Surge end 3-game road trip on winning note in Winnipeg
The Calgary Surge take on the Winnipeg Sea Bears Friday in Manitoba. The 2 teams play again Sunday afternoon in Calgary. (Photo: X@SeaBears)
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CBC
23 minutes ago
- CBC
Canada's team? Canadians from coast to coast to coast jumping on the Oilers bandwagon
For the second time in a row the Edmonton Oilers are taking on the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup final, but are Canadians rallying behind the last remaining team from Canada? While there are plenty of people across the country who won't be supporting the Oilers, you can find fans — both diehard and casual — hoping for Edmonton to bring home the Cup. In Halifax, more than 4,800 kilometres away from Edmonton, it's rare to find an Oilers fan. But during Game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup final, the Oasis Pub in Halifax was packed with fans. "Last year when [the Stanley Cup final] went to Game 7, we had about 150 people," said Brian Atkinson, manager of Oasis. Typically, hockey fans at Oasis cheer for the Toronto Maple Leafs, or Atkinson's favourite team, the Montreal Canadiens, he said, and Oilers fans are rare in the regular season. WATCH | Join our live pregame show from the Edmonton arena and fan zone from 4:30 p.m. MT: Live pregame from the Edmonton arena and fan zone Live in 1 hour Join host Mark Connolly as he takes you behind the scenes inside Rogers Place and shares the excitement in Edmonton's Ice District before the Edmonton Oilers take on the Florida Panthers. All of the Stanley Cup games are being broadcast in Canada on CBC TV. "That's a West Coast team … so you can imagine if Montreal or Toronto had gone to the final … we would have reached capacity had one of those two teams been at the final." The bar is showing its support for the Oilers with a custom-made logo inspired by the classic oil drop Oilers logo. "In terms of those logos, that's sort of done in jest, we did that for the Leafs when they were also contending, and they're probably the most popular team in the area," said Atkinson. Now, he says, more Haligonians are jumping onto the Oilers bandwagon. "There is a contingency of Oilers fans here … at the end of the day, whoever is last team standing who happens to be Canadian, tends to be the one who gets all the support in this area." Nova Scotia might not have its own NHL team, but hockey runs deep in the east coast, with some of the biggest names in the game coming from the province, like Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon or Panthers forward Brad Marchand. But Atkinson said he's pulling for McDavid to win the cup. "If you have someone who's probably considered the best player in the league right now … with Connor McDavid, he needs a Cup, so I think [there is] a lot of support behind that." Despite the long distance, Nova Scotia does have some connections to the Oilers, including hosting the franchise's AHL team in the 1980s and 1990s: the Nova Scotia Oilers and Cape Breton Oilers. West Coast hockey pride Last year, the rivalry between the Oilers and the Canucks heated up, with Edmonton eliminating Vancouver in the second round. Colin Cryderman, a Vancouver bartender, says he became an Oilers fan after working at the Black Frog, the unofficial Oilers bar in Vancouver, which was inspired by Edmonton's Black Dog Freehouse. "The Oilers are kind of the first team that I've adopted and made me the biggest fan," said Colin Cryderman. After the 4 Nations Face-Off, which saw Canada win the gold, Cryderman says that some of his friends became Oilers converts. "A couple of buddies of mine here that are diehard Canucks fans, they said, 'Oh, now I know how you feel, you get McDavid on your team every night,'" said Cryderman. WATCH | Are Habs fans cheering for the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup final? Are Habs fans cheering for the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup final? 13 hours ago Duration 1:38 As the Edmonton Oilers face off against the Florida Panthers for the second year in a row, we asked Montreal Canadiens fans if they're putting aside their loyalty to the bleu, blanc, rouge for the chance to have the Stanley Cup back on Canadian soil. He says that Edmonton has a good chance of bringing the Cup home. "Remember, Florida went to the Cup final and lost before they beat us last year, so I think that's one of the advantages that the Oilers have this year," said Cryderman. To show his support for the team, Cryderman has custom-made shirts made for each of the playoff series. "They usually get a good point and laugh when I walk around the street with them," he said. Oilers fans in the Prairies Winnipeg Jets fan Constance Menzies says she'll be cheering for Edmonton, because she wants to see the Cup return to Canada. "It's a little bit hard to want to show favour for any other team, but the Oilers are the only ones left in the playoffs and … we're massively thirsty for a Canadian win," said Menzies. She's the owner of Chocolatier Constance Popp, and last weekend debuted an Oilers-theme chocolate puck — but initially, it didn't go over well with all her customers. "I had a woman say, 'tsk, tsk' to me, so she didn't seem happy," said Menzies. She told the customer, "it's about Canada now, it's not about Winnipeg or Manitoba anymore."
