How many of you have ever checked your phone for something else on a Saturday only to get a text message from a family member that got a ticket to the game but they're willing to give it to you? That's exactly what happened to me. My brother-in-law happened to win a ticket from his workplace's social committee, but he has the unfortunate mental health malady of suffering from anxiety and didn't want to fight the crowds, so he offered the ticket to me.
I didn't even have to think about it, there was no hesitation at all. I pounced on it. After re-downloading the Rogers Place app on my phone and getting the digital copy of said ticket, I was ready to go, although I didn't immediately see a barcode to be scanned by RP staff so that made me a little nervous. But, there was nothing I could do about it at the time, so I thought I'll just have to bring the ticket up and hope for the best - I don't have the $$ and at times the time to attend games live very often so I didn't know all the nuances involved.
Anyway, knowing how many people are about to descend on the downtown core, I knew I'd have to leave very early as having previously worked for Capital Power in the EPCOR building awhile back across the street from Rogers Place I knew where to park for free, believe it or not, and I had a feeling those spots would be snapped up quickly. Not that parking in that area is super expensive if you're willing to do a little walking, but nonetheless I still wanted to park for free if I could swing it.
The game was at 7:30 so I left my place in the Bonnie Doon area around 6pm. I drove to the "free parking" area of downtown (it's around the Victoria School of Performing Arts, in case you're curious). Fortunately Bonnie Doon isn't too far away from a lot of places, including downtown, so I was there in a jiff, then walked the four blocks or so to Rogers Place - and of course I had put on one of my two Oilers jerseys for the occasion as well as my Oilers hat so I was decked out in the standard "Oilers fan uniform" so to speak.
I found my seat without too much effort - the signage in RP isn't the greatest but you can usually find out where you need to go - not quite to the level of predictable organization as the streets of Edmonton itself, but decent enough.
I was in my seat about 40 mins before the game, so then it's a matter of what to do to kill that time. Fortunately, the crew at RP still manages to put together some pretty good pre-game pageantry, so it was OK. I also posted a pic on Facebook and took a pic to send my brother in law and a friend of mine that has recently become an Oilers fan as well as another friend who has been an Oilers fan maybe even longer than me. I stashed my coat underneath the seat - which turned out to be a mistake, I'll fill you in on why later.
This isn't my first event at Rogers Place so I didn't buy beer, snacks, or meals as a lot of fans do because I know how much that stuff costs, and at Rogers Place it's way overpriced. The last quote I heard for a beer was $14, and that was a while ago. It frankly wouldn't surprise me if they cranked up the prices for the playoffs.
Anyway, you go through the standard grind of player intros on both sides and the national anthems. Unlike in other Canadian cities the US anthem wasn't booed by fans at Rogers Place, I guess Canadians have switched to protesting Donald Trump and his inept brand of tariffs through quieter ways. I found this a little surprising as I was expecting otherwise. Amusingly some of the Kings players were booed pretty hard during their intros.
If any of you were watching the game, on TV or otherwise, you'll know how to started out - if not, you can always check that out here. Corey Perry gets the team on the board with a PP goal and the whole building goes berserk. I used to have an uncle who took me and my family to one regular season game a year at the previous barn of Rexall Place, so while I knew Oilers fans cheer loudly at a goal during the regular season, it's much more intense in the playoffs. Then Kevin Fiala scored the Kings third goal just over three minutes later and you could feel the energy absolutely deflating out of the building. I should mention as well that the Oilers put on every seat a washcloth/towel like something or other (I couldn't identify exactly what it was) that were for the purposes of waving over your head to cheer.
At this point the Oilers had the good sense to lock down defensively, but they were still puzzlingly pensive on offense. Although the in-game experience is overall good, I will say that the event staff at RP overplayed their hand in asking people to wave the "cheering fabric" - that's what I'm going to call it now - to get the team going. I get that you're trying to help the players with the 13th man and all, but in times when the Oilers are behind by two goals it just seems forced. A one point they even played a message from Oilers alumni Raffi Torres on the jumbotron saying something along the lines of "I've heard you cheer before, Edmonton, I know you can do better than that." That resulted in mildly more cheering, but probably not to the level they wanted. However, at this point the fans switched to another form of cheering - mocking Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper with chants of "KUEM-PER KUEM-PER KUEM-PER" which I will cop to that I did as well - and I have no regrets. :)
The reffing in this game was horrific, as the refs missed multiple blatant calls against the Kings, particularly of the tripping variety. Leon Draisaitl at one point was irritated with the refs too looking at them why they didn't call a penalty against a Kings player who tripped him. This resulted in multiple chants by the fans of a classic hockey game chant - "REF YOU SUCK! REF YOU SUCK! REF YOU SUCK!" Sometimes I joined in, sometimes I didn't.
