Excitement, nervousness and a sense of déjà vu as Edmonton prepares for the Stanley Cup Finals this week
Kennedy Forberg stood in the sun in downtown Edmonton on Monday afternoon, a gigantic image of the Stanley Cup glimmering tantalizingly on the screens above. Her son's stroller was piled high with new shirts from the Oilers store.
Around her, the outdoor fan park known to locals as 'the Moss Pit' was already coming to life, with barricades and porta-potties and first-aid booths being set up. City buses flashed words of support as they passed.
'I'm excited, but a little bit nervous,' Ms. Forberg admitted. 'I don't want a repeat of last year. It's fresh. It hurts. I don't want to do that again.'
It is, as Yogi Berra once said, déjà vu all over again: the Edmonton Oilers facing down the same team in this year's final series of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The first game takes place Wednesday.
But, standing in the exact same spot where legions of fans mourned – and, in some cases, openly wept – after a one-goal loss to the Florida Panthers in Game 7 last year, Ms. Forberg and her mother, Alison, noted the team – and the signs – seemed to be aligning differently this time around.
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Alison Forberg said she believes the team is stronger and more unified than last year. And when team captain Connor McDavid audaciously touched the Western Conference cup the other day – intentionally breaking a long-standing superstition against doing exactly that – well, it seemed like something else was happening, too.
'When McDavid put his hands on that other trophy, I'm like, yeah, he's got it this year. He knows it,' Alison said. 'He knows it.'
Mother and daughter each sported sparkly Oilers earrings, and Alison wore a set of matching Oilers bracelets Kennedy had made for the whole family. Like the earrings, Alison put the bracelets on before the playoffs and hasn't taken them off since. Her nails were painted orange and blue.
'We're just excited,' Alison said. 'I feel really confident.'
In her arms, 1½-year-old Hudson followed the prompt 'He shoots' with a gleeful 'He scores!,' and pumped his tiny fist in the air.
In the blocks around Rogers Place, the downtown Edmonton arena, billboards and stores repeated the city's mantras, which have become far closer to incantations now than simple slogans: 'LET'S GO OILERS' and 'THIS IS OUR GAME' and 'PLAY LA BAMBA.'
At a nearby office tower, Maulina Saroya wore an Oilers T-shirt to work, which her company allows on game days and during playoff season. She said she puts serious consideration into her Oilers wardrobe during the playoffs. At one point, she retired one of her jerseys because the Oilers always lost when she wore it. But she's saving a new monogrammed jersey for next season because she bought it mid-season, 'so it didn't contribute to the playoff run.'
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She said it was nice to see people downtown, and exciting to see the TV trucks arriving, and the infrastructure coming together.
'It's very exciting, and as the week goes, you're going to see more and more. It's a community, right?' she said. 'My parents have been in Canada for over 50 years. They used to cheer for Gretzky, and now we cheer for McDavid.'
She said she, too, felt as if Mr. McDavid touching the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl foreshadowed something significant.
'I really feel like we do have a great chance, but I don't want to jinx anything,' she said. 'Just by McDavid touching the Western Conference trophy, I feel like it broke all stigma. And I feel like they look determined. So I feel determined.'
Her colleague Pawan Soora had been busy helping organize the large watch parties at their office, which last year involved hundreds of people gathering to watch on big screens set up inside the tower's hallways and boardrooms.
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'I'm so excited,' Ms. Soora said. She said she doesn't have any lucky shirts or traditions to help cheer on the team, except to 'be positive all the time.'
Emily Butt is a relatively new fan, having moved from the Maritimes to Edmonton in November and gotten hooked.
Ms. Butt said she used to cheer for the Montreal Canadiens, like her father, and hadn't broken the news to him that her team allegiance has changed – and changed so dramatically.
'Oh, I'm invested,' she said with a laugh. 'Tickets are like three grand, and I'd be willing to pay it to go see a game.'
On Monday, Ms. Butt went to Rogers Place to buy her first piece of Oilers merchandise: a grey and pink T-shirt for her first playoffs as a fan.
'I'm 50-50,' she said. 'One part is nervous, and the other part is, like, 'We've got it.''
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