Let’s Go Oilers!

By Steven Lienert

If anybody can sympathize with Edmonton, it’s Flyers’ fans.

Why?

It was late June, 1987, when the Flyers, who were down three-game-to one to the Gretzky, Messier, Kurri, Coffey and Fuhr Oilers, rallied to win Game 5.

J.J. Daignault’s slap-shot goal from the left point won Game 6 at The Spectrum but, more importantly, it forced Game 7 back in Edmonton.

It was the greatest moment in Flyers’ history… in my lifetime, of course.

There was no doubt Philly was going to win Game 7.

I happened to be on a two-week trip with my folks to Florida that year, and we left for the 2 1/2 –day road trip before the Flyers even made the finals. We stayed in our pop-up camper with some tents at Disney World’s Fort Wilderness resort, and each morning I ran to the trading post get the first copy of USA Today, just to see how the Flyers were doing.

Long-story short, the day the Flyers forced Game 7 against Edmonton, I made my parents pack up and drive back to Philly with hopes of catching Game 7 on television.

We arrived at our house in time to catch the game, just before Gene Hart's call of the drop of the puck.

But, as history shows, it ended in heartbreak, much like every other playoff appearance a Philadelphia team has had in the past 23 years.

If it means anything to anybody, the Flyers lost to the Oilers that year, so maybe if Carolina wins tonight, it’s poetic justice for Edmonton fans.

But I’m rooting for the eighth-seeded Oilers to win the Cup, only because Hurricane fans haven’t suffered enough. They were lucky to get a franchise as decent as the Hartford Whalers.

Besides, if one more former Flyer hoists the Cup before our team does, I’m going to vomit in my cereal.

Here’s hoping the Oilers become the first team since the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs to come back from a three-games-to-one deficit to win the Stanley Cup.

Their fans deserve it.

Steve Lienert can be reached at stevelienert@hotmail.com or at stevel@phillysportsline.com