Shelina Gwaduri has vivid memories of gathering around the family TV to watch the Edmonton Oilers play. She recalls a special moment when she and her older brother, Karim, attended a game and met the legendary Wayne Gretzky, who was the team’s captain at the time. “The Oilers have been in my blood since I was born,” said the 43-year-old, now living in Vancouver. Four years ago, she lost her brother unexpectedly. In his honor, she wears his Oilers jersey for every game, including while witnessing her team’s incredible comeback against the Florida Panthers in this year’s Stanley Cup finals.
The Oilers are just one win away from claiming the NHL’s ultimate prize, set to play their final game against Florida on Monday in a best-of-seven series. If they win, they would be the first Canadian NHL team to take the championship since the Montreal Canadiens triumphed in 1993, and it would mark the Oilers’ first Stanley Cup victory since 1990.
Once considered one of the NHL’s greatest teams, the Oilers have faced tough times. After reaching the Stanley Cup finals in 2006, they lost in a heartbreaking Game 7 to the Carolina Hurricanes, leading to a challenging period known as “The Decade of Darkness.” However, the tide began to turn in 2015 when they signed Connor McDavid, a 19-year-old hockey sensation from the Toronto area.
The young, gifted player proved to be a generational talent, said Daniel Nugent-Bowman, who covers the franchise for sports publication The Athletic.
“That term gets tossed around pretty loosely, but he is the definition of a generational player,” Mr Nugent-Bowman told the BBC.
McDavid is known for his dazzling skills on the ice, with a speed and accuracy few other players rival.
“If his career ended today, he would be in the Hall of Fame and would go down as one of the greatest hockey players of all time, and that’s at 27 years old, without a Stanley Cup,” Mr Nugent-Bowman said.
But it would take nine years after McDavid’s signing for the Oilers to once again compete for the Cup.
“This journey hasn’t happened overnight,” Mr Nugent-Bowman said.
The dramatic comeback and the team’s perseverance against the Florida Panthers only adds to the excitement for Monday.
“I’m a big fan of really good stories,” said Travis Sengaus, who cheers for rival team the Calgary Flames but who is excited nonetheless about Edmonton’s success.
Mr Sengaus recalled other miraculous rebounds in sports history, like when the Boston Red Sox beat the New York Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series, becoming the first – and still only – team to return from a 3-0 series deficit in Major League Baseball.
Or when LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Golden State Warriors in 2016 to win the National Basketball Association championship after trailing behind for much of the series.
It is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball finals of all time.
The Oilers, he said, are on the cusp of their own great story – one that’s “very hard to resist”.
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