Quite a bit has happened since christmas. School started up for
me once again, and I just got back from quite the trip. Over the weekend I went
up to Edmonton with my buddy to see my Calgary Flames play the Oilers in the
new Rogers Place. This trip was very personal for me, as a huge hockey fan. The
Battle of Alberta brings out the wild animal in me, I despise the Oilers with a
passion that’s as big as my passion for music. Just as big is my passion for
the Flames, and me and my friend knew we had to go on this mission up there. It
was only my second time in Edmonton in my whole life, so it was interesting to
get to see the city a little better than I had previously, I wasn’t missing
much in my opinion. After spending saturday afternoon at West Edmonton Mall, we
made the trek downtown to the arena. When I first stepped inside it and seeing
how massive it is was very impressive, but knowing it was all for the Oil made
it very unlikable for a guy like me. Going down and sitting in the front row
before warmups made me miss the Saddledome back home. The dome’s got this
history, this character that Rogers Place just didn’t have in my mind, despite
being much more impressive technologically and aesthetically. We brought a
poster with us that read “Saddledome’s still better, Go Flames Go!”, with a
photo of Matthew Tkachuk (our agitator and already a hated guy in Edmonton
despite being a rookie) with angel wings and a halo, and a photo of Connor
McDavid, with the oilers logo replaced with a muffin cause that’s what he is.
The boys came out and a few guys like Dougie Hamilton, Sam Bennett, and Matt
Stajan noticed our poster. I hope we made them feel a little more comfortable
knowing they had backup in there. Then we went over to where the Oilers were
warming up and put up our poster. It ticked off their goon Zack Kassian, who
sakted towards us glaring right at us while we glared back unfazed. Then the
Muffinboy McDavid, looked at our poster then looked us right in the eye. He
then spent the next couple minutes trying not to look at us while we stared him
down, glaring angrily. This was probably the highlight of the trip for me. Then
we went up to our seats up higher and the game began. It was a back and forth
affair, that ended with the Oilers winning in the shootout. It was a piss off
for sure to lose a game so tight in the shootout. I wasn’t too impressed with
how the fans acted the whole game. They would boo both teams when there wasn’t
a ton of action going on. When our best player Johnny Gaudreau was taking his
shootout attempt, the fans behind us were yelling for him to kill himself and
using other foul language. When leaving, some of them heckled us on the way
out. I’ve never seen this behaviour at Flames games in the dome. Oilers fans
are sure cocky despite having been the worst team for a decade, and getting
lucked into getting a generational talent. All in all, losing made it feel so
disappointing to drive all the way up to Edmonton to lose. But there’s nothing
to do now, and I can take solace in the fact that the Oilers won’t be making it
far in the playoffs if they don’t get any scoring from their players besides
McMuffin. Now I’m back in Calgary continuing to practice guitar, and working on
putting a band together for the rise up tour. Hopefully that comes together
soon, I know it will.
Thanks,
Jackson
Reed
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