This in from the 100% Hockey podcast, former Edmonton Oilers ace checker Connor Brown with the origin story of how pop star Chappell Roan’s song Pink Pony Club became the victory song of the Edmonton Oilers during the 2025 Stanley Cup Finals.
The show’s host John Shannon asked Brown, now a New Jersey Devil, how the Oilers came to embrace the song.
“Honestly, yeah, we were keeping the whole thing hush hush,” Brown said. “But the reality of the story is we were out for dinner in San Jose. There is a girl who is playing on the piano and she started signing Pink Pony Club and all the boys were bobbing their heads and we needed a new ‘win’ song. And so we were like, ‘Oh, this song is good.’ We all hadn’t heard it. We won the next game, put it on after the game and that was it. And the boys were having fun with it. And everyone was asking about it during the playoffs. Like ‘What’s the story?’ And we were keeping the lips sealed. Thought the imagination would be a little bit more funny.”
Said Shannon: “Well, for the record, it’s on my playlist. It has been since it came out. It is a catchy song. So this was your version of what the (St. Louis) Blues did with ‘Gloria.’?”
Brown: “Yeah, I think so, yeah. But to be honest with you, after we lost, I can’t listen to it anymore. It’s wiped off every time, it just reminds me. Now it just stings.
Shannon: “I can understand that well. And your friends in Florida didn’t really make it very appetizing when they kept rubbing it in and singing it at their celebrations.”
Brown: “Oh, yeah, they love to twist the knife. I mean, they love to play right into the villain. But, hey, you know what? Like (former Leafs coach) Mike Babcock used to say, ‘It’s a man’s game.’ So I’m not expecting anybody to take it easy on us when they win. When you when you win the big prize, you get the freedom to act however you want. If that’s how they want to act there, so be it.”
My take
1. First off, Shannon’s 100% Hockey podcast is becoming one of the must-listen podcasts of any hockey fan. Shannon — with so many years experience in broadcasting — is excellent when it comes to asking straight ahead questions, then letting his guest tell their story.
In this case, we got this origin story from Brown, who answered a question where there had been endless speculation and many questions.
Well done, John Shannon.
2. It delighted fans with a progressive political bent when the Oilers embraced this pop song, which is something of an official Gay Anthem celebrating acceptance and finding your own place in the world.
I’d never heard of the song before, but like Shannon, the song is also on my playlist.
Like Brown, though, I’ve now got some misgivings about the song related to the Oilers losing.
3. When was I worried the Oilers were going to lose the Cup Final?
After Edmonton’s glorious win in Game 1, Edmonton fans were as high as I’ve ever seen them. This was exemplified by the whole city loving on the Pink Pony Club anthem. Folks were humming it and singing it. It was on heavy rotation on the radio. It was everywhere.
The came game time. In the hype video before Game 2, it was the song being played, complete with images of the triumphant Oilers at their best on the ice. And that’s when I got this overwhelming sinking feeling.
That song was Edmonton’s “win” song, as Brown puts it. It was only supposed to be played after the game and after the team had won. In playing it before the game, it felt to me like an affront to the Hockey Gords. It was like touching the Stanley Cup before you’ve won it yourself. It was the jinx of all jinxes that night, and indeed the Oilers lost this winnable and critical game, and were soon the loser in the series.
I know the Oilers themselves didn’t make that hype video. It was Sportsnet producers. But the bad luck was all the same.
4. The song is still catchy. It’s also great that huge groups of people rally around the words as empowering and triumphant. But, for me, it’s all about the collective over-confidence and hubris of Oilers fans before Game 2.
The game is won on the ice, not when you play Pink Pony Club. But we all were singing and dancing and clapping to Pink Pony Club before that game.
Bad timing, eh.
t the Cult of Hockey
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Forwards: Maxim Berezkin (3rd), Josh Samanski (5th), Quinn Hutson (6th), William Nicholl (9th), Roby Jarventie (11th), Viljami Marjala (12th), Connor Clattenburg (13th), Tommy Lafreniere (14th). David Lewandowski (15th)
Dmen: Beau Akey (7th-tie) Atro Leppanen (10th) Paul Fischer (16th), Nikita Yevseyev (18th), Asher Barnett (19th)
Goalies: Samuel Jonsson (7th-tie), Nathaniel Day (17th), Eemil Vinni (20th)