Oilers; Conference Champions

Well the weekend turned out to be everything it was suppose to be. As luck would have it the company sent me to E-town for a brokers convention. And as luck would have it the Oilers had a chance to win the conference on Saturday night, so I headed up north a day early, so as to be there if the Hockey Gods were Shining. And OH did they shine.

I will confess however, that I did not think the Oil were going to win, so I did missed the first two periods of the game (Angie and I went to see the new X-men movie). How could I miss the first two periods you say. (Have you seen Angie lol), and yes the new xmen movie is a double thumbs up, get out and see it before the next round of hockey starts.

So anyway, after the movie it was back to Angies house for the last period, and as can be expected it was a nail biter, especially with a 6 on 3 in the final minutes of the game. Yes I said 6 on 3. Two penalties and a pulled goalie. STRESS. STRESS. STRESS.

Now, for those of you who dont know Angie lives on the 23 floor of an apartment on Saskatchewan drive, and no sooner had the buzzer sounded than you could hear the eruption on Whyte avenue, five or six blocks away. We had not planned on going out, but realized that this was something we had to see, so off to the avenue.

When we got to the "copper mile" or "blue mile" whatevery you want to call it, traffic was still moving, if only at a crawl. There were probably 10,000 or so people lining both sides of the street, and maybe 200 cops. Things were pretty orderly. The cops were only allowing people to cross whyte at 103 st, 104st and 106st so you basically had to do a big loop. So we walked up the north side, and then back down the south, giving the odd high five, and staring at the occasional nice rack lol.

We soon found ourselves in front of the Thirsty Turtle,(home to lots of twenty something Oiler girls out on the town) so we went in to see if Brownie was still running the show. And yes Brownie was still there, along with about 5 or so of the old usual suspects. It was like walking into a 6 year time machine. Angie and I had a drink and decided it was time to head back out into the real world of 2006. So back into the avenue.

We were only in the Turtle for around a half hour, but when we got outside the crowd was visibly larger, probably having at least doubled in that time, and the police were in the process of shutting down the street to traffic. Which by the time we reached starbucks (5 more minutes)the road was open to pedestrians only for about a 2 block span.Once we crossed over the tracks and were walking East away from the avenue, the line of people coming to the avenue could be seen for almost a mile.

When I woke up and read the paper Sunday morning the official reports were targeting the crowd peaked at around FIFTY THOUSAND, just after 1am. Some fires were set, and some things broken, but luckily no major injuries. I did have my camera with me, but my photos pale in comparison to the ones that I was able to download off the Edmonton Sun web page. Heres just a few.






Last night Buffalo tied the series with Carolina. So we still have to wait to see who the Oilers will play in the Stanley Cup. However we do know the times and days. All games will be played at 6pm Edmonton time. Game 1 Mon, Game 2 Wed, Game 3 Sat. Thats right Game 3 Saturday, and games 4,5,6 will be mirrored during the second week. So I predict the Oilers in 6, winning the cup on a saturday night and giving the whole province a chance to LET ER RIP on a Saturday night. Did I mention that is a pay week as well. NICE. I think the Powers that be in Edmonton should think about bringing in the National Guard for that one.

Nooman Out. GO OILERS GO