As someone who wasn’t around to watch the Oilers dynasty, the stand out moments (on and off the ice) in my days of watching the Oilers from the year 2000 onwards would be:
Stefan missing the net and Hemsky goal in the dying seconds of regulation. I still haven’t seen anything like that in Pro Hockey and I still can’t believe it whenever I watch the replay on YouTube.
The trade for Pronger: We had coveted a franchise defenseman ever since Coffey left. I remember hearing about the trade while I was golfing with some school friends. I could not believe that we managed to trade for him considering what we gave up to acquire the guy. He was so dominant that year and I remember feeling so calm seeing him back there with the puck. No other Oilers defenseman has managed to make me feel that calm when they have the puck on their stick.
Roloson’s performance in the 05/06 playoffs. He stole many games for us in that postseason. We had no business making it past Detroit and to a lesser extent San Jose. That was a funny postseason as the opponents seemed to get easier each round. I truly believe if Roloson wouldn’t have gone down in Game 1 of the finals we would have made short work of Carolina.
Smyth returning to Edmonton. He was one of my favourite players growing up and I cried when he was traded from the Oilers. Him coming back to retire as an Oiler made me so excited. I consider him an Oiler for life despite him being on a few other teams.
I believe this was the 2010/2011 season but I remember our first game of the season so vividly. We took it to Calgary in that one with skill and grit. Eberle scored an absolutely beaut of a goal and our enforcer MacIntyre knocked out their enforcer in a fight. It was the perfect night and gave me some hope for the coming years (which sadly turned out to be some of the worst years in the decade of darkness).
Smyth’s final game as an Oiler. I remember how classy the Sedins were in that one and how they formed a line to shake Smyth’s hand and congratulate him on his career. I’ll never forget that act of sportsmanship. It was also a bitter sweet night with Smyth leaving but I also felt happy for him to get out of the shit show that was the Edmonton Oilers at the time.
The McDavid lottery. I still remember where I was and what I was doing at that point in time. I’ve never cheered so loudly in my life before. At that moment, I knew the decade of darkness would soon come to an end and I would be able to witness some postseason appearances at the very least.
Our first postseason appearance with McDavid in 2016/2017. We went head to head with a good San Jose team and knocked them out in the first round. We also gave it a good go against Anaheim in the 2nd round but their experience trumped our skill. It was the first taste of the playoffs I had witnessed in a while (and my first as a young adult). I will never forger the nervous excitement I had at that time.
McDavid’s goal against the Rangers. He went through pretty much every player on the ice to score that one. I had never seen anything quite like it before and I had to pinch myself again as a reminder of how lucky we are to have this talent on the team.
The 2021/2022 second round matchup against the Flames. They flat out scared me in Game 1 but we pretty much destroyed Markstrom’s confidence and disposed of them in 5 games. Being able to witness a battle of Alberta matchup in the playoffs was something that I will never forget and it makes me warm and tingly thinking of us setting off a series of events that would cause Calgary to go into a downward spiral (the departure of Gaudreau and Tkachuk)
Many more moments in my head (such as Gagner’s 8 point night against Chicago) but I’ll stop there. I hope there are more unforgettable moments in the near future