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Heading into the final games of the National Hockey League regular season the Edmonton Oilers were on the brink of not making the 2006 playoffs. With some amazing late season wins the Oilers secured the 8^th and final spot in the western conference. Although the Oilers finally made the playoffs they couldn’t sit back and celebrate their accomplishment. Being 8^th place the Oilers were forced to play the 1^st place Detroit Red Wings. This past season the Red Wings clinched first in the entire league and were heavy favorites to win the Stanley Cup. To win 1 round of the playoffs you must win 4 games, to win the Stanley Cup you need 16. Going into their first game against Detroit everybody thought that Detroit was going to walk all over them, but Edmonton proved everybody wrong. Going into the 3^rd period of that first game the Oilers were in the lead 2-1, but a late goal by Kirk Maltby sent the game to overtime. In the second period of OT, the Red Wings scored. Although the Red Wings won the game, it was very close. The Oilers came back to win the next two game. Edmonton finished the series in game 6, beating Detroit 4 games to 2. At this point the city of Edmonton knew that they had something special happening. Excited fans took to a historical street called Whyte Avenue to party. These early playoff parties were crazy but that was only the beginning.Last Stanley Cup Playoffs the Calgary Flames, Alberta other team made it all the way to the finals, like the Oilers. Calgary had a street named “The Red Mile�?, which was a party place for fans. Edmonton fans that year jumped on the bandwagon and cheered on their rivals, but you could see that the Oiler fans were somewhat jealous of their rival’s accomplishments. Now that the Oilers are winning, their fans have something to cheer about, and rightfully so.After beating the 1^st place Detroit, Edmonton had the San Jose Sharks to worry about. San Jose was also heavily favored and would have been higher in the standings, but they traded for one of the best player in the league late in the year, Joe Thornton. With that addition the Sharks were deadly, but Sharks do die in Oil. After two impressive wins by the Sharks, the Oilers battled back to win four straight and take the series. The Whyte Avenue parties escalated. There were stabbing and people were wrecking private properties.Next up was Anaheim, who not only had a red hot goalie, but some snipers in Teemu Selanne and Joffrey Lupul. Edmonton sneaked three straight wins, but could not pull the sweep in the fourth game at home. It took one more game, and in the 5^th game of the series, the Oilers beat the Ducks to advance to the Stanley Cup finals. The last time the Oilers had been to the finals was in 1990. The party got so out of hand on Whyte Avenue that night that the riot patrol was called in, with no success. People were climbing power line, store signs, and just about anything else somewhat climbable. They lit fires on the road, broke windows. This party was going just a little too far for a hockey celebration. We still have one more series left. What will happen?Tags: edmonton, oilers, hockey, playoffs, sanjose, sharks, ducks, anaheim, nhl, stanley, cup