From golden years to decades of darkness, Oilers history has become Edmonton's story

The storied history of the Edmonton Oilers has made it impossible to separate the team from the city, which once dubbed itself City of Champions, that it calls home.

Now, for the first time in 18 years, the Edmonton Oilers are back in the Stanley Cup final, giving the city and its legion of Oiler fans a chance to revel in the full glory of playoff hockey, after getting mere tastes of it during short-lived appearances in recent years.  

The team's run against the Florida Panthers is bringing back memories, both of the Oilers dynasty years and its periods of darkness.

The Alberta Oilers debuted in the World Hockey Association in 1972, one of a dozen teams that included the New England Whalers, Los Angeles Sharks, Winnipeg Jets and Quebec Nordiques. In 1979, the WHA folded and the renamed Edmonton Oilers joined the National Hockey League.

One of the players on the new Edmonton team was Wayne Gretzky, a 19-year-old who had been playing for the WHA because he was too young for the NHL, which had a minimum age of 20.

"From that point on, the rest is history," said Zach Laing, from Oilers Nation, an Edmonton Oilers-focused group blog. 

"Glenn Anderson, Jari Kurri and Mark Messier and a number of other players were all drafted by the team ... and it took them a couple of years before they really kind of found their stride," Laing said. 

But find it, they did.

In 1984, the Oilers would win their first Stanley Cup. And grounded by that core group of Gretzky, Messier, Anderson and Kurri, the team took home the Cup again in 1985, 1987 and 1988. 

"It was a time in hockey when there was a lot of scoring going on, and so they played a very fast-paced, high offence kind of game," said Laing. 

"They had the ability to lock things down defensively as well," he said. "With Grant Fuhr in the net … that was a big reason why they were able to win so much." 

By that point, even non-hockey fans knew about the phenomenally talented Gretzky. The combination of his reputation and the multiple championships had an impact on Edmonton as a city, Laing said.

"It really put Edmonton on the map as a premium destination in the NHL. You think of dynasties in the NHL, and it's truly few and far between." 

Laing said other dynasty teams include the New York Islanders, who won the Stanley Cup four years in a row from 1979 to 1983, and the Montreal Canadiens, who have won the Stanley Cup an impressive 24 times and were the last Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup in 1993.