The "burden" of sports fandom in Edmonton

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You cheer for your team whether they win or lose. That is the most basic definition of sports fandom. The childlike innocence of focusing solely on the game being played instead of the distractions of the outside world. Sure there are temper tantrums along the way when your team loses badly or slumps but akin to being angry at your dog when it does something wrong, the anger never really has a chance of surviving. Well holy hell have the Edmonton Oilers, Edmonton Elks and our contignent of BCHL teams burdened us with happenings outside the actual game being played that makes it difficult to focus on just wins and losses.

The chase for the Stanley Cup has led the Oilers to hiring a general manager that many thought would never work in hockey again after how he completely mishandled a "bigger than the game" situation while in Chicago. After embarassing the organization with his handling of the firing of the incumbent coach, he and the Club hired a coach that needed to be cleared by the NHL to work again in the league. Just when you thought you had all this processsed, the Club announces the signing of a player, whom much like its GM, many thought would never be in the NHL again. 


Switching to football, we are in season six of the Edmonton Elks moniker. The next Elks win this season will be number 11, which happens to be the total of number of wins the first three years combined after the name change. There is absolutely no creedence to the name change having anything to do with the terrible football but that combination sure made it easy for "Eskimo" fans to stay true to their vows of never returning to Commonwealth until the name reverted. The words "Eskimos" and "Esks" are in the intro video as the Club tries to reconnect with their past while maintaining that the name Elks is here to stay. The happy middle ground they seek to achieve is a challenge as for every "call them whatever you want, just buy a ticket" fan, there is someone standing firm for either/or of the names but not both.


Stepping back onto the ice, we have the Sherwood Park Crusaders and Spruce Grove Saints who play in the BCHL. A league which in my opinion needs a rebrand. The move from the AJHL to the BCHL, which absolutely nobody handled well, was to leave Hockey Canada with the focus on being able to build a better team cause you had more access to more talent from more places. Turns out that is not the crowd pleasing aspect many expected as locals pine for more locals on their favourite non-WHL local team. It is a tough sell asking a friend to join me at a BCHL game (not that asking friends to check out an AJHL game had a high success rate).


"Winning's the great deodorant". The late John Madden's words are proving true as the Double E football club are seeing their attendance raise. The collective "we" look forward to a playoff spot that for the first time under the current Elks name, "we" get be a part of.

The Oilers on the other hand, it is not about "just" making the playoffs. Having your "leadership group" all come out in support of the controversial coach hiring has taken the already zoomed in microscope the team operates under and magnified it significantly. Winning early is a must for there to be any chance of this becoming about win and losses instead of personnel. There is no honeymoon phase. 

And hey, Friday September 18th the Spruce Grove Saints begin their season hosting the Sherwood Park Crusaders at the Thompson Family Arena inside Heavy Metal Place. If you stopped watching these Clubs after the league switch, I hope you consider catching this game and enjoying it for what it is...good junior A hockey.

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