Jets at Oilers: G1, 2024-25

I owned a heavy jacket when I was 10. It wasn’t a coat, so I could run freely, and it wasn’t cumbersome so I could release my slap shot ala Frank Mahovlich. The night light outside our house was as bright as the lights at the Montreal Forum. My net was an old saw horse, the goalie two 10-gallon buckets that gave me fits. My brother would sometimes play, but being four years older, the games were not competitive. We had a dog, Zero, and he was a wild card. Sometimes he would block a shot, others he would steal the puck and run into the barn. Damn dog.

I would go outside to the driveway (this was 17 miles north of Maidstone, in rural SK in the early 1970’s; there were more coyotes than people) at 7am on Saturday and stay out until 10 on weeknights. I loved it. A few times it was so cold I had to come inside because my lungs didn’t have time to adjust to the cool weather before I started running about in the prairie darkness.

No one knew, and no one commented (our neighbour Keith Schwartz used to yell “he scores” from the road when he drove by, he was a helluva nice guy). I was always the Bruins because screw the Habs. I practiced my Bobby Orr shot from the point more than anything, and this fantasy hockey night was the best thing in my life from about age nine to 12.

I left the stick in the porch one day around the time I became a teenager and didn’t pick it up again. Nothing tragic or earth shattering, just other interests arriving at that time. Looking back, it was a lonely business in a lonely place in a lonely time. We moved from British Columbia when I was in Grade 4 (I was nine) and we didn’t know anyone, we lived in an isolated place and we didn’t own a snowmobile. Bikes in summer made it better, but the SK winters spent 17 miles north of Maidstone meant miles and miles of solo.

By 1975, we moved to town, and my brother moved away, I discovered real friendships (Terry Cole, Warren Ross) and eventually the power of money, motorized vehicles, demon liquor and the lush beauty of the opposite sex. I regret nothing.

I do drift back to those olden days sometimes. The snow was piled over my head during the heart of winter, we had several days from November to March where Bill Stewart (the school bus driver) would call the house and tell my Mom he wasn’t going to be driving out on the north road that day. Those were glorious days.

It begins again tonight. The Oilers and the Jets, two prairie teams with the same dream I had on that driveway 50 years ago: Winning Stanley. Godspeed men. The journey begins.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM OCTOBER

• At home to: WPG, CHI, CAL, PHI (Expected 3-1-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
• On the road to: NAS, DAL (Expected 1-1-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
• At home to: CAR, PIT (Expected 1-1-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
• On the road to: DET, CBJ, NAS (Expected 2-1-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
• Overall expected result: 7-4-0, 14 points in 11 games
• Actual October results:
• Oilers in 2024-25:

I added two points from my look a week ago, having a better idea about Edmonton’s opponents in the month to come. I have the losses as tonight, Dallas, Carolina and Nashville. Oilers began last season at 2-7-1, the final game in that run a loss to the Predators (5-2 at Rogers). I have them going 7-3-0 to start this time, followed by a road loass to the upstart Nasvhille Cats.

It’s Game 1 and we’re on it today! Sports 1440 starting at noon. Bruce McCurdy from the Cult of Hockey at the Edmonton Journal will pop in to help us preview tonight’s game. We’ll have the lines and pairings, even though you already know them, and the latest of Raphael Lavoie. MLB playoffs, NFL and CFL and whatever you’d like to discuss. I’m at Lowetide on twitter, in the comments section here and on the Sports 1440 text line at 1.833.401.1440 directly. We can be heard at sports1440.ca; iHeartRadio; Radioplayer Canada, we tweet out the show after it’s done and you can catch us on Apple and Spotify.