In the second period intermission, Oilers alumni and current pro scout Zack Kassian was in the building, in the email I got from the Oilers they said he was signing autographs about an hour before the game. I was more concerned with finding my seat than standing in line for a Kassian autograph, which I knew there would be a huge lineup to get, so I didn't bother going to that. Still, it was nice to see the cameras pan to Kassian in a suite somewhere after showing lots of his bruising hits and goal highlights on the Rogers Place jumbotron. Kass got a standing ovation from all the fans in Rogers Place after those highlights played. That might not have been something you saw on TV.
I watched the post-game interviews on the Oilers website the following Monday and Kris Knoblauch mentioned - and rightly so, IMO - that he told the team to be more aggressive on offense in the third period. They took their head coach's instructions to heart, because the action ramped up in the third period as the Oilers sent wave after wave of firepower at the Kings, overpowering the defense they're supposed to be known for. Finally, their efforts got rewarded as Evan Bouchard unleashed a Bouch Bomb that made it past Kuemper to cut the Kings lead to 3-2. Everyone was on the edge of their seats at this point until the Oilers delivered in the clutch as we the fans are used to seeing, as with a mere 29 seconds left in the game, Bouchard unleashes ANOTHER Bouch Bomb at Kuemper, and it goes in. All the more impressive is both of EB's goals were assisted on by the McDrai duo, who were playing together for much of the game. Calvin Pickard was pulled at that point for the extra attacker, and although the Kings came close once they never did get the empty netter, fortunately.
At this point it's after 11pm, a game going on pretty late. The couple in the two seats beside me had left the building at their own peril a few minutes prior to EB's second goal so I had more leg room at this point. I stick around, though, as I've seen this script play out before and there's no way I wasn't going to see it through to the end. We go into OT and of course it's a bit nerve wracking the whole time, nobody wanted to see a repeat of game one where the Oilers completed a heck of a comeback only to fall short by one goal.
It took almost the full OT period to finish the game with both teams trading chances and a lot of good saves from both Pickard and Kuemper. Then finally Leon Draisaitl unleashes a sharp angle shot - something both and he and McDavid are famous for scoring on - and it makes it in. I actually thought Bouchard had the hat trick at first, but the goal ended up getting credited to Dr. Drai. The whole building gets intensely loud and the guy beside me - I have absolutely no idea who he is - hugs me, and I don't even care. Oilers win and tie the series up at two games apiece. What a thrilling roller coaster ride from the boys.
The experience wasn't all good, of course. The Wi-Fi wasn't working in the first period so I had to email RP staff who got it up and running by the second period. This delayed the text messaging of pics and videos I sent out to people, which was disappointing for me, but hey at least it got fixed. I'm an IT guy by occupation, so I assume that probably all the concrete in Rogers Place blocks out both mobile network and Wi-Fi signals, which means if the RP Wi-Fi isn't working, you're basically screwed, and your phone has no signal.
The people sitting beside me - I don't know if it was the hugger or not - for some odd reason spilled their beer on the ground, some of which flowed towards my seat and soaked into my coat, so my coat smelled like beer. How do you spend that much on a beer and then only drink part of it, putting it on the ground in front of your seat knowing you could easily spill it with your feet from there? I don't get that. Perhaps they'd already had a few beers and didn't have their.....motor skill functions.....up to par. Fortunately, this wasn't a problem on the way back as it didn't rain as the forecast said it would, so I didn't have the awkwardness of putting on a coat that smelled like beer. I already mentioned the event staff trying to force cheering when there was nothing to cheer about, the reffing sucked, and the expensive concessions dissuading me from buying drinks or snacks.
But overall, this was a highly enjoyable experience, one that I would recommend if you have the $$ and time or get hooked up like I did.
After the game I walked back to my car, and as I expected there was a lot of honking, cheering, and high fives. I actually lived just off Whyte Ave. a long time ago and was getting off work when the Oilers beat the Red Wings in the first round in 2006, so I got to see the pandemonium happen in real time at that point and had an idea of what to expect. No crimes were committed, though, from what I could see no vandalism or property damage of any kind, unlike in 2006.
The game ended just after 11:30pm, over a four-hour game. Once I got back to my car, I had to contend with pretty crazy traffic to drive home. Despite the fact that there were still traffic lights working everywhere downtown, for whatever reason the city sees fit to have cops directing traffic after the game, so I had to contend with that until I could get out of the core and down Bellamy Hill, then onto Connors Road and back to my own 'hood. I needed a midnight snack at this point, so I had a stopover at a 7-11 to pick something up and got home just after midnight. After finishing my snack, I texted with a friend I knew was still up to fill him in and then had a beer to celebrate the Oilers win. I got to bed just before 2am.
But whatever happened to your coat?
Ah yes, the beer-soaked coat. Well, my readers, fear not, for I emptied the pockets of my coat, the contents of which didn't really get beer on them, which was great, then I put it in the washing machine, air dried it for about 24 hours, and now I can safely say it's dry and beer free, just as it should be.
And that's my chronicle of attending my first Oilers playoff game. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, dear readers. Signing off now.