EDMONTON — The hearts of Edmonton Oilers fans shattered Monday night as the team lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final. On Tuesday, many were still trying to put the pieces back together. "I wore all black to work.
I'm in mourning," said Jamie Cessford, an Oilers fan who lives in Vancouver. "I'm definitely still reeling a bit." Cessford was clad in an orange Jordan Eberle jersey Monday night as he sat in a bar in downtown Seattle watching the Florida Panthers edge the Oilers 2-1 to capture the championship.
He and his friend were silent for much of the third period as Edmonton pressed, trying in vain to tie the game. After the final horn sounded, they walked to a concert nearby and Cessford thought back to the last time he'd cheered Edmonton on in a Stanley Cup final. That was 2006, when the Oilers lost to the Carolina Hurricanes.
"I was just like, 'Man, this doesn't get any easier as you age,'" Cessford said. "The sports pain is still real as you reach your mid-to-late 30s.” Samantha Woj turned to canvas to process her feelings on Tuesday.
“I’m actually so sad today and I’m like ‘I just need to do a painting,'" Woj, an artist who uses sports equipment to paint, said in a phone interview, a football in her hand. "Art is pretty much my way to channel my emotions.” A video of Woj using a hockey stick to paint a portrait of Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner drew praise during the playoffs.
Edmonton's post-season success is bittersweet, she said, because though it ended i.