(Sunrise, Florida) Late Sunday evening, at the legendary Elbo Room bar, there were dozens of blue and orange sweaters. Between the rock classics that the group on stage played, the crowd chanted “Let’s go Oilers”.
Rest assured : The Press did not take the wrong boarding gate when departing from Montreal. We were not in Edmonton, but near Las Olas Beach in Fort Lauderdale.
All day Sunday, colleagues reported on Oilers fans converging on Florida for Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final. At the Toronto and Detroit airports, Oilers fans were numerous. A guy from Edmonton even chartered a flight to go to Florida with 95 fellow citizens, reported colleague Nick Cotsonika of NHL.com.
The Oilers players are staying in a hotel located on the beach in Fort Lauderdale. We guess they didn’t spend their Sunday evening among the partygoers at the Elbo Room. But has this wave of love reached the players?
In the visitors’ locker room at Amerant Bank Arena, Philip Broberg looked uncomfortable, as if he was afraid of exposing himself. “I haven’t seen anyone, honestly. I stayed at the hotel. I am not sure. But we have very good fans in Edmonton. They also come on the road and Game 6 in Edmonton is incredible. »
We will have to see what it will look like in practice on Monday evening in the stands. Maybe the only Oilers fans in town were all at the same bar Sunday night. Maybe a blue tide will invade the Panthers’ home.
The famous famine
Except that this excitement can be explained. The Oilers have the chance to make their way into the history books.
On the one hand, they will try to become the second team in history to win the Stanley Cup after falling behind 0-3 in the final, after the Maple Leafs of 1942. The feat has also never been accomplished in the final of major baseball or the NBA, the two other major North American leagues with a 4 of 7 format.
On the other hand, the Oilers could also end the incredible 31-year drought of Canadian teams without a Stanley Cup. Since Guy Carbonneau received the trophy from Gary Bettman on June 9, 1993 at the Forum, the 2024 Oilers are the seventh Canadian team to have reached the final. It is also the seventh time that a Canadian team has found itself one victory away from the trophy.
Canadian teams within one Stanley Cup victory since 1993
- 1994: Vancouver Canucks, Game 7 against the Rangers
- 2004: Calgary Flames, games 6 and 7 against the Lightning
- 2006: Edmonton Oilers, Game 7 against the Hurricanes
- 2011: Vancouver Canucks, games 6 and 7 against the Bruins
This shortage obviously does not affect each player in the same way. We guess that the Brobergs, the Mattias Ekholms, the Mattias Janmark, have nothing really to worry about in these three decades without a Cup north of the border.
Ekholm admitted on Monday morning that he had no childhood memory of the Stanley Cup.
“The matches started at 2 a.m. at our place,” recalls the 34-year-old Swede. There was no social media. All we had was a weekly 30-minute show that featured NHL highlights. Maybe it was when I was 11 or 12, playing video games, that I started dreaming of winning it. »
To his left on the podium, Zach Hyman, winger born in Toronto, who has only played for Canadian teams (Maple Leafs, Oilers) since his arrival in the NHL in 2016. We often mention, among the factors explaining this shortage , the difficulty for Canadian teams to attract and retain the best players. In the summer of 2021, Hyman was one of the good free agents on the market and he chose to stay in Canada by signing with the Oilers. He has just given them seasons of 27, 36 and 54 goals.
PHOTO NATHAN DENETTE, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Zach Hyman
Hyman obviously offered a very different sound from Ekholm.
I think in Canada, the Stanley Cup is woven into our culture. For almost all hockey fans here, one of the first dreams is to win the Stanley Cup. It’s in our culture and it’s how I grew up.
Zach Hyman
Hyman therefore believes that an Oilers victory on Monday “would mean a lot to all Canadians, whether they are Oilers fans or not. Especially with the look of the series. I think we got people to rally behind us and believe in us, because it’s a good story. I hope we get a lot of support. »
In short
The Oilers held a very optional training, in which only five players expected in uniform Monday evening participated.
The Panthers held their exercise at their training center, a 30-minute drive from Amerant Bank Arena. According to local media, veteran Kyle Okposo will join the lineup and take Nick Cousins’ place on the fourth trio.