When I first arrived in Alberta before the new year began, one of the things I noticed on the way back to my sister’s place from the Edmonton airport was a bumper sticker on the car ahead of me. It said ‘You’re in oil country’ and had the Edmonton Oilers hockey team logo. I certainly wasn’t surprised since in any major Canadian city, the residents wholeheartedly support their local hockey team. The same can be said of the smaller cities and towns across the country that diligently cheer on and wear the colours of their hockey team, whichever level it plays at.
I recently thought of the moment I saw the sticker a few days ago while sitting in at a County meeting. Aside from a story about new grants, a historic site and beef on a bun (see page 31), I left the meeting with the idea of writing something about the Oilers. Admittedly, I was encouraged by one councilor who asked why I didn’t have a weekly column about the boys in blue, white and orange. I flat out said it would be a conflict of interest since I am (here it comes) a supporter of the Toronto Maple Leafs. While that might not sound as bad as saying I like the Calgary Flames or Vancouver Canucks, it still probably irks some people to know one of their local reporters is a Leafs fan.
Since I didn’t feel right about jumping on the Oilers bandwagon when I moved here and praising the team’s efforts or trashing them for relying on a bunch of kids to win in the National Hockey League (sorry, but it’s true), I set about to thinking of something both Oilers and Leafs fans had in common so I could write about it. Toronto’s 3 – 1 loss to the Florida Panthers last week pretty much eliminated the team from making the playoffs this year. Evidently, we do have something in common.
The Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs will both miss the postseason this year, regrettably, and will go back to the drawing board over the summer to try and figure out a way to remedy this. It will now have been six years since the Oilers made the playoffs and for the Maple Leafs it’s been … it really doesn’t matter. Watching your team bite the dust for a few years in a row makes the months of February, March and May kind of difficult. However, both sets of fans can’t be too surprised by this.
To date, the Oilers have won just 19 of its last 58 games while ‘The Buds’ have only won four games since Feb. 6, dropping from near first in the northeast division to twelfth in the eastern conference. One of the bright spots to this is the fact the Montreal Canadiens are doing worse (thank, God). It could be said the two teams started to lose interest after the all-star break, which led to Edmonton coach Tom Renney publicly criticizing his team for not trying hard enough and Leafs coach Randy Carlyle simply relying on Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Teemu Selanne. Except he isn’t the Anaheim Ducks coach anymore and now has Phil Kessel and … Phil Kessel to score his team’s goals.
This season is pretty much a wash for both our historic teams and I do mean historic. Toronto was part of the NHL’s first season in 1917-18, while the Oilers had a dynasty in the mid-‘80s, so at least we’ll always have the memories. What we do need, however, is some new ones. Sure there’s been progress with Edmonton picking up a few notable youngsters like Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and the Leafs potentially having an all-star goalie in James Reimer, but the results aren’t there and haven’t been there for some time.
Like I mentioned earlier, it’s back to the drawing board for these two teams and I just wanted you Oilers fans to know I feel your pain. Not having your team in the playoffs reeks, big time, and it just doesn’t seem viable for either of us to cheer on the Flames, Canucks, or Ottawa Senators (the latter would be like drinking bad milk). It’s Winnipeg or bust. Go Jets go.
