Edmonton Oilers: I’m Done With All This Taylor Hall Hate

By Kurt Leavins | Sep 9, 2015

I’m a happy Edmonton Oilers fan. So it’s particularly unfair that I am constantly goaded into writing columns when I’m angry. But seriously: I’m done with all this anti-Taylor Hall crap. No more free passes. Diss Him? You diss me.

Happy news today, for a franchise that has finished out of the playoffs for the past 9 years: The World Hockey Championships tournament is announced, and TSN (a network I’m not even particularly fond of) rates Taylor Hall, yes OUR Taylor Hall, as the #1LW on the forecast roster. Fantastic! There should be dancing in the streets. Twitter should sparkle and glow with Hall-love.

Instead…I get this, from “fan”:

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“Well what other options are there at (Left Wing). Such a weak position that Hall is considered one of the best”.

Sigh.

Well…I guess you do what you have to do, in order to attract 229 followers.

That’s it. I’m done. I just won’t stand for it any more. I have seen this movie, I know how it ends, and don’t care for it or the 3 prequels that are surely on the way, to waste my precious time. I will no longer just idle in the corner while people take shots at our #4. I’m not a Phillies fan. Never will be.

What? What’s a Phillies fan? Don’t watch baseball much, huh? The Phillies are a team in the Major Leagues of Baseball, in the National League, often the nemesis of my beloved Montreal Expos (I hated you, Steve Carleton, yes you, don’t pretend that you can’t hear me). And if you are up-to-speed on baseball, then you will know that Philadelphia has the worst (THE worst) fans in sport.

Just ask Mike Schmidt. Schmidt had an enviable 18-year career in the majors, and did o.k., which is to say: He won 3 National League MVP Awards and was a Twelve-Time All Star (12!) at 3rd Base, a position he fielded spectacularly (he won 10 Gold Gloves, for mercy sakes). But his glove was overshadowed by his 548 career home runs and 1,595 RBI. In short: He was the best 3rd Baseman who ever lived. Period.

Yet…Phillies fans hated him. Hated him. Treated him like a 3-legged dog, they did. But then keep in mind, Veteran’s Stadium actually had a court-house and a jail built right inside the stadium, to deal with knuckle-dragging fans. They had no appreciation of his elegant skills which the above statistics eloquently speak to. He went 1-for-20 against the Orioles in the 1983 World Series. And for that, he was labelled a bum, forever.

How did Mike Schmidt view that? Well…QUOTE:

“I’ll tell you something about my playing in Philadelphia—whatever I’ve got in my career now, I would have had a great more if I’d played my whole career in Los Angeles or Chicago, you name a town, somewhere where they were just grateful to have me around.”

Snap!

Now, I know Philadelphia fans, and so I have no remorse for them. But Edmonton Oilers fans I DO know. I’ve sat among them at Rexall Place for years. And I refuse to believe that the majority of them are “Phillies fans”. Mind-you, I did watch Edmonton Oilers fans chase Jeff Petry out of town. And Shawn Horcoff. And Dustin Penner. Hmmm. OK, now I’m a little concerned.

Do you really want Taylor Hall to ever say the above, about you?

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Surely, after all these years of pain and disappointment, we as fans can put away our bitterness over losing, and embrace what we finally, FINALLY have: A sublime collection of talent, of which Taylor Hall is (arguably, but since Connor McDavid has yet to play a single NHL game) the very best shining example.

Can we not hold our vitriol one more season, and savor the sight of #4 flashing down the wing, with the power of a locomotive and the grace of an eagle, as a generational 18-year old talent put’s it on the tape one sublime time after another. Sheesh, I may need a towel, here.

So join me. Put up with it no longer. The next time someone takes a shot at Taylor Hall in your Timeline, shoot back. Don’t under-appreciate, like Phillies fans did of Mike Schmidt. Defend. This is war.

And we’re not gonna take it anymore.

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