Author's Note:
The following is the second in a series of posts exploring the Edmonton Oilers, their previous “Decade of Darkness,” and how the team has started to turn things around with the help of Connor McDavid.
To offer readers something different during the NHL’s summer lull, this is Part Two of the series—from the perspective of a fan-turned-journalist—and it will continue over the next few weeks. I hope you enjoy the journey.
McDavid v. the Decade of Darkness: Part 1: My Introduction to the Oilers
<i><b>Author's Note:</b></i>
“Mom, where’s my cap!? Where’s my bottle cap!?”
I was 12 or 13 years old. It was 1990, and Pepsi held a hockey contest where winners could take home $10,000. The rules were simple. Basically, under the cap of any bottle of Pepsi, you could pull out the inserts, and on them were written the names of two NHL hockey teams. Underneath the winning team name was a number. That number represented how many games it would take for that specific team to win the series of the Stanley Cup Final that year. If your team and your number matched the way the series unfolded, you won. The prize amount was listed underneath both the team and the number.
Most of the cap inserts were no good because the listed teams didn’t even make the Final. But, at my age, it was more about collecting them than anything else. I had a few — maybe six or seven — but I recall vividly pulling out an Edmonton Oilers cap. It came from a bottle of Diet 7-UP. It was the only Oilers cap I ever got, and I had all sorts of friends at school who wanted to trade me for it. I was never going to let it go. Not my Oilers cap, no way.
In 1990, the Edmonton Oilers did make the Stanley Cup Final, and for the first part of the playoffs, I took that cap everywhere because the Oilers were my favorite team. By the time the Stanley Cup Final had come, that cap was my lucky cap. I didn’t want to lose it, so I stopped carrying it around. I found a special place on a shelf in my room to store it. It sat there right next to my box of Star Wars action figures and underneath my poster of then-WWF Superstar Randy “The Macho Man” Savage.
Related: Former Oilers Big-Ticket UFA Signs PTO With Blues
In the Final, the Oilers were taking on the Boston Bruins. While the Bruins had several good chances early in the series, the Oilers ended up winning handily in five games. I remember being allowed to stay up until Petr Klima scored in triple overtime in Game 1. I remember the “Kid Line” and how cool they were. I remember Bill Ranford winning the Conn Smythe Trophy after taking over in net for Grant Fuhr. I remember the excitement from my family who witnessed the Oilers win another Cup, this time without Wayne Gretzky. Of course, I didn’t understand the significance of that moment, but it was special nonetheless.
And I had my cap... at least, I thought I did.
Somewhere along the way, my mother must have cleaned my room. When I went to show my family my cap, it was gone. So were all the other caps. Now, I don’t know if my mother threw it away; she could have. And, understandably, to anyone else, these were just inserts from pop bottles and probably looked like garbage. Still, I was devastated.
“Mom, where’s my cap!? Where’s my bottle cap!?”
No one seemed to know what I was talking about. I tried to describe the insert to my parents, but they convinced a crying little boy that it was OK, because the Oilers had won the Stanley Cup. My lucky cap did what it was supposed to, and it helped the Oilers win!
To a naive 12-year-old boy, that logic made sense. It wasn’t until many years later that I looked back at the memory and realized something. I can’t be certain, but I swear that cap said “5” on it. That number represented the total number of games it would take for Edmonton to win. Looking back, I’ve also convinced myself that the prize number read $10,000. To this day, I still believe that to be the case.
I’m not mad at my mother for potentially throwing away a $10,000 bottle cap insert. She couldn't have known. But, I sometimes wonder how my life would have been different if I’d won $10,000 at the age of 12 (understanding of course that my family would have held the money for me and not let me spend it). Instead, I look back at 1990, the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and that Pepsi bottle cap insert, and I realize something.
That bottle cap and my family throwing it away is my metaphor for what happened to the Edmonton Oilers in the coming years.
To be continued...
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