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They called it the 'Double Double'.
Two sets of Stanley Cups, back-to-back.
That was the goal heading into the 1987-88 season with the first of what would be a long list of Oiler defectors, Andy Moog and Paul Coffey, gone.
This time, in the Stanley Cup final, it was the Boston Bruins.
They were selling shirts on the way into Boston Garden for Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final against the New Jersey Devils with the slogan 'Stanley's Back And He's Wearing Black.'
When it was over the Gallery Gods and the rest of the inhabitants of the old building poured onto Causeway Street and began the chant: "Edmonton! Edmonton! Edmonton!"
In one corner of the Bruins dressing room was Moog. In another was Ken Linseman, who had won two Cups in Edmonton.
"I've been experiencing all sorts of weird emotions," said Linseman.
"You know the way I play. I'm real aggressive. And they're real good friends. It's going to be real weird."
It was Moog against his old stablemate Grant Fuhr. Andy was dandy in Game 1 in Edmonton but Fuhr was better and the Oilers won 1-0.
Wayne Gretzky set up both Mark Messier and Glenn Anderson for goals then fired the winner himself as the Oilers won 4-2 and sent the series back to Boston with Edmonton up two games to none.
Historically, the Boston Garden had always been the Oilers' least favourite place to play. Two wins. Ten losses. Two ties.
"If the Oilers ever had the team to beat the building, this is it," said coach Glen Sather. "This is the one."
They beat the building and the Bruins 6-3 and Gretzky had his best-ever game in the place with four assists - but Esa Tikkanen hogged the headlines with a hat-trick.
"I don't think there's ever been an Oiler team that's played better as a team," said co-coach John Muckler.
The Oilers couldn't beat the building in Game 4. It was the night of May 24 and it was, as the Edmonton Sun headline read the next morning: "The Game That Never Was."
It was the night the lights were supposed to go out on the Boston Bruins but instead went down in history as the night the lights went out on the Stanley Cup.
A power failure left the Boston Garden in the black. Left in the dark with the teams tied 3-3, the league reached into the Dark Ages to find a rule to apply to the situation and declared the series would shift to Edmonton for Game 5 with a non-result in Game 4.
"We'll get a couple hundred grand out of it - enough to pay for the Stanley Cup rings," said owner Peter Pocklington.
The Oilers would get a chance to sweep the Bruins with the unfair advantage of playing three of the four games at home.
The non-game had five fog delays before the lights went out with 23 minutes and 23 seconds remaining.
"Edmonton goal by ..." were the final words out of the mouth of PA announcer Joe Pearmutter as he tried to announce the Craig Simpson goal which had tied the game.
'IT'S AN OUT(R)AGE,' screamed the front page headline in the Boston Herald.
'GARDEN FANS POWERLESS' was another in Boston.
'LEFT IN THE DARK' was yet another.
Back in Edmonton, it was a 6-3 win.
Then-Edmonton Sun hockey writer Dick Chubey had the best line. "In an unprecedented 4.67-game sweep ..."
The Oilers had won 16 and lost two in the playoffs. And thanks to the Boston Garden scenario, Edmonton went 11-0 at home.
The Oilers had found a new way to win the Stanley Cup. And after they carried it, they found a new way to celebrate it.
The highlight of the night was an on-ice picture with the entire team and the Stanley Cup. The scene has been repeated by every Stanley Cup winner since.
"The picture made it perfect," said Sather. "It was done for everybody, the players and the people who have been behind this team for so long. They were all part of the picture. Nobody has ever done something like this before. It was a great idea. It was Wayne's idea."
It would be Wayne Gretzky's last game as an Edmonton Oiler.