NHL: Oilers Should Expect Rude Welcome From Jets Fans

The Edmonton Oilers make their return to Winnipeg to play the Jets and renew one of the lesser-known but combative conflicts in the NHL, which began in the old World Hockey Association.

As Ed Tait of the Winnipeg Free Press notes, the Jets’ very first home game in major professional hockey was in 1972 against a team known at the time as the Alberta Oilers. The visitors won 5-2, but the Golden Jet, Bobby Hull, would eventually lead Winnipeg to a first-place finish that season and three Avco Cup championships in the 1970s.

The other guys would later rename themselves the Edmonton Oilers, be absorbed into the NHL in 1979 (along with the Jets) and obtain the services of someone named Gretzky who would lead them to four of their five Stanley Cups. Winnipeg would never approach that level of success in their first-go-round in the league.

Fast-forward to the present day, and things have changed between the two teams. Long gone are the glory days in the “City of Champions”; the Oilers could be a fine team in the future, but about the only thing they can look forward to right now is a lottery pick. Meanwhile the Jets, enjoying one of the best home records in the NHL (19-9-4) and fighting for a playoff spot in the Western Conference, have the support of the league’s loudest fans.

Edmonton is making its first appearance in Winnipeg since 1995, and the Oilers should expect a rowdy greeting from a packed house at the MTS Centre. Based on comments he made while playing for the Phoenix Coyotes, forward Eric Belanger is likely to receive an especially rude welcome from those raucous fans.

The upcoming schedule is not kind to the home-loving Jets. They have 17 games left in the regular-season schedule; nine of those are on the road, where they’ve gone 11-17-4. Four of those matches will be against Florida and Washington, two divisional rivals who have games in hand on the Jets and are hoping to make it into the playoffs themselves.

With the NHL betting line favoring the Jets, this would be a good time to establish themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the postseason. In fact, they’ve played well in their last 10 games, going 6-2-2 in that span. The Oilers have little to play for at this point and, with a 8-20-2 road mark, not much is expected from them on this visit.