Adventures on Oilers Twitter

Oilers Twitter is often one of the best parts of watching games. The last number of years (including this most recent offseason) would have been unbearable had it not been for the community I’ve found there. I’ve written about this before, and I’ll do it again, but it’s really a remarkable thing and is something I’m glad to be a part of. It’s rare that everyone agrees on something (except, possibly, Drew Remenda being terrible), but the debate is often healthy and I can’t wait until the Oilers win

My carefully cultivated ambivalence regarding this NHL season has given way to the realization that I need to either get back on the bandwagon, or be under it. So, armed with this knowledge, I’ve made a concerted effort to be more present while the Oilers are playing. I’ve watched the last 4 games in their entirety, and a couple full games before that.

Inspired by baggedmilk over at OilersNation, I started livetweeting the Oilers games as of Sunday night’s loss to the New York Rangers. To save you the trouble, I realize that they’re 0-2 since I started, but I’m not taking the blame for the slide. Tweeting from an account that isn’t my own is a challenge, in that I do have to be a bit more guarded with what I say; to that end, it’s probably a good thing I didn’t do this last year because I’d have accidentally tweeted OH HAI TAYLOR HALL ON MY TEEVEE more than once from the Rig account.

I’ve found, though, that following the Rig timeline rather than my own makes for some interesting reading. On my personal Twitter I’ve unfollowed or muted people who get at me about the Hall trade, because I want my own twitter to be as pleasant as possible. On the Rig account, however, I don’t have that luxury. I try not to incite to much debate about it (because it’s a well-documented sore spot for a lot of people), but the topic just seems to keep coming up and I can’t not respond. I mean, I’d love to just say this, all the time:

OH HAI TAYLOR HALL ON MY TEEVEE ?????

— Megan – Salty AF (@mig14) April 7, 2016

I can’t, though, and I’ve found that even mentioning him riles people up. It’s a most interesting phenomenon, because while it’s still okay to talk about the Gretzky trade 28 years later, those of us who want to talk about Hall get chastised to get over it (though it’s been 4.5 months). Anyway, there’s levity to be found in that, though, because we can at least joke about things now?

It’s already passed GET OVER IT https://t.co/KAMfvGT9r0

— The Oilers Rig (@TheOilersRig) November 16, 2016

All the Tweets, All the Time

Livetweeting the game is where I figured out, once and for all, that it is impossible for all Oilers fans to be satisfied (or dissatisfied) at the same time. They went 7-2, people were upset that it wasn’t sustainable and others were planning the parade. They’ve gone 2-5-1 in the last 8 and we’ve resorted to this:

This is what this team has done to us https://t.co/J9iaOOcsBs

— The Oilers Rig (@TheOilersRig) November 16, 2016

And:

???? https://t.co/vwFcRAhUc4

— The Oilers Rig (@TheOilersRig) November 16, 2016

But here’s the thing – getting to see what Oiler fans thing about the team is eye opening for me, because I’m not filtering out the people I wouldn’t normally follow. There are a lot of different opinions out there about the direction the team is going, and the recent slump isn’t helping in that department. There have been a number of discussions about whether or not Peter Chiarelli is a good GM (yes and no), or whether the defence needs more tweaking (it’s all good. Except when it’s not), or whether Kris Russell is good at hockey (spoiler: he is. And isn’t).

Being fans of this team has been hard, in varying degrees, for all of us. There’s no right way to be a fan, not really, and even among the writers on this site we disagree about different aspects of the team; one of our most common bones of contention is whether or not the offseason decisions have paid off. As it stands right now, we don’t have the luxury of cheering for a good team, but it’s coming.

It’ll be great when we get to that point, and maybe (just maybe) the cesspool that is Oilers twitter will clean itself up and we’ll all just get along.