Edmonton Oilers fans Sunny Parmar, Trish Mulder and Jason Tennant are in Fort Lauderdale, getting ready to watch the Edmonton Oilers take on the Florida Panthers in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.Supplied
Jason Tennant and Trish Mulder are supposed to be in Spain, taking in the sights of Barcelona ahead of a family wedding. Instead, they are at a Holiday Inn in Fort Lauderdale, getting ready to watch the Edmonton Oilers take on the Florida Panthers in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.
“It is a sacrifice that needs to take place in order to see this history happen,” Mr. Tennant said in an interview late Monday morning.
The pair live in Calgary and attended Game 6 in Edmonton on Friday with Mr. Tennant’s university buddy, Sunny Parmar. After the Oilers won that game to keep the series alive, Mr. Tennant and Ms. Mulder hummed and hawed about going to Florida, but decided to stick with their plan to fly to Spain for Ms. Mulder’s cousin’s wedding. But on the drive home the next day, Ms. Mulder, who is a Calgary Flames fan before an Oilers fan, saw on social media Mr. Parmar’s plan for Game 7: To watch it at home, alone.
“The entire time we’d been talking about how this is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Mr. Tennant said. “Why wouldn’t we go?”
They phoned Mr. Parmar. They told him: “We gotta go. And you’re coming. We have to do this.”
Edmonton Oilers looking for history-making win in Game 7 of Stanley Cup final
The trio are among the legions of Oilers fans who trekked to the National Hockey League’s Sun Belt for the chance to watch their team play for the Stanley Cup. Both teams have history on the line: The Panthers are playing for the team’s first Stanley Cup; the Oilers are fighting to complete an epic comeback, after being down 3-0 in the best-of-seven series. Connor McDavid, the league’s – and perhaps history’s – best player has never won the Cup and the Oilers were in second-last place in November. The Montreal Canadiens were the last team based in Canada to win the trophy, 31 years ago.
The trio paid about US$1600 per ticket and will be watching from the first row of the upper bowl. They won’t be alone.
While they took a day to mull over plans, Eugene Makokis and his brother-in-law Victor Houle had little choice. Mr. Makokis’s son and daughter were scheming to send them to the final game as they watched Game 6 in Rogers Place in Edmonton.
“We thought they were joking around with us,” Mr. Makokis said Monday morning as the two, who are from Saddle Lake Cree Nation, were driving from Orlando to Miami, near Sunrise. The Oilers are undefeated in the seven playoff games they’ve attended so far.
Mr. Houle said the two have come across scores of Oilers fans on their journey from Edmonton to Calgary to Winnipeg to Atlanta to Orlando to Miami.
“In our language, we always say: ‘tāpōketamōwin.’ You got to believe,” Mr. Houle, who speaks Cree, said. “Hopefully they bring the Cup back to Treaty 6 territory.”
On a sunny, windy morning in downtown Edmonton, Raquel and Raphael Dela Cruz were among a steady stream of fans stopping to pose for photos in front of Rogers Place.
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Mr. De La Cruz, who is originally from the Philippines, said he hadn’t been a big fan of hockey before – but something changed for him in Game 4.
“When the Oilers caught up with Florida, that made me realize hockey is thrilling,” he said. “That’s how I feel about the game right now.”
“The mood of all Edmonton is ‘we’re all in it together,’” said Ms. Dela Cruz, who had invited friends over for a Monday night watch party. She noted Monday was not a usual night for a party, but was worth it in the circumstances.
“It’s do or die,” she said. “I was telling my husband, ‘I have to pray to God.’ It’s like a U.S.A. versus Canada thing now, right? It’s a big thing.”
Across the street from the arena, a steady procession of fans in jerseys were gathering in line hours before puck drop. Every so often, honks and cheers broke out, and reverberated through downtown.
“I’m a diehard fan and I’m not going to miss this moment,” said Stephen Mallett, who was among those arriving prepared for a long day and night, with his chair, his jersey, and a giant Oilers flag.
“I’ve waited 18 years. I was only 12 in 1990 for the last Cup, so this is my opportunity to make the most of it,” he said. “Last night was like Christmas Eve for me, no joke.”
He predicted the night would end in emotion – one way or the other.
“Tears of joy, or tears of sadness,” he said. “It’s going to be one of the two.”
And when it is all over, Mr. Tennant and Ms. Mulder plan to jet off to Spain, arriving in time for the wedding this forthcoming Saturday. But while it was Ms. Mulder’s idea to forego sightseeing in Barcelona in favour of witnessing history in Florida, she’s unsure if this playoff run will be enough to turn her into a full-blown Oilers convert.
“There’s only so much drama one family can take,” she said.