‘As long as you go with a good attitude and be friendly… you’ll have a great time’
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It was a Friday night to forget for most fans at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, but not for Edmonton’s Rob Kinsey.
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The electrical construction executive and his wife, Lana, were among the Oilers fans who made the weekend trip from Alberta to Southern California.
“There were lots of Oilers fans,” he said the day after the team’s resounding 8-2 Game 3 win. “They were everywhere.”
“As long as you go with a good attitude and be friendly and let a few things roll off your back, you’ll have a great time.”
The scoreline may have helped, but the home fans were welcoming, Kinsey said.
“They were really good,” he said of the Kings fans. “We had nobody, not one person, who was anything but.”
Kinsey, 45 and a lifelong fan of the team, estimates he spent about $5,000 on flights, accommodations and two tickets behind the Oilers bench for both Friday’s Game 3 and Game 4, Sunday.
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“It wasn’t too hard,” he said of securing the prime seats through Ticketmaster’s resale site.
“The cost was like half of what they would be in Edmonton.”
It was a playoff trip to Anaheim in 2017 that convinced him that behind the Oilers bench was the only spot to watch from.
“I looked at my phone and I literally had like 200 texts because we were on TV.”
The benchside seats also may have spawned a new playoff superstition when his wife threw her orange hat onto the ice to mark Evander Kane’s hat-trick third-period goal Friday night.
“One of the Oilers picked it up and threw it back over the bench,” he said, declaring the orange hat a new good luck charm.
“That hat is taking us right to the Stanley Cup final.”
Kinsey, his wife and the lucky hat will take in Game 4 in Los Angeles before flying home Monday, with plans to be at Rogers Place for Game 5.
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And he’s already lined up behind-the-bench tickets for Game 6 in California, should it be necessary.
“Hopefully we won’t need it and I don’t have to worry about it.”
Edmonton hasn’t secured its series yet, but he’s already preparing for a second-round matchup against either the Calgary Flames or Dallas Stars, and another Oilers road trip.
“I’d rather go to Texas than Calgary,” he said. “If it’s Texas, you’ll see us behind that bench for sure.”
It’ll be another step on the journey he hopes ends with the Oilers lifting the cup in a few weeks time.
“I honestly believe they have a real chance,” he said. “I definitely do believe this team could take it to the very end.”
