GETTING DAT KARMA CORRECT

So last night we were sitting around watching the World Cup of Hockey match on the TV waiting for the NHL season to begin. Whether or not the tournament is a real thing or a brilliant negotiating tactic against the Olympics remains to be seen.

What does not remain to be seen is the impact of Connor McDavid. 

In a tournament with most of the NHL’s brightest stars on display announcers, former players, current players and everyone up to and including the pop corn vendors at the ACC can’t stop themselves from falling all over our 97.

We still can’t believe that Connor McDavid is an Oiler. Hahahah WTF time and space amirite? His unfortunate collarbone injury robbing us of half of his rookie season probably has a lot to do with that. But as we watch him whizzing around the ice – at 32 km/h thanks technology! – we still can’t wrap our brain around the fact that he is an Oiler. It might take his entire career for it to sink in frankly.

This must be what it feels like to win the lottery. You rise and shine on a random day 14 months later and feel your brain waking up only to think to yourself “Oh man it’s 7:05 AM. SWEET MARIE THAT’S RIGHT I WON THE LOTTERY AND TIME DON’T MEAN NOTHIN NO MORE. HOO-RAH”

The dark cloud over the franchise is stubbornly hanging around – to the degree that even when the Supreme One miraculously arrives he cuts his rookie season short and we still come in 29th. But now you watch people like Adam Graves say that Connor McDavid is faster than anyone he has ever seen and ol grumpy Nick Kypreos says he has a fourth and fifth gear he didn’t even know existed. 

The tide is turning Nation – the clouds are lifting.

Oh baby. We cannot wait for this season to get started. We gotta get ready! Someone sweep all the remaining dust from Rogers Place! Start work on building an even newer arena for Connor to twirl in! This one has hosted an Oil Kings game and a Dolly Parton concert. It’s used already.

In the meantime let’s do a couple things to get our Karma straight before the season starts.

With World Cup of Hockey games come World Cup of Hockey intermissions and downtime. Downtime leads to fiddling on your phone and the discovery that Ryan Smyth – YES THAT RYAN SMYTH – is on twitter!

Ryan Smyth shouldn’t have 6,728 followers if he has decided to gift us all with 140 character updates about what is on his mind. He is starting to tweet Nation and it ain’t some marketing company clicking the keyboard it’s Ryan Smyth himself – Legendary Golden God and he needs all of our support. I personally think @realSmytty94 should be challenging Justin Bieber and Myley Cyrus for most twitter followers. 

In the name of showing respect to the Legendary Oilers of all time is all about let’s all go show Smytty some love and follow him on the Twitter machine. He may tweet about team play, being a good guy or some sort of hair care related tips and I for one want to be first in line to read his wisdom 24/7/365.

SMYTTY I LOVE YOU SO MUCH (cry face emoji)

During the World Cup game the other night we got a tweet from a great chap @stonesznai letting us know about a fundraiser for a Spruce Grove family going through an incredibly challenging time right now and needs all our help. 

Jordan Hogan is a father of 4 boys – side bar: THAT can’t be a quiet time around the ol’ homestead – who is going through some health challenges. 

Here is how he described the situation at hand:

“At the age of 31 I have been diagnosed with a rare aggressive form of Lymphoma (Lymphatic Cancer) called Unclassified Gray Zone Lymphoma. Due to the rarity of this form of Lymphoma (30 cases in 50 years at the Cross Cancer Institute) my chemotherapy plan is a very aggressive one requiring me to be admitted to the hospital for five days a month while receiving my treatment. This, combined with the side effects of the treatment, makes working to provide for my wife and children very difficult.

All the funds donated to my campaign will be used to provide for my family while we fight our way through this difficult time. This includes purchasing groceries, kid’s cloths, paying for school activities and paying our bills.”

Reading stuff like this makes me ashamed to think that it was only a few short hours ago I was wringing my hands and complaining to anyone who will listen that the $7.50 Gatorades at the new arena is the biggest problem in the history of problems. Truth is I don’t even know what a bad day is and I should be beaten with some sort of nunchuks for complaining about anything ever.

As we collectively gear up for the upcoming season and all the fireworks that Connor McDavid has in store let’s take a quick minute and help out a fellow Albertan and his family who are very deserving of our help.

The Hogans Go Fund Me page is here.  To start off the donations we are making a $100 donation on behalf of the Nation Network and we will have a second fundraiser announced in the next few days to try and help this great family in some small way. I hope that if you can spare some cash you do the same. Back to school is an expensive time but every little bit we can all contribute adds up. Thank you in advance.

Good luck from all of us here at Nation HQ getting back to tip top shape Jordan. 

Good luck on Twitter Smytty. 

Good luck at the World Cup of Hockey Connor.

Are you involved with minor hockey? OilersNation, along with our partners at Vimy Edmonton and Donnan School, is looking to sponsor 15 Edmonton area minor hockey teams for the upcoming season. Each team will receive an OilersNation branded hard hat, t-shirts for the player of the game award, and sticker packages for all of the players. If you are interested in having us sponsor your minor hockey team you can apply by sending your team information (age, league, team name, and contact information) toinfo@oilersnation.com. Teams will be randomly selected for sponsorship so only one entry per team is required.

The deadline to enter your team into the draw will be Friday, September 23rd. Good luck!