"We want a cup"

Friday night was pretty much a bust, trying to see one of the biggest movies to open up this summer on opening night isn't such a great idea. Not to mention the parking situation in north edmonton complex was retarded. We ended up parking by the royal bank, anyone that has been in that complex knows how rediculiously far that is, we walked like 10 minutes to the theatre only to find out that the next four shows were in fact sold out. (I would again try to see the movie with jessie sunday afternoon, and guess what the show we wanted to see and the one after sold out. Fuck this shit, i'm gonna wait for the dvd.) We got some DQ and spent the rest of the night playing xbox at jessies.

This post mostly concerns saturday night and game 5 between the oil and the ducks.

Cast of characters:

Pat
Jessie
Korie
Marco
Steve
Matt
Laura
Pam
Lindsey
Stacey
Brenna
Francine
Fred
Anthony

and many more we would run into during the course of the night, too many to mention

We had plans to drink on whyte and watch the game and enjoy the festivities if we won but we didn't know who would come, where we would watch the game or what time we should be down there. I called around and we decide that the best time to be on whyte would be by about 5 for the 7 oclock puck drop. Pat, Jessie and myself would cab it to whyte, and korie matt steve and marco would meet us there wherever we were.

Location: whyte and 104
Time: 5ish

the cabbie drops us off at the corner, there isn't much of a crowd on the sidewalk which bodes well for finding a place to sit. We decide to try hudsons first. We aren't rejected at the door but we are told its standing room only. Next is Elephant and Castle, again standing room only, the empty table infront of the tv that i spotted from outside had a paper reserved sign on it, bullshit i say. We walk by sapphire, the site where we watched the last game on whyte, and i mentally note that if worse comes to worse we could go there. Squires would be ideal to watch the game, but we discover that it hasn't yet open. Its about 5:30 at this time. So we say fuck it and head to O'byrns.

Location: O'byrns
Time:5:30

You never really notice if a place has TVs until you are actually looking for a place to watch the game. I thought they had a projector by the dance floor but i was wrong. We get inside and its pretty much empty except the people working there. The only TV is at the very back by the bar, not really ideal conditions to watch the game. I get a call from korie and i tell him to see if squires is open yet. We decide to get a beer and a sandwich since we are here. Korie calls me back and says they aren't open yet and they are gonna check out the thirsty turtle. The table/booth behind us starts filling up with some older women. I guess there is some sort of stagette going on, it didn't seem like they were they type to have a lot of fun, plus they were kind of getting annoying with their jokes and cackling. Later on as we eat our club houses a group of 3 younger girls join the table of older women. Pat makes note that they don't really seem to be fitting in or having fun with the rest of the table, kinda sitting off on their own. We would have asked them to sit with us but that would have been an akward invitation. Korie calls me again to let me know they are now at squires since thirsty turtle had nowhere to sit and they would hold us a table at squires until we got there. We finish up the rest of our beers and make our way to squires.

Location: Squires
Time: 6pm

I walk in and i'm pleasently surprised that squires is ready to show the game. There is a temporary projector hanging from the roof and they setup the screen by the end of the bar by one of the plasma tvs near the dance floor. We sit with a good view of the screen. Pat and i split a pitcher of big rock trad. It is evident that no one drinks much of that stuff there since the beer tastes kinda skunky, but i'm in the mood to get fucked up and i don't complain. We sit there anxiously waiting for the game to begin, the hour or so that we wait there seems like forever. As the game starts there is an eruption of cheers. I'm sure you watched the game so i won't bore you with details. Around the second period lindsey arrives with her friend stacey. Pam comes by alone around the same time.Pat jessie and i decide that we would take a shot of tequila everytime the oilers score. By the end of the game, sadly, we only have 2 shots, but pat buys a victory round. After the game i'm feeling pretty cut, pat and i split a couple pitchers of beer and the tequila was starting to hit me. Our group didn't immediately leave squires once the game was done to join the party on whyte. We all have a few more drinks, i jump up and down on a couch and jessie takes some pictures in the photo booth with lindsey. Squires starts clearing out and i'm wondering how crazy the streets are at this point, we soon leave and join in on the festivities out on the street.

