Oiler Fans Optimistic for Next Season: ‘Keep Your Heads Up’

For Edmonton Oiler fans who had travelled with their team along its rollercoaster season, the end of the journey in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals was painful, but there’s always next year.

“Devastated,” said Tina Duncan of Edmonton. A self-described Oilers “superfan,” she attended the watch party at Rogers Place Arena, only to see the Oilers lose to the Florida Panthers by 2-1 after a hard-fought Game 7 of the series.

“Everybody was hanging their heads low,” she said. “It was kind of depressing walking out of the arena. The cops were all there for crowd control, but nobody was doing anything … everybody was just walking to their vehicles and going home.”

It was a tough ending to an almost storybook season. Initially, the Oilers struggled but ended up with a solid season that saw, among other things, a 16-game winning streak. During the playoffs, they beat Los Angeles, Vancouver, and Dallas before facing Florida.

Then they came back from losing the first three games against Florida to tie the series 3-3 before the June 24 winner-take-all game.

“Still sad … still devastated,” said Oilers fan Mark Giampa on the morning after the final game. He told The Epoch Times he’d been in Las Vegas when news came the Oilers had made it to Game 7, so he and his fiancé changed their flight plans and came back a day early.

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“If they won, we wanted to be in Edmonton,” he said. “We were excited.”

Instead, it was a heartbreaking loss.

“It seemed like a storybook season,” said Mr. Giampa. After a rough start, everyone had counted them out by Thanksgiving. “And next thing you know, we make it to the Stanley Cup Final Game 7.”

Despite the disappointing ending, Mr. Giampa and Ms. Duncan said they won’t stop cheering the team on.

“I will never give up on my Oilers,” said Ms. Duncan.

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