Oiler Nation roars into Winnipeg

You can put the earplugs away for now Winnipeg — Jesse Martin is taking the night off.

The self-proclaimed “ultimate Oilers fan” is primed and ready to watch his team from Edmonton take on the Tampa Bay Lightning.  The two teams face off tonight in an NHL exhibition match at Winnipeg’s MTS Centre.

It’s the only “home game” for this die hard follower.  The rest of the year, the 23-year-old musician has to settle for watching his favourite NHL team on the tube.  He’s found a way to make the most of it.

At first glance, his Oilers Room might seem like that of any passionate fan with some extra cash to spend: logoed merchandise abounds.  Besides the obligatory jersey and hat, there’s an Oilers barstool for sitting on and watching games — a little rickety, but it still does the job.  Within arms reach is a giant, inflatible replica of hockey’s top trophy, with some Oilers stickers added for good measure.  A fragile figurine of defenceman Sheldon Souray sits on the night stand.  The bed is covered with an Oilers blanket, kept perfectly straight and wrinkle-free by the ever-watchful Martin, whose reflexes rival those of the Stanley Cup’s guardians.

Baby, you ain’t seen nothin, yet.

The game is on.  The announcer’s voice, and the roar of the crowd, pour in through 15 speakers and three subs.  It’s 2006, and Stanley Cup fever has a firm grip on the Alberta capital.  The commentator screams to be heard over the constant din at Rexall Place.

The action is beaming into Martin’s East Kildonan home, more than 1300 kilometres away.

“Here come the Oilers forechecking, they go wide.”

Georges Laraque flattens his man in the corner.

“Yeah! Yeah!” Martin roars his approval.

The puck squirts loose along the boards.  Rem Murray jumps on it, sending it to the front of the net.  Laraque is there again — he scores!

“Wooooooo!”

Martin is on his feet, vigourously waving his shiny, silver pompom — known as a Stanley shaker to Oilers faithful — in time with the Oilers home crowd on the screen.

A red goal light comes to life.  A spotlight pulses from under the bed, lighting up an enormous banner marked with every year the Oilers have won the cup.  A rainbow of colours dance across the wall above the TV screen, shining against a custom-made banner, which screams to visitors, in case they hadn’t noticed:

“You’re in Oilers country.”

The goal horn you hear — piercing through the already teeth-rattling noise — isn’t coming from the TV.  It’s an authentic recording of what the Oilers use, with Gary Glitter’s Rock n Roll Part 2 spliced in by Martin.

The celebration peaks at over 100 decibels.  It’s as loud as standing next to a jet engine.  And just as loud as being at the game.

“The whole city knows they score when I’m here.”

Some of Martin’s neighbours aren’t amused.

“The cops came nine times during the cup run,” he recalls.  All were noise complaints.

Such is life for a superfan.  Even Martin’s hallowed Oilers gear wasn’t immune to errant limbs during post-goal cheers.

“I almost broke my light on that goal.”

The light is, you guessed it, a mock-up of an Oilers scoreboard.  Regrettably, it’s not the newest model.

“I went back to the store the other day, and they have one that’s more rounded at the bottom — and I just got this one!  Now I want the new one so bad!”

The one-man arena experience has set Martin back about $2,000.  He’s still looking to make some upgrades.

“Oh my God, I have about 100 things on my list.  I can’t even afford it all.”

Even the most subtle additions find their way into Martin’s collection.

“I don’t even smoke, I have nothing to do with lighters, but I have an Oilers lighter,” he says, gesturing to the dresser.

Tonight, Martin’s room will be dark and strangely silent, as he takes his act downtown.  With anywhere up to 15,000 fans joining him in the stands, he promises to be a bit more subdued.

“It’s only preseason,” he reasons.

And while Rem Murray and Georges Laraque have moved on, there should be some familiar faces present for the Oilers.

Dustin Penner, Ethan Moreau, Steve Staios, Sam Gagner, Zack Stortini, Jordan Eberle and Tom Gilbert
are all expected to suit up for the blue and cooper.

Meanwhile, the Lightning’s Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis and Steven Stamkos have all been “guaranteed” to be in the lineup.  Mattias Ohlund may see some action as well.

For those Winnipeggers who normally depend on Jesse Martin’s arena-style celebrations to know when the Oilers have scored, take heart, you may still have a chance to join him in the crowd — about 1400 tickets were still up for grabs this morning.

Preseason pushes off in Terrace tonight

It’s not John Tavares versus Cody Hodgson, but a three-month hockey drought comes to an end tonight on the west coast.

The Vancouver Canucks and the New York Islanders travel to Terrace, B.C. — the lastest Canadian community to be crowned Hockeyville — in the NHL’s preseason opener.  The puck drops at 7 p.m. Pacific time.  The game will be broadcast on NHL Network in both Canada and the U.S., and regionally on Sportsnet Pacific and MSG+.  The game is also being streamed on the Canucks website.  Due to programming conflicts, all broadcasts of the game, online included, will be delayed by 30 minutes.

Despite all the widespread hype and coverage, the lineups for the two teams are expected to reflect the fact that this is the first game of the preseason.

The Islanders have sent their “Group 1” players to Terrace, according to the team’s website.  They skated together Sunday using these lines:

Forwards
Trevor Smith – Greg Moore – Jeremy Reich
Matt Moulson – Greg Mauldin – Jon Sim
Jeff Tambellini – Josh Bailey – Blake Comeau
Sean Bentivoglio – Nate Thompson – Tim Jackman

Defence
Andy Sutton – Freddy Meyer
Jack Hillen – Andrew MacDonald
Dustin Kohn – Mark Flood

Goalies
Scott Munroe
Nathan Lawson

Similarly, it will be “Group A” for Vancouver.

Forwards
Michael Grabner – Kyle Wellwood – Guillaume Desbiens
Alexandre Bolduc – Dave Scratchard – Jannik Hansen
Michael Grabner – Kyle Wellwood – Guillame Desbiens
Sergei Shirokov – Mario Bliznak – Ronald Petrovicky

Defence
Brad Lukowich – Nolan Baumgartner
Michael Funk – Lawrence Nycholat
Evan Oberg – Shane O’Brien

Goalies
Andrew Raycroft
Cory Schnieder

The Canucks used defencemen Willie Mitchell and Kevin Bieksa as their top pair with this group during their first day of training camp.  Both are in Terrace, but are not expected to play.  They were, however, slated to make apperances at several local schools, along with Islanders Jeff Tambellini and Tim Jackman.

The Islanders have set up camp in Saskatoon this preseason.  Tonight is their first of four games in six days.  They will travel to Edmonton and Calgary before hosting the two teams in the Saskatchewan city.