Monday night at Edmonton’s Rogers Place! Round one of the Edmonton Oilers and LA Kings NHL playoffs. People across Canada are on edge. Let’s just say those 19,000 Oiler fans in house were liking, to a point, what they saw! Although the Kings did start to inch back, they were not closing the deal and the night belonged to the Oilers and Zach Hyman. His play has been a work of art when it comes to finishing off plays from McDavid and Draisaitl. Here’s some fun stats; Zach Hyman is the 6th player in Oilers history to score a hat trick in Game 1 of a playoff series, his first post season hatty! He joins Leon Draisaitl, Glenn Anderson, Jari Kurri, Mark Messier & Wayne Gretzky.
On the subject of hat-tricks, here’s the numbers from last night; one thousand, one hundred and thirty-one hats were thrown on the ice. That’s a whole lotta cash laying there! You do the math, at approximately 50 bucks a hat x 1,131. Now that’s a salary for a Canadian in 2024.
Do you question your Oilers play to the extent that Maple Leaf fans do!? A win like last night might just be the kickstart to a deep run into the post season. The the energy, the tension in the building and throughout Oil Country is building and no fan wants to have that bubble burst. These first round match ups are like setting a table for a good rivalry. Who will scrappy Corey Perry be looking to take on OR who’s got his number!?
My May evenings in the 70’s were spent glued to the Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Islanders broadcasts. I vividly remember watching Bobby Clarke, Don Saleski, Bernie Parent, Reggie Leach and others create that good guy vs bad guy scenario. I was definitely on the side of the bad guys! The Broad Street Bullies were my team! The Islanders were pretty rough – so the elbows were flying. Definitely a different time in the 70’s!
“Goonery” doesn’t fit the Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins model. You do need some guys that aren’t afraid to get a bit dirty out there! And as a fan, you like that grit and grind. Enter Corey Perry, is he the 2024 “stir the pot” wild card. Nah, that’s just called balance.
Whether you are a fan of the a Canadian or an American NHL team – good luck! If you haven’t already, pull out the bobbleheads, the jerseys & t-shirts, toques, build that shrine, fly your favourite team colours, make a road trip to a team city and immerse yourself in the playoffs and ride this wave all the way to the top.
Go Oilers Go Jets Go Canucks Go Leafs