CBC
26 minutes ago
- CBC
Will Summer McIntosh break a world record? And other storylines ahead of Canadian swim trials
Brittany MacLean Campbell and Devin Heroux both agree we'll see at least one world record from Summer McIntosh when Canada's swimmers meet in Victoria, BC for the 2025 Canadian swim trials. They break down the top storylines you should know before streaming begins June 7-12 on CBC Gem.
CBC
26 minutes ago
- CBC
Is it finally McDavid's (and Canada's) time to win the Stanley Cup?
After almost a week of buildup, a highly anticipated Stanley Cup sequel between the Oilers and Panthers finally gets started tonight at 8 p.m. ET in Edmonton. Last year, these teams delivered the most riveting NHL championship series since the Bruins defeated the Canucks in Game 7 in 2011 — a result that set off a literal riot in Vancouver. Fuelled by a Connor McDavid scoring binge, the Oilers became the first team in 79 years to come back from a 3-0 deficit to force a Game 7 in the Cup final, only to lose the decider in Florida by one goal. McDavid was named playoff MVP anyway (the first time in 21 years that the award went to someone on the losing team) after he broke Wayne Gretzky's record for most assists in a post-season and finished with the fifth-highest point total ever: 42 in 25 games. But the Oiler captain was so distraught that he refused to return to the ice to accept the Conn Smythe Trophy from commissioner Gary Bettman before the Panthers hoisted the Cup for the first time in franchise history. Coming off that emotionally and physically exhausting series, both Edmonton and Florida limped into this year's playoffs as the third-place team in their respective divisions. But, as great teams seem to do, they raised their game when the stakes increased. WATCH | Oilers could boast depth advantage in Stanley Cup final with Panthers: Oilers' biggest advantage is depth, writer says 1 hour ago Duration 2:11 Sean Panganiban, an Edmonton Oilers fan and writer with Oilersnation, singles out the team's biggest advantage going into Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final against the Florida Panthers. 'The difference from this year and last year is the Oilers' depth,' beyond star players like Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, he says. This year other players like Kasperi Kapanen are 'pitching in in big ways.' The Panthers mauled a very good Tampa Bay team in five games in the opening round, then overcame some shaky moments to blow out Toronto 6-1 in Game 7 of their series before dispatching Carolina with a five-game gentlemen's sweep to reach their third consecutive Stanley Cup final. The Oilers took a bit longer to get going, dropping their first two playoff games to Los Angeles before snapping out of it to defeat the Kings in six and then take out both Vegas and Dallas in a tidy five to become the first Canadian team to reach consecutive Cup finals since Gretzky's Oilers in 1987 and '88. So, while it took some time to prove it, Edmonton and Florida are once again the two best teams in the league and it should be another exciting final. Here's a look at some key talking points for this story-rich rematch: The stars are aligning for McDavid. It's rare for the same two teams to meet in the Cup final in back-to-back years. In fact, this is just the second time it's happened since Gretzky's Oilers ended the New York Islanders' run of four consecutive championships by winning their rematch in 1984. In 2009, Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins avenged their loss to Detroit by beating the Red Wings in seven. In both cases, the greatest player of his generation (and, in Gretzky's case, of all time) captured his first Stanley Cup by defeating the team that beat him in the final the year before. So, is it McDavid's turn to follow them? He's been the undisputed best player on the planet for years now, winning three regular-season MVPs and five scoring titles along with last year's Conn Smythe over his 10 seasons in the NHL. But he's long overdue for a Stanley Cup. Crosby won it in his fourth season, Gretzky in his fifth. Both of those guys had Hall-of-Fame-calibre sidekicks (Evgeni Malkin for Crosby; Mark Messier, Paul Coffey and Jari Kurri for Gretzky) and McDavid