Nothing brings people together quite like the love of hockey and that couldn’t be truer for Gabriel Candido, a Brazilian man who might just be the country’s biggest Edmonton Oilers fan.
“It’s hard to find someone in Brazil who likes ice hockey,” Candido said in an interview with Global News via Zoom from his home in Curitiba, Brazil.
“We are few, but there are other fans in such a tropical place as Brazil.”
From a soccer-obsessed nation, Candido’s passion for hockey is rare, and it doesn’t come from the typical family upbringing like many Canadians. It stems from a TV show.
Years ago, Candido was watching an episode of Everybody Hates Chris, an American sitcom created by Chris Rock and Ali LeRoi.
In the episode, the young hockey-loving character Drew gets a present from his dad – a hockey jersey. But the dad buys the jersey from a guy in the neighbourhood who sells knock-off items. Instead of a No. 99 Gretzky jersey, Drew is gifted a “Gritzky” jersey with the No. 98 on the back.
“This episode is so, so famous here in Brazil,” Candido said. “That’s one of the reasons that I became an Oilers fan.”
Candido now has his own “Gritzky” jersey.
A pre-teen at the time, Candido said his love for the game grew even more when his buddy invited him over to play what he thought was an NFL video game. The video game turned out to be an NHL game.
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“When I played the NHL game I was like, ‘This is awesome. It’s so great that they are skating on ice, trying to score goals… there are fights. That’s so awesome. I want to know more.’
“The only thing I could recognize amongst all of it was the Oilers because of the Everybody Hates Chris episode.”
Candido started doing his research. From there, he learned all about the 1980s Oilers dynasty.
“When I saw Gretzky, Jari Kurri, Mark Messier, Grant Fuhr, the dynasty of the ‘80s, I was like, ‘that’s a great team.’”
Alas, his love of hockey – and specifically the Oilers – was born.
Candido, like many other Oilers fans, “suffered a lot” through “the decade of darkness.” From Brazil, he watched as the team started to rebuild, drafting players like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Connor McDavid.
He vividly recalls being 12 years old and watching Sam Gagner score eight points in the February 2012 game against the Chicago Blackhawks.
Now, Candido is active on social media and heads up a WhatsApp group of Oilers fans from across Brazil. He also uses the platforms to try to reach new hockey fans.
“I love talking about the team all the time.”
Where Candido lives is three hours ahead of Edmonton, meaning some of the playoff games in the first and second rounds didn’t start until after 11:30 p.m. But he still hasn’t missed a match.
“When I went to bed it was 2, 3 a.m. And at 7 a.m. I have to be awake,” he said.
“The Dallas Stars series, the Western Conference series, it starts earlier. So for us, it will start around 9 p.m. which is perfect. I think it’s better than starting at 6 p.m. which is the time it’s starting in Edmonton.”
As he continues to cheer on his team from afar, Candido hopes for nothing more than to come to Edmonton one day to see the Oilers play on home ice.
“I really want to see Connor McDavid, Draisaitl, Hyman, Rogers Place one day. It’s my top tier destination right now,” Candido said.
“I really want to go when it’s winter because I’ve never seen -40 C, -30 C,” he added with a laugh, noting it was more than 20 C in Curitiba.
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