Hamilton arena ice used in national hometown campaign to boost Oilers in Cup bid

Ice from an arena in Hamilton is being used in a national campaign by Rogers Communications to bring good luck to the Edmonton Oilers in their Stanley Cup bid.

Rogers arranged to collect ice from hometown rinks of six Oilers hockey players and combine it with the NHL ice surface in Edmonton ahead of Game 1, connecting the players’ hometown roots to their Stanley Cup dreams.

The campaign called ‘This is Our Ice’ took inspiration from the company’s ‘This is Our Game’ campaign during the NHL playoffs and February’s international 4 Nations Face-Off tournament.

Rogers worked with staff at each hometown rink to scrape ice into thermos-style containers.

Waterdown’s Harry Howell Twin-Pad Arena was scraped on May 31 to pay tribute to Oilers’ defenceman Darnell Nurse who started playing hockey at age four at Hamilton’s Lawfield Arena, which is closed for the season.

“The entire city is rooting for Darnell,” said Jeff Toole, director of hockey operations at Hamilton Steel Hockey Club.

Toole used to coach Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse who is from Hamilton. He even taught Nurse when he was a student at St. Thomas More.

So when the school needed new jerseys, Coach Toole reached out to his former student who jumped at the chance to give back.

“Within ten minutes of my text, Darnell had called me back and was more concerned simply of how I was doing and that of course he was going to buy the jerseys for us,” said Toole.

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The ice collected from Hamilton happens to be Waterdown native and Florida Panther forward Carter Verhaeghe’s home ice – Darnell’s opponent in the Stanley Cup Final.

The ice scraped from the rink at the Harry Howell Arena will eventually travel to Edmonton, be put on the ice to give Darnell Nurse a little edge, and maybe the Edmonton Oilers as well.

But Carter Verhaeghe brought the Stanley Cup to Waterdown last year, so let’s see who actually gets the good luck.

Since ice at Darnell’s home rink was already removed, scraping ice from Harry Howell Arena was thought to be the next best thing.

After 43 years in the ice surfacing business, Jim Brush, Hamilton manager of arena operations, knows what it means to have true home-ice advantage.

“I don’t think Carter needs an edge at all. They’re all there to play. I’m sure Carter wants the cup back here,” said Brush.

Brush says the city of Hamilton has the advantage because no matter who hoists lord Stanley’s chalice, it will be coming home to our city.

Ice was also collected from rinks in Newmarket (Connor McDavid), Burnaby, B.C. (Ryan Nugent-Hopkins) and Edmonton (Stuart Skinner), and a few more locations across the country.

Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals between the Edmonton Oilers and last year’s winners, the Florida Panthers, kicks off on Wednesday at 8 p.m.

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