has his own in Leon Draisaitl. The 2019-20 MVP and scoring champ led the league in goals this season with 52 and is just one point behind McDavid for the playoff lead with 25 in 16 games. The historical parallels are too clear to ignore. It just feels like McDavid's time. But the Panthers are a borderline dynasty. Hockey fans who witnessed the Montreal Canadiens reel off four straight Stanley Cups in the late 1970s, immediately followed by four in a row by the Islanders and then four in five years by Gretzky's Oilers may bristle at the use of the D word. But we're in the salary-cap era now, where three consecutive trips to the final (and possibly back-to-back championships) is about as good as it gets. Florida GM Bill Zito has built an ideal team for modern playoff hockey — highly skilled, hard to score on and both mentally and physically tough. Star forwards Sam Bennett (leading the playoffs with 10 goals) and Matthew Tkachuk definitely don't mind mixing it up, while Aleksander Barkov just won his second straight Selke Trophy as the best defensive forward in the NHL and now leads the team with 17 points in 17 post-season games. Plus, Zito added an extra dollop of grit to his front end by acquiring prickly veteran star Brad Marchand at the trade deadline. Aaron Ekblad and Seth Jones lead a solid defence corps, and two-time Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky gives the Panthers a clear edge in goaltending over the Oilers' capable but inconsistent Stuart Skinner. The fact that every other team is now trying to model itself after Florida is pretty funny to anyone who remembers the last three decades of Panthers hockey. After making the Stanley Cup final in just their third year of existence in 1996, they went 25 years without winning a playoff series while playing in front of embarrassingly sparse crowds in their dated arena an hour north of Miami. The streak ended in 2022, when they stunningly won the Presidents' Trophy for the NHL's best regular-season record but got swept by in-state rival Tampa Bay in the second round. Florida returned to the Cup final the following year and fell in five to Vegas before defeating the Oilers last year to complete their improbable journey to the top. Now, Florida has become just the ninth team in NHL history to reach three consecutive finals. Before Tampa Bay's run from 2020-22, which included back-to-back Stanley Cup victories, it hadn't been done since Gretzky's Oilers in 1985. Will 'The Drought' finally end? To address a common criticism of this storyline: yes, we understand that not all NHL fans in this country automatically throw their support behind the last remaining Canadian team after theirs is eliminated. And, yes, many fans of the Calgary Flames (or Winnipeg Jets or Vancouver Canucks or whomever) would hate to see Edmonton win another title. We get it. But the fact that no Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup in 32 years definitely matters. This is the country that plays hockey better than anyone and cares about it the most, so it's a national sore spot that we've gone this long without one of our fanbases celebrating an NHL championship. I, for one, am tired of hearing about it. And it would be great to see someone — anyone — parade the Cup down our streets for a change. Especially at this particular moment in Canada-U.S. relations. So, will that be the Oilers sometime in the next couple weeks? Honestly, it's a coin flip. The respected statistical models give a slight edge to Florida, especially after Edmonton lost key winger Zach Hyman to a broken wrist in the Western final, though the surprising return of defenceman Mattias Ekholm from a long-term injury somewhat offsets that. But the more-subjective betting markets slightly favour the Oilers, and some analysts seem to agree based mostly on sort of a hockey version of the Great Man Theory. The thinking here is that, sometimes, the greatest of the greats simply won't be denied. We've seen it with Gretzky and with Michael Jordan in the NBA. It's easy to forget now, but even the GOATS had their doubters before they won their first championship. Their victories were not preordained. But they bent history in their favour, and now McDavid has the power to do the same.
