June 5, 2024 by Raghu Sharma

It’s difficult to put into words exactly the emotions I felt waking up on Sunday morning. I had a sense of calm, something I have never experienced when it comes to being a fan of the Edmonton Oilers. At age 33, I have sadly never seen my favourite professional sports team win a Stanley Cup. Being born in the city of Edmonton, we live and breathe Oilers, and the closest I experienced was the heartbreaking loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006 as a teenager.

I couldn’t believe this sense of calmness in me. I was confident the Oilers were going to win. My wife, sister and I arrived at Rogers Place early to see the warmups, and we all felt relaxed. Then, before puck-drop in Game 6, one of the most epic montages I have experienced started playing by our very own Tony Brar. He got everyone up on their feet and a chant of “Lets go Oilers” was absolutely deafening that my Apple watch went off at least 10 different times on the noise warning.

As game got underway, the cheering continued and the Oilers managed to get things going early on a power-play when Chris Tanev took a tripping penalty against Zack Hyman. This led to one of the greatest goals of Connor McDavid’s career until this point, which I also managed to record live. McDavid received a pass from Leon Draisaitl and then proceeded to undress both Sam Steel and Miro Heiskanen to score a video game-like goal. McDavid had amazing recognition on this play, knowing he was also going against Heiskanen versus Tanev, who would normally be out on the kill if not for the penalty.

After that goal, the Oilers proceeded to not generate much offence until yet another penalty late in the period. This time it was Ryan Suter slashing Cody Ceci, who found himself all alone in front of the net. The Oilers second power-play was having some trouble with the entry until McDavid gained the zone and set Hyman up for his league-leading 14th goal of the playoffs on a beautiful give-and-go. The Oilers ended that period getting outshot 12-3 but found themselves up 2-0.

The story didn’t get much better for the next period, as the Oilers once again found themselves playing mostly defensive hockey in the second period as well. The one positive was that they mustered five shots and held the Dallas Stars to just nine. Additionally, Stuart Skinner continued to be excellent in this period. There were definitely some nerves going into the third period, however, with so much at stake, and for whatever reason a tendency for the leading team to blow a multi-goal lead in most of the series.

Related: Series Wrap: Oilers vs Stars

The third period began with the hope the Oilers would hang on, and it once again got off to a dicey start when Draisaitl took a delay of game penalty, potentially giving the Stars some life. Yet again though, as the Oilers penalty kill has done for a majority of this playoff run and their past 27 kills (they went on to kill their 28th as well), they survived it. With just under 11 minutes to go, however, Mason Marchment managed to pop a goal into a wide open net after an amazing individual effort by Tyler Seguin to float the puck back out front.

And as we Oilers fans know all to well, the team never like to make it easy on themselves. As the game continued into the final four minutes, the entire crowd rose to rally the team, and the “Lets go Oilers” chants that did not stop. Draisaitl proved to be massive as the orange and blue continued to ice the puck and he refused to lose a draw. As the final moments wound down, the crowd erupted as La Bamba played and the Oilers won the Western Conference championship.

This was by far the most surreal experience and I begin to shed tears as someone who has been waiting for another chance to see the boys raise a cup since I was 16-years-old. The handshakes began, the hugging began, chants of “We want the Cup” roared through Rogers Place with the presentation of the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl, which if you are as superstitious as many hockey fans are, the entire team refused to touch.

Leaving the arena was amazing, so many high fives, so many hugs from random strangers, everyone in this city who has waited so long for this moment, it truly was a night to remember and one I and this city are not soon to forget. Now comes the greatest challenge of all, to win the ultimate prize. 12 La Bambas down and four to go. As my favourite athlete Kobe Bryant once said when asked why he wasn’t happy when up 2-0 in a series, he responded with, “What’s there to be happy about? Job’s not finished. Job finished? I don’t think so.”

This is the same response I heard from McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Mattias Ekholm, Zack Hyman, Stuart Skinner and coach Kris Knoblauch. Heck even Paul Coffey got one of the funniest moments in the team photo when he stood slightly away from the rest of the group with a stern face.

The team is ready, the fans are ready and the city is ready. Bring on the Florida Panthers.