Location: Whyte and 105, the fucked up intersection


When we get outside it wasn't as crazy as i expected. The police were keeping people on the sidewalks and cars were still able to access the street. The crowd of us stand by Devlins on the sidewalk high fiving everyone that walked by. Jessie and i were by far the most enthusiastic, really getting into it. Marco, Steve and Matt end up taking off somewhere, and everyone ends up scattered all over the place. Beside me is only Korie and Jessie and Stacey, maybe pam. We continue to high five for a good 45 minutes everyone that walks by. It is at this point that my hand is really starting to hurt from the slapping. Its really red and kind of swollen so i thought it was a good idea to stop the hig fiving. Everyone ends up disappearing and its just me stacey and pat somehow comes back to find us.

Around this time people start rushing onto the streets so i join in and about 10 minutes later the street looks like it does above. Pat, stacy, and i try to find everyone else in amongst the crowd, after some loud and incoherent phone calls we are able to locate everyone else. the crowd is too much and we move to an area less crazy.

Location: Whyte, outside when pigs fly
Time: 11:30ish

We stand on the street/sidewalk and watch in awe as people are chanting everything from "fuck the ducks" to "lets go oilers" to " we want a cup" We discover that some hooligan has already smashed the window to when pigs fly and chicken scratch, a group of samaritans stand infront of the window in a line preventing further vandalism to the store. Francine and Brenna join us also. Jessie spots a girl i know, allyson (see hungover on a friday post for details) and we run and catch up with her and her two friends down the sidewalk. After a brief conversaion and a promise to contact each other we head back to our group. The intensity of the crowd is getting to us and we all decide to go somewhere quieter and drink more. We end up a couple blocks east at Savoy.

Location: Savoy
Time: 12:30 ish

With everyone on the street partying it isn't hard getting into a bar. The place is pretty busy but not so much that we can't find a place to sit. I head to the bar to get a beer. I had anchor steam in mind. It was a beer that Pat regularly drank while he was in San Fran, i had it before and throughly enjoyed it. I'm at the bar for no less then 15 minutes trying to get my drink and finally i'm served. Jessie has two more martinis, and is really fucked up, technically 1.5 martinis as he spills half of one on his white shirt. We leave and hang out outside on the sidewalk. Fred and Anthony meet us and we talk for a good bit on the sidewalk. As we stand there i run into countless other friends and aquaintences, also enjoying the crazy atmosphere. I believe it is around this time that all the fires were getting started. I could see two blocks away in the fucked up intersection at 105 that there was a large fire. It isn't everyday that you see a fire in the middle of an intersection on a city street. There were reports of multiple fires in the area, but the only one that really caught my attention was the one i mentioned. Cops on bikes were in a line at the intersetion where we were ( second cup, savoy, starbucks), they didn't seem to take a hard line approach to policing the crowd, which is a good thing. They even high fived anyone that went up to them. The reports that whyte was out of control that night were blown way out of proportion, you can't expect to cram upwards of 35000 people in a 5 block radius without some sort of incidents happening. Really, it could have been a lot worse, all the destrution that occured were 2 phone booths and a couple of windows, hardly anything to get worked up about. The Canada day riots of a couple years ago was only made up of 1200 to 2000 people. Imagine what 30000 people could do. Which i think would have happend had the police been assholes.

We decide to go back to the centre of the mayham. When we get back to the main square we witness some city workers standing atop of when pigs fly spraying a fire hose into the middle of the street. I guess they had just finished putting out the large fire and were trying to disperse the crowd. While some minor rioting in my mind can be expected of a crowd this size, what is not tolerable is throwing bottles and other shit at city workers and fire fighters trying to put out the fire. There were some real idiots on whyte that night.

The remaining 8 of us crammed in pams truck. Fred and i sat in the back of her truck since there was no room left in the cab. The open air was kind of cold but it was refreshing. We would drive Brenna back to her car. I was amazed as to how far she parked. Brenna and francine parked and walked a good 17 blocks from the main centre of whyte. We dropped off fred and Anthony and we agreed that we would all meet at Denny's downtown.

Location : Dennys
Time : 2 maybe 2:30

Surprisingly there is almost no wait, even with a group of like 8 of us. Wait for our food, however, is very long. I get some sort of meat thing with extra hashbrowns. I'm not really sure how long we are at Dennys but i get home at like quarter to 5 so either we were there for a very long time or i the times are a little bit off. All in all a very fun night, can't wait till the finals start. We want a cup!!

There are reports this week that in light of the activites on whyte that night that new policing tactics will employed to control the crowd. I think if the cops start being assholes there is going to be a lot more trouble then if they just let the crowd be. No one like being told what to do or how to act, especially drunk people. I guess we'll wait and see if fans will get any crazier.