So, Cyndee and I are heading to Edmonton on May 1.
For those not following it, the Kings and Oilers are 3-2 in their middle bracket as are all of the NHL Western Conference matchups. The Kings and Oilers are about 13- or 15-1 favored to win the Stanley Cup, where the top teams are about 4- or 6-1 one right now.
An Oilers win on Thursday would end the Kings’ season.
My first trip to Edmonton was in 1981. Wayne Gretzky was about to make sports world history. He and the Oilers were not yet famous for that. He broke Bobby Orr’s record that year, and my Canadian friends in Edmonton were pleased.
A bunch of records were again broken in 1981 and 1982, so much so that he was named Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year in 1982. In 1984 the Oilers won the Stanley Cup, and would win it four more times in the next six years.
He was traded to the Kings in 1988, which made it much more convenient for my brother and me. But the we’d regularly go to midweek games and get tickets for $9.50 — ON GAME DAY, and just for the fun of it — usually in the seats behind the goal TV camera. (This is the Forum in the 1980s and 1990s, setup for basketball scores and concerts and before giant overhead monitors and ad crawls on the backboards, mind you).
So I have a long and continuing appreciation for Canadian talent and culture and sportsmanship.
The Oilers and Kings are emblematic in my mind of how greatness can be achieved and amplified.
Connor McDavid could lead the Oilers to a new Great period for them, maybe even including an upset and longshot campaign for the Stanley Cup in the weeks to come.
Christopher Lucero
Saugus
