History of an Oilers fan – Part 3
Alright, I have to warn all my Canuck fan friends before reading the 3rd Part of my “History of an Oilers Fan” series. In fact perhaps Canuck fans should just bypass this one and listen to some Pratt and Taylor for a bit instead. However if you must, maybe you would like to check out part 2 from last week first. Let’s role.
Of course the next 16 years were anything but great feelings. Year after year of missing the playoffs, followed by a 
first round exit and the odd 2nd round exit was hard to take. In 1994 when the Vancouver Canucks took a run to the finals only to meet Mark Messier and the Rangers, I was finally back in a city with some hockey excitement! One night I was at my grade 12 grad party at a downtown Vancouver hotel during the finals. A group of use were heading up the escalator to the ball room for our grad dinner and who was on his way down on the opposite side? “Iron” Mike “freekin’” Keenan! As people started to notice him they all started heckling him. Me on the other hand just could never get into the Canucks. I guess it was bitterness between division rivals and the fact that they had been doing better than the Oilers lately. I began praising Keenan on the escalator to the dismay of all my fellow grad class members! I didn’t care though. It was cool. I just couldn’t bring myself to accept the fact that the Canucks were in game 7 of the Stanley Cup final. I watched, biting my tongue many of the games. Sometimes even pretending to be happy when they scored or won. When the Rangers put the final nail in the coffin in that game 7 I could finally relax. The canucks did not win the cup, thank GAWD! I just couldn’t have dealt with that. Unlike when Gretzky was in the finals with L.A., I actually wanted Messier to win. Maybe it was because it was better than having to listen to all the Canucks fans for the next year, or maybe it was because I felt like all those ex-Oilers on the Rangers team winning was almost like a 6th Oilers cup. For whatever reason it was, I’m glad Messier, Lowe, MacTavish, Graves, and all the others got another cup ring.
I enjoyed our return to the playoffs in the later 90’s and early 2000’s with the likes of Ryan Smith, Doug Weight, Curtis Joseph, Jason Arnott, and even Tommy Salo and Mike Comrie got me excited to see what they could do! That first round series vs Dallas in 1997 was maybe the most exciting playoff series the Oilers had ever been a part of. I was on the edge of my seat every game. It was great hockey and it was a terrific rivalry! That series win was the equivalent of winning the cup it seemed like at the time. Of course we never made it past the second round until 2006.
I’m curious, how did other Oiler fans feel about Messier winning a cup post Oil? At the time were you happy for him, bitter, indifferent?