans came out of the wood work. While it is nice to root for a Canadian team, Edmonton has always been my fave team. I really started to get into hockey in 1990 when I saw the Oilers come from behind 3-1 in their first round series with Winnipeg to go on to win the Cup. Messier, Ranford, Kurri, Anderson, Lowe, etc put on a hell of a playoff run that year. But since then, the Oilers gradually became a glorified farm team, being forced to trade all of their top talent for financial reasons. But despite those hardships, I remained a fan. Every year, once the Oliers were eliminated, I prettly lost interest in the playoffs. Now, in the new salary cap era of the NHL, the Oilers are back in full force. Dwayne Rolason is standing on his head, Chris Pronger is playing like the best player in the league and the Oilers are dominating. I've always liked hockey, but when YOUR team is doing great, it is an unbelievable feeling. It's been a LONG time since I've been this excited about sports.
Sunday, May 28, 2006
GO OILERS!!!!! (no.... I am not a bandwagon jumper)
Last night, after 16 long years, my Edmonton Oliers defeated the Anaheim Mighty Ducks to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals. While it is nice to see Oilers jerseys and t-shirts all over the place, it is pretty much the same sort of thing that occurred a couple years ago when Calgary made a huge run and all these closet Flames fans came out of the wood work. While it is nice to root for a Canadian team, Edmonton has always been my fave team. I really started to get into hockey in 1990 when I saw the Oilers come from behind 3-1 in their first round series with Winnipeg to go on to win the Cup. Messier, Ranford, Kurri, Anderson, Lowe, etc put on a hell of a playoff run that year. But since then, the Oilers gradually became a glorified farm team, being forced to trade all of their top talent for financial reasons. But despite those hardships, I remained a fan. Every year, once the Oliers were eliminated, I prettly lost interest in the playoffs. Now, in the new salary cap era of the NHL, the Oilers are back in full force. Dwayne Rolason is standing on his head, Chris Pronger is playing like the best player in the league and the Oilers are dominating. I've always liked hockey, but when YOUR team is doing great, it is an unbelievable feeling. It's been a LONG time since I've been this excited about sports.
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