I think its well known that 10,000 Takes has a bit of a Billy G fetish. Not only is the guy a quote machine, he also took time to come visit the boys at the office and shoot the shit. But for everyone just now hopping on the Bill Guerin bandwagon I’d like to say welcome.
Finding a Favorite Player
I know its cool to be a fan of someone first and remind everyone of it. Whether you find a song before all of your friends or a hot new prospect joins the local 9 and becomes your “guy”. For me, that was Billy G. At the age of 7 my family and I left Missoula, MT and moved to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. My dad, who is a giant nerd, enrolled in a Masters program at the University of Alberta. We were poor. My dad had a part-time job and my mom stayed home with 3 kids and 1 on the way. We couldn’t afford anything but still went to the West Edmonton Mall every Saturday just to walk around.One Saturday, the Oilers held practice at the indoor rink and my family went. Being from the former USSR, my dad made a point to find Andrei Kovalenko and Boris Mironov. We found Andrei behind the net, he talked with my dad for 10-15 minutes and I immediately became an Oilers fan.
Billy comes into my life
We could never afford tickets to the old Edmonton Coliseum/Rexall Place, but what we could do is listen to the radio at home. In January of 1998, the Oilers traded for my new favorite player, Bill Guerin. He was nasty. He wore “9” a goal scorers number and had 29 points in 40 games. Looking back on that squad they had some real talent. Dougie Weight and Billy G were only 26 and about to enter their prime, Ryan Smyth was 21 and about to embark on a 1200 game career. They also had one of the best goalies of all time in Curtis Joseph. They ended up losing in the second round to Dallas, Billy had 7 goals in 12 playoff games that year.My family moved that summer and Billy left Edmonton in 2000. Now 20 years later he’s back in my life and running the show like he did in Edmonton. The funniest guy out there and someone you could always root for. I hope he brings the Cup to Minnesota so that 8 year old kid back in Edmonton can finally be happy.
Funny Bill Guerin Clips
Also, RIP to a recently passed member of the 1997-98 Edmonton Oilers, Bryan Marchment. One of the toughest guys to ever play in the NHL.
29yo, 2 kids, former place kicker for the worst high school football team in Minnesota history. 2/2 xp, 0/2 field goals, led the state in total punts.