Oilers fans find a home in Calgary bars as Edmonton takes another shot at the Cup

CBC

2 days ago

About an hour before every Edmonton Oilers game for the next few weeks, Ernie Tsu plans to stroll down the street in Calgary for a cup of sake.
Wearing his Oilers jersey, he'll then walk from the restaurant back to join a raucous crowd of Edmonton fans at his bar in the heart of Calgary's Red Mile, the name given to the stretch of 17th Avenue during the Flames' 2004 Stanley Cup run.
"I'm pretty superstitious," Tsu, owner of Trolley 5 Restaurant and Brewery, said in the lead-up to the Stanley Cup final between the Oilers and the Florida Panthers. Edmonton won Game 1 on Wednesday.
"Since I've been having sake there, they haven't lost [a series]."
2 large flags
Trolley 5, a not-so-secret hub for Oilers fans in rival Calgary, has flourished in the team's consecutive runs for the Cup.
Two large flags — one for the Oilers, another for Alberta — hang from the rafters of the three-storey bar. Aside from a few framed flaming C jerseys plastered to the wall, it's evident Oil Country has found a home while the local franchise remains excluded from the playoffs for the third straight year.
As the Flames continue to rebuild, the Oilers have provided another springtime boom for Calgary sports bars. The Oilers surged past the Los Angeles Kings, Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars in the first three rounds.
Tsu said Calgary's community of Oilers fans has grown organically since he opened the bar nine years ago. He now likens it to a family. Earlier in the week, he took 30 diehard followers out for dim sum as a thank you.
This year, he said, more Oilers fans have seemed engaged in light of surging patriotism.
"I'd say there's more people, and I think with the U.S. tariffs, you've got more people supporting a Canadian team," he said.
'Never be a fan'
Not all Calgary bar owners are as thrilled by another successful Oilers run.
"I'm a Matthew Tkachuk-Florida fan for the rest of the season," said Mike Shupenia, referring to the Panthers' captain and former Flames player.
"I will never be an Oilers fan."
But he'll take the business. The owner and manager of Side Street Pub and Eatery in Calgary's Kensington neighbourhood suspects his restaurant would be just as busy if the Flames were gunning for the Cup. During last year's finals, people were lining up for tables as early as 3 p.m.
The Calgary-raised Shupenia is begrudgingly offering service to Oilers faithful this year. A handful of red goal lights around the bar go off every time Edmonton scores. And the bar gives a boxing championship belt decorated in Oilers blue and orange to the winner of a raffle, with five-dollar entries given to a children's food charity.
For now, Shupenia is bracing for perhaps the busiest few weeks of the year. But he'll keep his fingers crossed behind the bar for the Panthers to claim their second straight Cup.
If not, he said, "I don't think we'll ever be able to live it down."