The Edmonton Oilers are... America's team?
Sunrise, Fla. — Sonya Gabriel grew up in Alberta. but she has called Florida home for the past 25 years.
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Wearing 1990s-era copper and blue Oilers' throwback jerseys, Gabriel and her husband, Sam, walked towards Amerant Bank Arena ahead of the faceoff of Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final.
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'I've really been getting into it,' he said.
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'We'll see about Game 4,' said Sonya. 'We'll see how they do tonight.'
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Jay McIntyre and his son, Kyle, are rabid hockey fans from Philadelphia.
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'We're every NHL team's fan,' said Jay (Just not the Flyers or Panthers, it seems). 'We've actually been to 23 venues. We were actually going to go to Rogers Place this year, but we couldn't make it.'
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'Watching games that come from there, they just look so cool,' said Kyle.
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Getting to Edmonton is task No.1 left on their hockey bucket list, though.
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'I want to see McDavid lift the Cup for the first time,' said Kyle. 'The Panthers have already won it last year, so I'm, like, meh. It's somebody else's turn.'
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'I wanted to see them win last year,' said Jay. 'But I'm here to watch them this year.'
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Shelly Shively is from Elk Rapids, Michigan. She arrived at the arena wearing an Oilers home blue jersey. The Red Wings? Not her thing.
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She became an Oilers fan in 1987, during the Rendez-Vous series, which saw an NHL All-Star Team face the Soviet national side.
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'A friend of mine was already a hockey fan, and she asked me, 'Pick your player,'' Shively said. 'So I picked my player, and it was Mark Messier. So, the next day, I looked in the paper to see who he played for.'
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