» Oilers may never shake ‘Carney Curse’ as injuries mount post photo op

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Just call it the Carney Curse!

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And you better believe that will be the last time No. 24 Mark Carney will be back on the ice with the Edmonton Oilers.

While Carney, who turned 60 last Sunday, teased on X he “always knew I would make it to the show,” there’s probably just too much carnage left behind to give him another shift.

It sure looked fun while it lasted and you can’t take that special moment away from Carney, a longtime Oiler fan who clearly had a blast and was thrilled at the opportunity. However, the team’s best players are now not only not on the ice but are sitting in the training room with bags of ice nursing injuries.

After making his NHL debut in the morning skate with the Oilers prior to their Rogers Place game against the Winnipeg Jets, things went south for The Oil in that star player Leon Draisaitl didn’t dress for the game, superstar Connor McDavid was hurt int he second period and didn’t play in the third, and goalie Stuart Skinner also came out after being hurt.

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And then they lost the game in overtime!

Sure, they will say they were already all bruised up and there’s nothing to it. But optics are optics and people can also see.

“The Carney Curse is real for Edmonton. What the hell just happened?” posted former Oiler and Spittin Chiclets’ podcaster Ryan Whitney. “Guy is on the ice with the Oil this morning and now everyone is injured.”

Suddenly, what may have seemed like a smart pre-election photo op is starting to look more like a Michael Dukakis moment from the 1980s when the Democratic nominee running for president rode on a tank with his awkward-looking helmet that tanked his election bid.

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But maybe you don’t believe in these kind of superstitions.

However, If the Oilers don’t win the Stanley Cup this year because of these injuries, they and Carney may never live this down. And if Carney doesn’t win the election, then maybe March 20, 2025 will be the day they refer back to as the beginning of the curse.

“Karma has such a great sense of humour,” Nobody’s Handmaid posted to X. “The Edmonton Oilers lost their next game, including sustaining injuries which have sidelined McD and Skinner, right after the team pandered to Carney. A warning for what will happen to Canada is we elect him.”

Certainly, it’s clear Carney has, and will use, the clout to fulfil his dreams while others struggle to pay their bills. Interesting that as Carney — the one-time goalie who played five minutes of a game for Harvard in his youth — was skating with the team, MP Chandra Arya was being cut from the Liberal team.

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“I have been informed by the Liberal Party that my nomination as the candidate for the upcoming federal election in Nepean has been revoked,” Chandra, an MP since 2015 and a disqualified leadership candidate against Carney, posted to X.

Carney, it seems, has cooler friends to hang out with now — fat-cat rich hockey players from the same elite status the former Brookfield chair, Bank of England, Bank of Canada and WEF leader who was installed as Canada’s 24th prime minister comes from.

Oilers fans are sure hoping he didn’t end up jinxing them now.

Time will tell how his political fortunes will turn out.

As he reportedly gets set to call an election Sunday, polls show Carney either tied or even in the lead over Conservative Pierre Poilievre, which is a big jump from when former prime minister Justin Trudeau was in charge of the Liberal Party.

But political ground can be quicksand.

The first clue that this quasi make-a-wish-come-true opportunity for an unelected prime minister was sinking came when Carney went in with the puck toward the goal, shot but missed the empty net by three feet.

Oops.

Talk about Net Zero for the Climate Carney, who may end up being known for bringing on the Curse of Carney.

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