‘Loyal to the oil' – how religion and striking it rich shape Canada's hockey fandom

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Déjà vu is a common occurrence in the world of sports, and the Edmonton Oilers are no strangers to repeat matchups. The Canadian team faced off against the New York Islanders in both 1983 and '84 for hockey's biggest prize, the Stanley Cup. In this year's National Hockey League finals, the Oilers will try to avenge their Game 7 loss to the Florida Panthers in 2024.
Edmontonians who have been 'loyal to the oil,' as fans say, have been waiting for redemption ever since. The Trump administration's threats toward its northern neighbor has fueled a wave of nationalism, making even more fans eager for a Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup – which has not happened since 1993. With hopes pinned to Edmonton, the finals also brings renewed attention to some of Canada's biggest exports: hockey and oil.
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Novelist Leslie McFarlane once observed that for Canadians, 'hockey is more than a game; it is almost a religion.' Prayers and superstitions abound, from wearing special clothing to fans averting their eyes during penalty shots.
The Oilers also evoke another aspect of Canadian society that, for some, has almost religious importance: resource extraction. In American and Canadian culture, oil has long been entangled with religion. It's a national blessing from God, in some people's eyes, and a means to the 'good life' for those who persevere to find it. For many people in communities whose economies center around resource extraction, the possibility of success is valued above its environmental risks.
We are scholars of religion who study sports and how oil shapes society, or petro-cultures. The Edmonton Oilers showcase a worldview in which triumph, luck and rugged work pay off – beliefs at home on the ice or in the oil field. The Stanley Cup Final offers a glimpse into how the oil industry has helped shaped the religious fervor around Canada's favorite sport.
Edmonton Oilers fan Dale Steil's boots before the team's playoff game against the Los Angeles Kings on April 26, 2024. AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez
Boomtown
Edmonton is the capital of Alberta, a province known for its massive oil, gas and oil sands reserves. With five refineries producing an average of 3.8 million barrels a day, oil and gas is Alberta's biggest industry – and a way of life.
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This is especially true in Edmonton, known as the 'Oil Capital of Canada.' Here, oil not only structures the local economy, but it also shapes identities, architecture and everyday experiences.
Visit the West Edmonton Mall, for example, and you'll see a statue of three oil workers drilling, reminding shoppers that petroleum is the bedrock of their commerce. Visit the Canadian Energy Museum to learn how oil and gas have remade the region since the late 1940s, and glimpse items such as engraved hard hats and the 'Oil Patch Kid,' a spin on the iconic 'Cabbage Patch Kids' toys. Tour the Greater Edmonton area and see how pump jacks dot the horizon. Oil is everywhere, shaping futures, fortunes and possibility.
Set against this backdrop, the Oilers' name is unsurprising. It is not uncommon, after all, to name teams after local industries. Football's Pittsburgh Steelers pay homage to the steel mills that once employed much of the team's fan base. The Tennessee Oilers were originally the Houston Oilers, prompting other Texas teams such as the XFL's Roughnecks to follow suit. Further north, the name of basketball's Detroit Pistons references car manufacturing.
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Teams with industry-inspired names play double duty, venerating both a place and a trade. Some fans are not only cheering for the home team, but also cheering for themselves – affirming that their industry and their labor matter.
Ales Hemsky of the Edmonton Oilers skates out from under the oil derrick for a game at Rexall Place in 2008 in Edmonton, Alberta. Andy Devlin/NHLI via Getty Images
In a TikTok video from last year's Stanley Cups playoffs, a man overcome with joy at the Oilers' victory over the Dallas Stars claps his hands and hops around his living room. The caption reads, 'My first-generation immigrant oil rig working Filipino father who has never played a second of hockey in his life … happily cheering for the Oilers advancing in the playoffs. Better Bring that cup home for him oily boys.' He appears to be cheering for the Oilers not because they are a hockey team, but because they are an oil team.
And indeed, the Oilers are an oily team. The Oilers' Oilfield Network, for example, describes itself as 'exclusively promot[ing] companies in the Oil and Gas industry,' allowing leaders to connect 'through the power of Oilers hockey.'
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The Oilers' connection with industry is further underscored by their logos. The current one features a simple drop of oil, but past designs featured machinery gears and an oil worker pulling a lever shaped like a hockey stick.
Simply put, 'Edmonton is all oil,' Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner shared after defeating the Dallas Stars to win the 2025 Western Conference Final.
Liquid gold
There is a long tradition of pairing hockey with oil – and with Canada itself.
After the British North America Act founded Canada in 1867, the new nation searched for a distinctive identity through sport and other cultural forms.
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Enter hockey. The winter game evolved in Canada from the Gaelic game of 'shinty' and the First Nations' game of lacrosse and soon became part of the glue holding the nation together.
Ever since, media, politicians, sports groups and major industries have helped fuel fan fervor and promoted hockey as integral to Canada's rugged frontiersman character.
The Montreal Amateur Athletic Association posing with the first Stanley Cup in 1893. Bruce Bennett Studios via GettyIn 1936, Imperial Oil, one of Canada's largest petroleum companies, began sponsoring Hockey Night in Canada, a national radio show that reached millions each week. Several years later, Imperial Oil played a major role in bringing the show to television, where the Imperial Oil Choir sang the theme song. Imperial Oil and its gas stations, Esso, also sponsored youth hockey programs across the nation. In 2019, Imperial inked a deal to be the NHL's 'official retail fuel' in Canada.
Striking it rich
Connections between hockey and industry in Alberta's oil country aren't just about sponsorships. Central to both cultures is the idea of luck – historically, one of the many things it takes to extract fossil fuels. 'Striking it rich' in the oil fields has become entangled with the idea of divine providence, especially among the many Christian laborers.
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Philosopher Terra Schwerin Rowe has written about North America's 'petro-theology,' explaining how many perceive oil as a free-flowing gift from God meant to be taken from the Earth – if you can find it.
A Canadian oil worker kisses his wife and daughter goodbye as he sets off to work in northern Alberta in the 1950s.Oil represents fortune, and who wouldn't want to borrow a bit of that for their team? Sports are thrilling because sometimes talent, team chemistry and the home-field advantage still lose to a stroke of good luck. Oil culture pairs the idea of divine favor with an insistence on rough-and-tumble endurance, similar to hockey.
Sometimes if you don't strike it rich the first time, you have to keep on drilling. The next well may be the one to bring wealth. Oil prospectors know this, but so do sports fans who maintain hope season to season.
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Soon fans from around the world will join Edmonton locals in rooting for the Oilers. They'll throw their hands up in despair if captain Connor McDavid enters the 'sin bin' – the penalty box – or dance in celebration to the Oilers' theme, 'La Bamba.' Some of them will be cheering, too, for oil.
This is an updated version of an article originally published on June 19, 2024.
This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Cody Musselman, Harvard University and Judith Ellen Brunton, Rice University
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The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.