Lincoln Inglis and his father Bruce will be at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Friday night cheering on the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup final. (Rick Conrad)

As the Edmonton Oilers try to extend the Stanley Cup final to seven games on Friday night, a small but committed group from Liverpool will be in the stands cheering them on.

Bruce Inglis, his son Lincoln and three friends will be at Rogers Place in Edmonton for Game 6 as the Oilers try to tie their series with the Florida Panthers.

“This year, people kept asking me, ‘Are you and Lincoln going to a game from the start of the playoffs?’ And I said, ‘No we’re saving ourselves for the finals,’ which actually came to pass this time for the first time in 18 years.”

Bruce, who works as a financial planner in Liverpool, says he’s been an Oilers fan since he was 10 years old – when they upset the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the 1981 NHL playoffs.

His team has won five Stanley Cups, beginning in 1984 during the Gretzky-Messier glory years. But it’s been 34 years since the Oilers last won the cup. And Inglis told his wife that he had to be there to see it.

“I had said many years ago to Melanie that if the Oilers were ever to win another Stanley Cup I was going to be in the building when they win it. So that’s our goal this year.”

The father and son were in the crowd at the Panthers’ rink in Sunrise, Florida, when the Oilers won Game 5. And if the Oilers win on Friday night, they plan to be back in Florida for Game 7. 

“We were in the very back row in Florida at the very top, but it was actually a great place to watch from. The view was fantastic.

“It was unreal. There was lots of energy of course, especially at the start of the game. The Florida folks were hoping to see the Stanley Cup brought out on the ice. So there was a lot of energy in the rink. … At the end of the game there were some pretty good Oilers chants as well. There were probably 2,000 Oilers fans in the rink. Lots of great energy, great food, it was a fun night.”

Lincoln, who’s 22 and is a masters student at Western University in London, Ont., says the playoff run has been pretty special.

“It’s very surreal because it’s the first time I can remember them being in the finals. Even just being in the away rink, the energy was pretty high. So I’m really looking forward to going to Edmonton because it’s going to be insane.”

Bruce says he made sure to pass on his love of the Oilers to Lincoln and his sister Lauren early on.

“When the kids turned 10, I took them each to an Oilers game because you want to make sure your kids get a proper education. Lincoln and I went to a playoff game in 2017 that they lost and then in 2022 and 2023 we saw a game in each versus Los Angeles. So we got to see them win those ones. So they’re on a hot streak with us in the crowd now. We have to hope that continues.”

Lincoln says it’s a chance he couldn’t pass up.

“You can’t not see the Oilers hoist a Stanley Cup. It’s one of those things that hasn’t happened in 34 years, so you don’t want to miss that kind of opportunity.”

Bruce says he loves sharing this Stanley Cup experience with Lincoln.

“It’s fantastic. It’s pretty neat. Lauren and I do concerts. That’s our thing together. But for hockey, it is neat when you grew up liking something and your son adopts that and ends up liking it as much as you do. But we have a lot of laughs when we go on these little trips and there are memories that you’ll always have.”

And they’re also happy to bring friends along, like Claudine MacDiarmid, her son Teed and Inglis family friend Rauri Whynot.

“It’s the small town hits the big city for a Friday night. It’s going to be a lot of fun. And for me to be going, especially to have three younger guys, … to see that experience for those guys, because if you’ve watched on TV, you’ve seen how loud Rogers Place in Edmonton is. It’s quite phenomenal.”

They’ll be wearing their Oilers jerseys on Friday night — Kelly Buchberger’s No. 16 for Bruce and Mattias Ekholm’s No. 14 for Lincoln.

“My jersey’s on a lucky streak right now,” Bruce says, “and so I think if I didn’t wear it, it could be bad news.”

So, do the Inglises have any predictions for Game 6?

“We expect an Oilers win,” Lincoln says.

“I really hope we see them win,” says Bruce. “If we don’t, the five of us will see a Stanley Cup awarded. And that’s a pretty neat and privileged thing to do.”

And if the Oilers tie it up on Friday night, father and son will be booking last-minute flights back to Florida for Game 7 on Monday.

