Ryan and I pulled up our boot-straps and stood at the back of Rexall Place last night with standing-room tix to the Oilers versus Canucks match up, our little white-painted floor-squares not nearly as good as seats, but definitely much better than any television screen. What surprised me was the disproportionately large number of Vancouver fans peppering the arena. No, not that I’m surprised that folks (local or visiting) would cheer for the Canucks. Heck, I remember sitting near the back of GM Place a couple years ago waving a (free as in beer) white towel as the Nucks were crushed to the Flames steamrolling parade to just-missing the last pre-strike cup. I suppose I was surprised that there were either (a) so many local fans or (b) enough folks willing to troop to Edmonton for a regular season game. Either way, we rightly chose the locals, I only slightly torn at my former allegiance to my temporarily adoptive city, and felt only a few gentle twangs of pity at the numerically-only outnumbered Vancouverites who displayed their colours with vicious pride and paid the price in both good-humored verbal abuse and ultimate game-play humiliation. Next time, though, we’re getting real seats. I’m too old to stand for three and a half hours.