Oilers fans were pretty pumped up about return of playoff hockey (Video)

Given the painful, embarrassing, 11-year drought Oilers fans had to endure, you knew Rogers Place was going to be ready to erupt when playoff hockey returned to Edmonton Wednesday night.

And what a scene it was.

[Follow Puck Daddy on social media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Tumblr]

Here’s what it sounded like when the Oilers took the ice for Game 1 against the Sharks.

And then came the Canadian anthem, which was a sight to behold. There’s noting quite like hearing thousands of buzzed hockey fans belt out O Canada, but it’s even better when you set up the singer in the middle of the crowd. Milan Lucic’s face says it all.

And how about the sea of orange at Rogers Place? While there was a lot of consternation over the Oilers’ decision to ditch their blue sweaters for their orange thirds beginning in the playoffs, the home crowd sure jumped on board with the whole #OrangeCrush thing pretty quickly.

The pregame buzz is nice and all, but all that energy can disappear in a hurry if things go south. That wasn’t the case early on in Game 1. Oscar Klefbom whipped the fans further into a frenzy when he opened the scoring seven minutes into the first period.

Lucic kept the good times rolling when he gave the Oilers a 2-0 lead late in the first.

The one downfall of all the beer-fuelled excitement were the insanely long bathroom lines.

It’s a good thing Oilers fans got their fun in early, because there wasn’t much to cheer about after the first 20 minutes.

[Join a Yahoo Daily Fantasy Hockey contest now]

San Jose dominated play the rest of the way thanks in part to some sloppy play from the Oilers, who couldn’t stay out of the box. The Sharks, who outshot the Oilers 34-9 after the first, tied things up early in the third to force OT before Melker Karlsson iced it with a perfectly placed wrister three minutes into the extra frame.

At least one fan will go home happy.