{"id":58929,"date":"2025-06-03T06:08:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T06:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/58929\/"},"modified":"2025-06-03T06:08:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T06:08:10","slug":"excitement-nervousness-and-a-sense-of-deja-vu-as-edmonton-prepares-for-the-stanley-cup-finals-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/58929\/","title":{"rendered":"Excitement, nervousness and a sense of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu as Edmonton prepares for the Stanley Cup Finals this week"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

New Oiler fan Emily Butt, who recently moved to Alberta from Newfoundland, went to Rogers Place to buy her first piece of Oilers merchandise.Amber Bracken\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

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\u2019s stroller was piled high with new shirts from the Oilers store.<\/p>\n

Around her, the outdoor fan park known to locals as \u201cthe Moss Pit\u201d<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited, but a little bit nervous,\u201d Ms. Forberg admitted. \u201cI don\u2019t want a repeat of last year. It\u2019s fresh. It hurts. I don\u2019t want to do that again.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is, as Yogi Berra once said, d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu all over again: the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> facing down the same team in this year\u2019s final series of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The first game takes place Wednesday.<\/p>\n

But, standing in the exact same spot where legions of fans mourned \u2013 and, in some cases, openly wept \u2013 after a one-goal loss to the Florida Panthers in Game 7 last year, Ms. Forberg and her mother, Alison, noted the team \u2013 and the signs \u2013 seemed to be aligning differently this time around.<\/p>\n

Healthy and with home ice, the Oilers look strong heading into Stanley Cup Final<\/a><\/p>\n

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 \u2013 intentionally breaking a long-standing superstition against doing exactly that \u2013 well, it seemed like something else was happening, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen McDavid put his hands on that other trophy, I\u2019m like, yeah, he\u2019s got it this year. He knows it,\u201d Alison said. \u201cHe knows it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019t taken them off since. Her nails were painted orange and blue.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Hudson Kulak, 1, cheers for the Oilers with his mom Kennedy Forberg, ahead of the Edmonton Oilers’ second Stanley Cup run in as many years.Amber Bracken\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just excited,\u201d Alison said. \u201cI feel really confident.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her arms, 1\u00bd-year-old Hudson followed the prompt \u201cHe shoots\u201d with a gleeful \u201cHe scores!,\u201d and pumped his tiny fist in the air. <\/p>\n

In the blocks around Rogers Place, the downtown Edmonton arena, billboards and stores repeated the city\u2019s mantras, which have become far closer to incantations now than simple slogans: \u201cLET\u2019S GO OILERS\u201d and \u201cTHIS IS OUR GAME\u201d and \u201cPLAY LA BAMBA.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s saving a new monogrammed jersey for next season because she bought it mid-season, \u201cso it didn\u2019t contribute to the playoff run.\u201d <\/p>\n

Opinion: The secret to NHL playoff success is that the regular season doesn\u2019t matter<\/a><\/p>\n

She said it was nice to see people downtown, and exciting to see the TV trucks arriving, and the infrastructure coming together.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very exciting, and as the week goes, you\u2019re going to see more and more. It\u2019s a community, right?\u201d she said. \u201cMy parents have been in Canada for over 50 years. They used to cheer for Gretzky, and now we cheer for McDavid.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she, too, felt as if Mr. McDavid touching the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl foreshadowed something significant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really feel like we do have a great chance, but I don\u2019t want to jinx anything,\u201d she said. \u201cJust by McDavid touching the Western Conference trophy<\/a>, I feel like it broke all stigma. And I feel like they look determined. So I feel determined.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s hallways and boardrooms. <\/p>\n

As the Oilers head to the Stanley Cup final, some Canadians change teams to go \u2018Elbows Up\u2019 for Edmonton<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so excited,\u201d Ms. Soora said. She said she doesn\u2019t have any lucky shirts or traditions to help cheer on the team, except to \u201cbe positive all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emily Butt is a relatively new fan, having moved from the Maritimes to Edmonton in November and gotten hooked.<\/p>\n

Ms. Butt said she used to cheer for the Montreal Canadiens, like her father, and hadn\u2019t broken the news to him that her team allegiance has changed \u2013 and changed so dramatically. <\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I\u2019m invested,\u201d she said with a laugh. \u201cTickets are like three grand, and I\u2019d be willing to pay it to go see a game.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 50-50,\u201d she said. \u201cOne part is nervous, and the other part is, like, \u2018We\u2019ve got it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: New Oiler fan Emily Butt, who recently moved to Alberta from Newfoundland, went…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5125],"tags":[1377,198,146,5300,5,4,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-58929","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton-oilers","8":"tag-aud-url","9":"tag-edmonton","10":"tag-edmonton-oilers","11":"tag-edmontonoilers","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-oilers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/114617942270864788","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}