#also i don't mean to make light of calgary's state of emergency

[battle-of-alberta]

ok so this only took me All Day to put together for reasons but here we are, shaving the beard :' )

(and where's edith? don't worry, I have an answer...)

this was partially inspired by true events (the kids cheering, although the flag belongs to a neighbour), and some very thoughtful commentary from @fragmentaryremains on this post (thank you!!)

but also, after drawing it, I realized what it was really about.

I make a big deal about not watching hockey to the point that I was about to claim I hadn't watched a single game this season. It wasn't true, the only game that I watched was at dinner after my grandma's funeral back in April. (It was against Colorado, we all took shifts getting up from our seats to go check on the game through the evening, and we won. It was probably one of the biggest family gatherings we'd had in years. She would have been so proud.)

My grandma worked in a doughnut shop downtown that was popular with the Oilers during their heyday in the '80s. She had just about everyone's autograph and had a story or two of the Great One coming in so drunk. I don't share a whole lot of the weird online stuff I do with my family, but she had more of an influence on my silly characterizations of Ed than she'd ever know.

I feel so sad that she didn't get to see last nights game, even though we lost. But even though my immediate family is currently spread across a crazy amount of timezones, somehow we all turned up in the group chat for as many games as we could and it's like, more than we've really been in something together in such a long time. It was nice. And seeing all the people around my age with their kids all kitted out reminded me of when I was growing up in the years when we didn't know it was going to be a long drought between us and the finals, it was nice to see.

So this one's for you, grandma. <3