How I Discovered My Passion for Hockey at 23

My first Hockey Game was a Thrill!

At 23 years old, I am finally a hockey fan. Even though I grew up Canadian in the Edmonton area, a city that is VERY passionate about their hockey team, the Oilers; I did not grow up watching hockey. During my time abroad in the US and Australia, as a volunteer missionary for the LDS church, I remember people asking me if I was a hockey fan. Often, they would gasp in surprise when I said no. Me, a Canadian, not fitting the stereotype of being super passionate about hockey. Crazy! I simply never found interest because I basically lived under a rock and never had the opportunity to be a sporty person. 

My first exposure to hockey, and the culture surrounding it, was when I was dating my first boyfriend in 2021. His household was very passionate about sports and so he grew up playing and watching hockey. I noted that it was also a way that he was able to connect with his step dad. It was really different from what I was used to and I didn’t understand anything. Whenever I found myself watching hockey with his family or at one of his little brothers' practices, I had no idea what was happening, what my boyfriend was saying and why he and his family reacted so intensely to certain things. Due to my lack of understanding, I found it confusing and not that enjoyable to watch, however, I was still curious. Then after my breakup with him, I avoided hockey altogether because it made me think of my now ex. I needed time to get over him. Consequently, for about 12 to 18 months I didn’t pay any attention whatsoever and forgot my curiosities. 

Hockey didn’t grab my attention again until I had the opportunity to go to a live game at Roger’s Place in the start of 2024. I was seeing someone new and he had some tickets to see the game and invited me to go. I was open to the opportunity because I valued having new experiences. I was definitely right about that. It is an entirely different experience. Before we even found our seats, I could sense the excited anticipation. As we found our spots, some musicians started playing up in a corner, whom the guy I was with happened to know, which added to the energy. The moment the Oilers team entered the rink, the energy in the stadium skyrocketed and I found it electrifying. As I was experiencing that moment, I gained a new understanding of why people keep track of the rosters and each individual player's progress. The puzzle pieces were starting to click into place. With each player coming out, I was imagining what it would be like to know one of them personally. How much more powerful the feeling I was already experiencing would be if I had known what it took for that player to be there in that ring among the Oilers team, representing Edmonton. All eyes were on them and have been since their careers started gaining traction. As they’ve refined their skills. As they struggled and dedicated their lives to the game throughout the years. All the blood, sweat, and tears that it took to get to this moment.

As I watched the game progress, I then started to understand why fans reacted to certain actions. When you know the rules of the game and what moves could’ve gotten the goal, of course you are going to be upset when you see a perfect opportunity that was missed. Or when a foul was made and wasn’t called out. These lightbulb moments re-ignited my curiosity and enhanced my enthusiasm as I took in the sights, sounds and new flows of thought. 

Being a part of the crowd was a whole experience on its own. There were points during the game where people started doing the wave. A draw for a random row to get free merch, the look-a-likes, and the mascot making his rounds for pictures and banging the drum for our cheer of “Let’s go Oilers!” The main thing that made my first game so memorable was finding myself on the big screen as one of the look-a-likes. My ginger hair typically gets me quite a bit of attention. Little did I know that morning while putting it up in a pigtail kind of style, that it would put me on that big screen. I remember seeing the image of Pippy Longstocking pop up on the screen. As soon as I saw the hair color and style, I was praying there was another redhead wearing pigtails sitting in the crowd besides myself. The seconds seemed to stretch as I anticipated my face popping up on the screen. And to no surprise of my own, my bashful face popped up for everyone to see and I couldn’t help but giggle. I couldn’t believe my luck. My very first time going to an Oilers game and ending up in the spotlight for 30 seconds. 

Since then, I couldn’t help but take more notice of all the signs of a game coming up; the Oilers jerseys on game days, the Oilers flags in people’s windows. Whenever I was at a venue that was playing the game, I couldn’t help but pay more attention and get excited. There was one day that I met up with someone on tinder at the Paris Baguette Cafe on Whyte and we ended up walking up and down whyte ave. He mentioned that he was moving into the area and would love a tour and I was happy to oblige. Throughout our stroll, I saw lots of people wearing their Oilers merch and murmur excitedly about the game. As we passed Hudson’s, a great spot to watch the game, I couldn’t help but feel giddy when I heard the horn blaring as we scored another goal.

Fast forward a few days further into May on a night where I was let off of work early for once, and found myself watching the hockey game. During my shift I had heard that a major solar storm was happening that night and the northern lights were going to be so bright that you could see them in the city. So before catching the train I was searching my contacts and trying to find someone to see the lights with. Among my notifications, I noticed that a friend I hadn’t heard from in a while had snapchatted me a photo of the view he had of a bunch of oilers fans watching the game. After chatting a little bit and asking if he’d be down to see the lights with me, we found out that we were in the same area. I asked if I could join him and he said that his brother was chill with me joining them. Ten minutes later I found where all the Oilers fans were congregating and joined my friend at a fancy cocktail bar called Alchemist. The hotel below Alchemist was just as fancy. We weren’t able to finish the game there though because the table we were sitting at was required for a reservation coming in. We were just going into overtime when the server told us this and she gave us 20 mins. So we went to Campio, a bar that was a few blocks away, and finished the game there. It was crazy busy but we were seated pretty quickly and it wasn’t even 5mins before we scored and won the game. I didn’t even see the shot but I knew we won because the whole bar erupted in cheers. It caught me so off guard that it took me a while to recover from all the sudden noise and excitement. We made our way out pretty quickly and as we drove home, everyone was honking their horns and cheering. The excitement was so contagious that I couldn’t wipe the grin off my face and couldn’t help but join in all the cheering. Then to wrap the incredible night up, we saw a glimmer of green in the sky from the solar storm on our way back home. 

It was the next day that I had decided that I wanted to be an Oilers fan. There are a few reasons why: the ultimate reason being that I found the energizing excitement of winning a game intoxicating. And then the runner up reason is because of the way hockey (and sports in general) can connect individuals and create a sense of community. Being a young woman in her early 20’s, I can find it difficult sometimes to feel that sense of community through all the changes that this season of my life presents. And of course the bonus reason being a reason to dress up if I wanted to and having a reason to celebrate. To conclude, my new found passion for hockey couldn’t have been timed more perfectly as the Oilers are set to compete in the Stanley Cup Finals. Let’s go Oilers!!!