'It's very special to me': Oilers superfan shows off collection of a lifetime
Edmonton Oilers superfan Tina Duncan is an avid collector of the team's memorabilia who has transformed her basement into a fan's paradise.
Duncan's love of the game started young; since she was three years old she's been cheering for the Oilers.
"My family were hockey fans, my parents grew up in Montreal, but when they moved out west and had my brothers and I, we all just adopted the Oilers," Duncan said.
She started playing street hockey with her brothers as a kid, having to take on the role of goalie. Since then, she's come to love that position and played on teams.
"My brother told my dad that he should put me in a league and at the time there wasn't any girls teams, so I played community league," Duncan said. "When I was older, they didn't allow girls to play, so I went into ski racing…when I was 21, I got back into hockey and I played on a women's team in Jasper and just loved it.
"I play the occasional beer league game now."
She's been collecting memorabilia since high school, her first piece being a crested Roman Hamrlík jersey.
"I just liked the style of play and I met him and he was such a super nice guy and I said, 'You know what? Nobody has a Hamrlík jersey,'" Duncan said.
Her basement fan cave now contains many special pieces, including seats from Northlands Coliseum and a rather unique carpet.
"When I moved in here the carpet was really ratty and pulling up and stained and I just thought well, 'I want Oiler carpet,' but where am I going to go to get it," Duncan said. "So I contacted a few carpet stores and End of the Roll carpet superstore said, 'Oh, well we're the official outfitters of Rogers place, we can get you the same carpet that's in the Oilers locker room,' and I thought, 'Sign me up.'
"The general manager came over, we spent about an hour and a half just brainstorming, this is my own idea, it's copyrighted, nobody can steal it and we made it happen."
Some of her favourite pieces are from Gretzky, McDavid and Khabibulin. Khabibulin, who was a Winnipeg Jet when she became a fan, was the player she pretended to be while playing street hockey with her brothers.
"I won a craziest fan contest in 2012, and I got to meet an Oiler of my choice… I wanted to meet Khabibulin," Duncan said. "The Oilers organizer said, 'Well, he's very superstitious, he doesn't like to do meet and greets, so pick a backup player just in case he says no.'
"She told him how big of a fan I was, so he agreed to do it, he came out and he signed my jersey."
She also got a stick from Khabibulin at that meet and greet and a glove from him at the next game.
"Move aside McDavid, I'm here for the goalies," Duncan laughed.
Duncan is also a billet mom for two players: one is an Oilers fan who loves the setup and the other is a Flames fan.
"When I first saw the basement, I really thought that it was incredible to see how much (Oilers stuff) you can actually buy," said Hudson Enns, a Canadian Sport School Hockey League player.
The Oilers play Game 5 in their playoff series against the Los Angeles Kings Wednesday at 7 p.m. Edmonton leads the series 3-1.
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Matt Woodman
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Guilty: Trump becomes first former U.S. president convicted of felony crimes
Donald Trump became the first former American president to be convicted of felony crimes Thursday as a New York jury found him guilty of all 34 charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn actor who said the two had sex.
Can Trump come to Canada now that he's a convicted felon?
A Canadian immigration lawyer says now that Donald Trump is a convicted felon, he is technically barred from crossing the border into Canada.
Montreal tech billionaire charged with several sex offences
Robert Miller was charged Thursday with several sexual assault charges after Montreal police reopened an investigation into the tech billionaire.
Police: 3 killed, including suspected gunman, in Minneapolis shooting
Three people, including the suspected gunman, are dead after a shooting Thursday at a Minneapolis apartment complex, police said.
'Why didn't they stop?' Mom asks of driver in hit-and-run crash that killed son
The mother of a 13-year-old boy who was killed in a hit-and-run in Edmonton is begging the driver to come forward.
The northern lights are returning to night skies across Canada this Friday
If you missed the brilliant displays of the aurora borealis over North America on May 10, you may have another chance to see them on Friday night.
A pair enjoyed pricey meals and bolted when it was time to pay. Their dine and dash ended in jail
A Welsh couple who dined out on pricey meals and bolted when the bill came is now paying the price, behind bars.
$400K in damages for B.C. woman who had unnecessary mastectomy was 'inordinately high,' court finds
A jury's award of $400,000 to a woman who had a mastectomy after being misdiagnosed with breast cancer has been substantially reduced by B.C.'s highest court, which found the damages were "wholly disproportionate."