Maritime hockey fans hope for Oilers to pull through on historic comeback in Stanley Cup Game 7

First at Five: Oilers Mania First at Five looks at the excitement and anticipation surrounding Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

It would be an understatement to say hockey fans from across the country were worked into a frenzy about Monday night’s Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Not only were the Oilers were trying to become the first Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup in more than 30 years, they were also trying to complete a comeback for the ages after trailing the Florida Panthers 3-0 in earlier games in the best-of-seven final.

"I think it's probably for the best for public safety that Game 7 isn't in Edmonton, because I don't know if the city would survive,” said Jonathan Torrens, the well-known television personality who is also a Nova Scotia native.

Torrens attended Game 3 in Edmonton, which the Oilers lost to fall behind 3-0 in the series.

He attended that day’s morning skate wearing a vintage Nova Scotia Oilers jersey, a nod to Edmonton’s former American Hockey League affiliate in Halifax back in the 1980s.

Despite the loss that night, Torrens said Oiler pride was on display throughout the city, and now he can’t wait to see the team he has cheered since childhood go for an historic sixth Stanley Cup win.

"This team is the real deal. Go Oilers,” Torrens said.

In Whitney Pier, N.S., Derrick Demone's living room Oilers "shrine" has nearly 40 years of team memorabilia he started collecting as a child when his father, Harry, would bring souvenirs home from Edmonton.

"My father used to work for Peter Pocklington actually, funny story,” Demone said, adding that his father worked for one of the meat packing companies owned by the Oilers’ longtime owner.

Demone’s father, Harry, passed away in 2019.

Tonight, he hopes to make Stanley Cup memories with his own children.

"I have a 24, a 14 and a 12-year-old, and we've been watching as long as they've been around,” Demone said. “This is the closest we've come in that time span to winning a Cup, so it would mean quite a bit to our family."

CTV National News reporter Paul Hollingsworth is in Sunrise, FL. covering the Final.

He said the mood is grim among some Panthers fans, even though they could still win their first-ever Cup tonight.

"I think hope is slipping away,” Hollingsworth said, referring to the Florida team’s having blown a 3-0 series lead.

If Connor McDavid and company can finish the job, Hollingsworth weighed in on how he felt this Cup would compare to the Wayne Gretzky-led team of the 1980’s. That was when the Oilers won four Stanley Cups in a five-year span, followed by a fifth in 1990 after Gretzky was traded to the Los Angeles Kings.

"I have a feeling that if Edmonton pulls this off, as celebrated as those 1980's Oilers teams were, this may be the team that gets most remembered in hockey history,” Hollingsworth said.

With the stage set for either history or heartbreak, Demone weighed in with a Game 7 prediction from his Cape Breton living room and Oilers fan cave.

"We're looking at the Oilers taking home their sixth Stanley Cup, 2024,” Demone said. “It's going to be a 5-2 game."

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