“This is our favorite pastime,” Bruce says. “Some people have boats and some people go on parties but we’ll be a while paying this one off, Lincoln and I, but again (we) realize it’s a pretty special occurrence if it happens and who knows if we’ll ever see that again?”

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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Abigail Smith, 16, of Brooklyn, stands with her coach Jason Scott, displaying one of the two bronze medals she won at the Elite National Championships in Edmonton on Jan. 13 and 14. (Photo via Abigail Smith)

By Rick Conrad

Abigail Smith credits a lot of people for her success so far and so young in national and international judo meets. 

Her parents, her coaches, her teammates, her teachers. 

But what really gets her into a competitive frame of mind is some good ol’ country music. 

“A lot of people like to listen to pump-up music before a fight, but I like to listen to my country music to keep my calm and not thinking about judo before I do judo. That helps me to not think about what I have to do and then do it.”

So far, listening to the likes of Sam Barber and Luke Combs has helped keep the 16-year-old Brooklyn resident on the straight and narrow.

She won two bronze medals at a national judo meet in Edmonton last weekend, just before her 16th birthday. And in November, she captured silver and bronze at the Pan American Cup in Montreal, her first international competition. 

The medals at the Elite National Judo Championships in Edmonton were especially sweet, she says, because it featured the top judo athletes from across the country. 

“This is the biggest event in Canada. It’s a lot of work to get selected. So this year this was my favourite medal. Of course, I’m never happy with a bronze medal but this medal meant something to me so I was very happy with that. It means a lot.”

In Edmonton, she had her sights set on beating a rival judoka she hadn’t defeated yet. When they met in the U-18 division on Saturday, Smith lost to her. But on Sunday, in the senior division, Smith came back with a vengeance.

“She was my first fight and I had a very hard fight but I beat her, so winning that bronze medal meant a lot to me because I had been training specifically to beat that one person. So it was a big moment, we’d been working a while for that, me and my coach.”

Smith has been working at judo for 11 years. Based at Nova United Martial Arts in Halifax, she trains three to four days a week for up to two hours each session. That’s in addition to regular cardio and strength workouts. 

She said her father Troy Smith first got her interested in the sport.

“My first coach worked with my dad and my dad was like, ‘I have a crazy daughter at home that needs to get some energy out,’ and he brought me to judo with his co-workers.”

Smith, who is in Grade 10 at Liverpool Regional High School, hasn’t looked back. She is ranked in the Judo Canada Top 10 in the U-18 division. Sport Nova Scotia has chosen her to be one of 12 Nova Scotia True Sport Athlete Ambassadors for 2024. True Sport emphasizes fair, inclusive and safe play. 

She’ll be travelling to Denmark in early February to compete in the Danish Open.

And she just found out that she was selected to be part of Team Canada at the International Thuringia Cup Judo in Germany on March 23.

Competing nationally and internationally does cut into her school work, Smith says, but her teachers have been very supportive.

“I’m able to do what I’m doing, missing a lot of school because the teachers are very understanding and help me with my work to help me catch back up. So it’s nice to have teachers supporting me.”

She also credits the community support she’s received from the Region of Queens, Folk Law, Main and Mersey, Best Western Plus Liverpool and Sport Nova Scotia, as well as her coach Jason Scott and her teammates.

“People think judo is an individual sport and it is an individual sport, but it’s a huge team sport because you can’t get anywhere without your team, your training partners,” she says. “And having a good team you can rely on in sport and outside of sport is really important and that’s what’s helped me get so far in judo.”

She says she’s learned a lot of valuable lessons from the sport.

“That what you put in comes out. Whatever you want, it can happen. But you just have to put in that work and that extra effort and if you don’t, you’re not going to see the results you want, but if you do, then you’ll see results. And to be patient.”

With that frame of mind, she says she’s on track for her next big goal.

“I always say that I will be competing at Olympics and representing Canada at worlds one day so what I want to happen, I always say is going to happen. So hopefully, it will happen one day, Team Canada and the Olympics hopefully. We’re on track for that now.”

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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