Edmonton Oilers’ Stanley Cup run has been a dream for lifelong NWT fan

Tom Taylor,
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Watching the Edmonton Oilers advance through the Stanley Cup playoffs has been a thrill for North West Territories resident Boris Sanguez. To see the team reach the Stanley Cup final opposite the Florida Panthers has provided another level of excitement altogether.

“I’m so excited to have the Oilers in the playoffs — and in the finals especially,” Sanguez said. “I’m very stoked. It’s been a long time coming, right?”

Sanguez has been supporting the Oilers since he was a kid, and fondly remembers watching Wayne Gretzky’s heyday on the team with his family. His connection to the team got even stronger when he moved to Edmonton for school, and attended games in his free time.

These days, he supports the team from afar, watching on TV screens with the dozens of other fans around Nahanni Butte. However, he still attends games in person when he can, and actually brought his 22-year-old son Connor down to a home game at Rogers Place earlier this year.

“There’s quite a bit of people here in town watching the playoffs,” he said. “I used to go to games games regularly when I lived in Edmonton. The latest one I’ve gone to, I took my son there just before the playoffs.”

Sanguez said “it’s the excitement” of watching the Oilers play that keeps him loyal to the team. Indeed, the team has been home to some legendary players over the years, from Gretzky in the late 70s and 80s, to Connor McDavid today.

He counts Gretzky and McDavid among his all-time favourite players, but also enjoyed watching Mark Messier back in the day, and enjoys seeing Leon Draisaitl play these days.

Despite the talent on the roster, the Oilers have gotten off to a bumpy start against the Panthers, losing the first two games of their series.

Sanguez was “disappointed” by those results, but not exactly surprised, having watched the Panthers win the Eastern Conference and ultimately come up short in the Stanley Cup final last year against the Vegas Golden Knights.

“I knew right from the beginning of the playoffs that the Panthers would repeat being Eastern Conference champions,” he said. “I knew they were a tough team. [Aleksander] Barkov is pretty good. They have [Matthew] Tkachuk. They’re a tough team.”

Time will tell if the Oilers can turn things around in the coming games of the series, but Sanguez says there’s “always hope,” and would be thrilled to see the team mount a cup-winning comeback.

If it happens, it will be the first time a Canadian team has hoisted the trophy since 1993, when the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Gretzky-led Los Angeles Kings.

“That would be the best — to see it come back to Canada, especially,” he said. “It’s been a while since it’s been in Canada.”

Tom Taylor,
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
NWT News/North