With just hours to go until the puck drops at Rogers Place for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final rematch between the Oilers and the Panthers, a scene involving blue-and-orange-clad hockey fans arriving in Alberta’s capital played out, with some making the trip from as far away as Australia to experience the NHL playoff excitement.
“I’m so excited,” Steve Patching exclaimed, detailing his epic journey from Brisbane to Edmonton and how he drank several cups of coffee in the morning so he would be awake for the opening game of the championship series on Wednesday. “Can you imagine what it’s going to be like if Game 7 is here?
“I’m amped.”
Like many other die-hard Oilers fans from around the world, Patching said it was during the team’s heyday — led by Wayne Gretzky — in the 1980s that drew him to a part of a community of supporters that fans have dubbed “Oil Country.”
“I saw Gretzky once,” Patching said, noting that the connection to the team also exists because he has family in Edmonton. “(The Oilers) had a pretty lean period … (but) now they’ve got the greatest in history with (Connor) McDavid.”
Patching said he booked his flight soon after the Oilers knocked the Dallas Stars out of the playoffs by winning the Western Conference final in five games.
Richard Fairhead also arrived in Alberta’s capital on Wednesday and also hails from Brisbane. He said he was on a business trip in New Zealand when the Oilers beat the Stars and he did what he had to do to be in Edmonton for the Stanley Cup final.
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“I changed it all up to come,.. (I’m a) die-hard fan,” he explained, adding that he has been on six flights in the past 72 hours, seeing him use four different airlines and passing through three different countries. “(I) came last year and loved every moment of it.
“I got permission from the wife so it’s all good.”
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Aside from fans arriving from Down Under, Oilers supporters are coming from all over as well, putting pressure on Edmonton’s supply of hotel rooms this week.
“It’s basically impossible to get a room (downtown) right now,” said Chris Yeung, the executive director of the non-profit organization Edmonton Destination Marketing Hotels Ltd.
Yeung added that demand is also “bleeding into” other areas.
“This year we have home-ice advantage for the Oilers,” he explained. “When you have that, you have media availability day, you have all the broadcasters flying in ahead of time, … and they’re not small groups.
“Some of the broadcast groups have 50 or 60 people coming in at the same time.”
Yeung described what hotel operators are facing as “huge demand.”
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