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Is the rest of Canada rooting for the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup Final? At least in Vancouver it’s not exactly easy to find people excited to cheer for the team that eliminated the Canucks in seven games last spring. (Yes, that was a year ago. It feels so very far away.)

Still though, there are definitely many hockey fans in the city that would like to see the Oilers win the Cup, especially given that the Florida Panthers won last year, especially given the number of Oilers that are from Metro Vancouver, including Evander Kane, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and former Canuck Troy Stecher. 

In a blatant attempt to get the country cheering for the Oilers (even as my colleague Mike Usinger and many Vancouverites will proudly and bitterly note that the country didn’t do it for Vancouver when the Canucks made the Final in 2011), Rogers is introducing “This is Our Ice”, a campaign that will see ice collected from community rinks across Canada where some Oilers first played as kids. That collected ice will be brought to Rogers Place in Edmonton and combined with the NHL ice surface for Game 1 on Wednesday night.

In B.C., Rogers went to two locations: Burnaby Winter Club, where Ryan Nugent-Hopkins played, and North Shore Winter Club, where a young Evander Kane plied his trade (and where former NHLer Kyle Turris is now general manager and played the role of ice scooper). 

Rogers

Other locations Rogers visited to gather ice include Confederation Arena in Edmonton (Stuart Skinner) , The Rink in Winnipeg (Calvin Pickard), Magna Centre in Newmarket (Connor McDavid), and Harry Howell Twin-Pad Arena in Hamilton (Darnell Nurse). 

Is it a little desperate? Maybe. Is it chasing after the classic Lucky Loonie thing in 2002? Perhaps. (That also had an Edmonton connection, of course, and we all loved it then.) But c’mon. Doesn’t that nostalgic, sentimental piece of you kinda love this? Wouldn’t you be all about it if they were digging up the ice you played on? Or the ice you drove your kid to every morning? 

And yes, I have a bet with the aforementioned Bad Canadian Usinger on the Final. Go Oilers.