On Community, and the Oilers

I’ve been an Oilers fan most of my life. One of my earliest memories is getting a warmup puck from Dave Hunter as a 3 year old. I have an autographed poster of Jari Kurri, on which he spelled my name wrong, that I got when I was 4 years old. To say that the Oilers are a big part of my life would be a gross understatement. Over the years, I’ve built my own little community among Oiler fans on Twitter, and I’ve met some of the best people I know because of it. We don’t always all get along, but at the end of the day we’re all cheering for the same team. They say that misery loves company and I can confidently say that I wouldn’t have some of the friends that I do if the Oilers hadn’t been terrible for so long.

When I am fortunate enough to get together with my Twitter buds, I’m always amazed at how happy it makes me. There was a draft party in June, where we expressed our joy that Columbus left Jesse Puljujarvi on the table for the Oilers to pick up. Immediately after the trade, I met some guys I know for dinner and it was a really nice way to talk about our feelings without being subjected to endless calls to ‘get over it’. More than people I only know online, these people have become my friends. Just last weekend, I was at the Pint for the annual OilersNation season opener party and even though I’m the ‘boss’ of a rival website, I never feel more at home than I am with those people in that environment. The online community is great, but being able to be part of it offline is an opportunity that I am very grateful for.

On the Fan Base

While the thing that brings us together is the love of the team, we may not look at the team the same way. We don’t have the same favourite players. We don’t always see eye-to-eye when it comes to roster decisions, and we certainly don’t have the same levels of expectation for the team. We do, however, have the luxury of cheering for a professional sports team in our city. We have actual championships to remember (even though the last one was 26 years ago). We have one of the best players in the game skating for us every night. It’s not unusual to see in my Twitter timeline a list of “MCDAVID OMG” tweets after he does something incredible. We may not all love all the things the team does, but we can all agree that he’s something special.

The team will get better; it can’t possibly get worse. There will be Stanley Cups in the near-ish future, and Connor McDavid will hopefully be hoisting the trophy at Rogers Place before anywhere else. This team will remind us again how and why we came to be fans. When it does, I’m sure we’ll all be there for the parade.

But Until Then…

I know that I’ve been less than enthusiastic about this team since the end of June, and I’m still struggling with it today. But something that I am forever grateful for is the community I’ve found because of the Oilers. I’ve met some amazing people because of this team, and I would say that my life is far richer than I ever would have imagined it could be because of the Edmonton Oilers; I can’t name you all here for fear of leaving someone out, but if we’ve ever talked about the Oilers in any appreciable way I can promise that you are on my list. So while I may not have the same excitement for the team as I have in the past, I can’t imagine not having all of this or all of you.

To all of you who have stuck by me through my hockey-related emotional turmoil I say thank you.

Somebody sent me autographed Taylor Hall pucks and I can’t even begin to express how wonderful that is. Thank you thank you thank you ❤️❤️❤️

— Megan (@mig14) October 16, 2016

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And if you are the person who sent me the three Taylor Hall autographed pucks, I have no words to express what that means to me.

Thank you.