Photo: User:Bulliver · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Photo: User:Bulliver · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Sports Travel
Rogers Place, the McDavid era, and the most passionate hockey city in Canada. How to plan an Oilers weekend in Edmonton.
Edmonton is a hockey city in the way only Canadian prairie cities are: the Oilers are the civic religion, Rogers Place is the cathedral, and the current era (the McDavid years) has the building electric. The 1980s dynasty banners hang over a team that's contending again.
Winter in Edmonton is serious (-30 happens), which makes the warm, loud arena the perfect refuge. Here's the playbook.
Oilers tickets are hot; the McDavid era has the building full most nights. Weeknight games against non-rivals are the value play. The upper deck at Rogers Place has fine sightlines; the building was designed for hockey.
Photo: Håkan Dahlström from Helsingborg, Sweden · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Check the Oilers' Dayfari page for the schedule and ticket links. If you're traveling, look for a homestand; the winter schedule is dense.
Rogers Place anchors the Ice District downtown: bars, restaurants, and the plaza that fills up before games. The LRT stops right there; in an Edmonton winter, the pedway system matters.
Photo: Rob Farrow · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The crowd is the thing: knowledgeable, loud, and emotionally invested. The anthem, the goals, the overtime: Edmonton fans live every shift. After: the Ice District bars, or Whyte Avenue (the old Strathcona strip) for the late night.
Winter Edmonton leans indoor: the Art Gallery of Alberta, the Muttart Conservatory (the pyramids), West Edmonton Mall (the mall with the waterpark and the ice rink). The winter festivals (Ice on Whyte, the Silver Skate Festival) are worth timing for.
Check our Edmonton pages for what's on around your game. A Friday show, a Saturday hockey game: that's the winter Edmonton weekend.
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