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Photo by Adam Hunger / AP

I am not cheering for Taylor Hall. Why would I? I am an Edmonton Oilers fan, not a New Jersey Devils fan.

This isn’t personal against Hall. I have taken this same stance with all-star players who have left Edmonton, everyone from Mark Messier and Curtis Joseph to Chris Pronger and Ryan Smyth.

Wayne Gretzky was my favourite player by far but I rooted against him every single day he was an L.A. King.

Of course, the Gretzky trade had its own villain in Peter Pocklington. The former Oilers owner moved the greatest player in the game mainly for cash. At the time, I had no trouble still rooting for the Oilers, but I wished Pocklington would get as far away from the team as possible. In that way I get it that modern-day fans can still love the Oilers with a fierce passion yet dislike Chiarelli for the Hall trade and want to see him fired.

I can even get why they still adore Hall, as he didn’t want to leave town and he was a brilliant attacker for the Oilers.

In some ways, it’s more difficult to grasp why I’d root against a Gretzky or a Hall when they were no longer Oilers. Again, they were still great players and they hadn’t asked to be moved.

So why not root for them? Because it would feel disloyal to the Oil.

Now I want to stress this isn’t me suggesting that Oilers fans who root for Hall are traitors. Yes, I find it immensely annoying when they fill Twitter with their hurrahs and whoops whenever Hall scores, but I fully accept that an Oilers fan can both root for Hall and still be an Oilers fan.