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EDMONTON – Oh, rats.
Canada’s latest attempt to bring home the Stanley Cup died dramatically on the edge of the Everglades on Monday, leaving fans from Edmonton to Florida thrilled with the ride but crushed at the destination.
The Oilers were one game short of a playoff chance for the ages, winning three in a row to tie the final series only to drop the deciding Game 7 to the Florida Panthers by a score of 2-1.
Thousands of fans packing the plaza outside Edmonton’s Rogers Place stood in stunned silence watching on a big screen as Panthers players celebrated behind their net and the Florida crowd threw the ice with their trademark black plastic rats.
Some in Edmonton threw their drinks towards the big screen, gave a few hugs to those standing in sadness, others started walking out with their hands jammed in their pockets.
Inside the arena, around 16,000 also watched in dismay on the big screen as the game drew to a close.
“We didn’t put ourselves in the best position, going down 3-0,” said Tayo Yachimec.
“But we fought back. We got close in the end”
“It’s a little hard to take, but it is what it is,” added Christopher Alucema.
The comfort, he said, is two months watching playoff games in the rink and on the plaza, cheering with his friend, surrounded by fans.
“It was worth every penny. I would do it again if I had to,” Alucema said. “(It’s) a lifetime of memories I don’t think I’ll ever forget.”
“We had a good run,” said Gerard Pattenden.
“(But) it brings back the old memories of ’06. We get to the finals and we lose Game 7.
“It kind of sucks.”
Blue and orange fans were also a large and vocal contingent at the Florida rink. A rough eyeball count of tailgate parties under palm trees out front puts about half in the Oilers camp, half for the Panthers.
At one point, the Edmonton faithful’s chant of “Go Oilers Go!” the local contingent’s cry of “Let’s Go Panthers!”
It was a disappointing end to two months of playoff madness in Edmonton.
Fans chalked streets, got tattoos, wore jerseys and flew Oilers flags from all forms of motorized transport, including a fake Zamboni.
The Oilers were on the brink of history, repeating a feat accomplished only once in NHL history, when the Great War 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs were down three games and came back to win four in a row to take the Cup.
The close win captured the national imagination, but more so in Edmonton. The city already has five Stanley Cups but for decades has been feeding off the fading bits of glory from Wayne Gretzky’s glory days in the 1980s.
Stanley’s waiting game continues for the rest of Canada, which hasn’t won a Cup since the Montreal Canadiens in 1993.
Since then Canadian teams have come close, sometimes painfully close, to recapturing Stanley.
Five times they pushed their opponents to a decisive seventh game before going home empty-handed: Vancouver in 1994 and 2011; Calgary in 2004; Edmonton in 2006, and again on Monday.
Through much of the last century, the trophy had more or less the status of a permanent resident in Canada – commuting between Toronto and Montreal, and relocating to hang with Gordie Howe and company in Detroit for a time in the 1950s.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Stanley moved alternately between Canada and the United States, mostly shuttling between Montreal and Edmonton along with homes on the US East Coast, particularly Long Island.
By the 1990s, it was Canada’s goodbye. Stanley was snapped up by the New York Rangers in 1994. From Broadway, Stanley hit the road to California and New England, Vegas to Florida, from the Sun Belt to the Rust Belt. Parties with Penguins, weather systems and natural disasters: Hurricanes, Avalanches and Lightning. He was a Blackhawk, a Blue, a Star, and a Huck.
And now, Panther.
This report was first published by The Canadian Press on June 24, 2024.
— With files from Rob Drinkwater and David Boles in Edmonton and Gregory Strong in Sunrise, Fla.
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version misspelled the first of Tayo Yachimec.
(Except translation, this story has not been edited by achinews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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