Whitewood Mayor Rhett Parks was in attendance at game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final – he says the energy in Florida was “electric”. Parks hadn’t always planned to go to the game – but says plans came together after the Edmonton team lost game 3.

“My Brother is a die hard oilers fan, and after the loss of game three he was so down in the dumps, and I said something maybe I shouldn’t have. I said if they make it to seven we’ll go to game seven. And here we are…”

Parks said the hospitality they were shown in the sunshine state was second to none. People stopping the pair in all their oilers gear on the street for photos, even going so far as to buy them drinks. A quick stop at a pub pregame brought the depth of oiler fandom in Florida home for Parks.

“It was “oilnation” south headquarters, it was full of oiler fans and if a panthers fan walked in everyone started cheering “Go Oilers Go.”

Parks said the arena was about a third full of oiler fans.

“You could hear it when we sang the national anthem, it was pretty darn loud”.

As a self proclaimed fan of the Vancouver Canuck’s Parks admitted that it was hard to not get wrapped up in the frenzy around the Edmonton Oilers – but says that after the loss in game seven – he’d be going back to cheering for Vancouver.

Overall, the 2024 Stanley Cup Finals averaged 4.2 million viewers on television, a sharp increase from last year’s cup. The final game was also sportsnet’s most watched NHL game in the network’s history.