{"id":890492,"date":"2026-09-10T12:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T12:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/890492\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T12:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T12:50:10","slug":"edmonton-oilers-lose-support-of-superfan-mama-stanley-after-formenton-signing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/890492\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton Oilers lose support of superfan \u2018Mama Stanley\u2019 after Formenton signing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Oilers fans cheers as they watch the Edmonton Oilers score a goal against the Florida Panthers during a watch party for Game 5 of the NHL Stanley Cup final, in Edmonton, June, 2024.JASON FRANSON\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The Edmonton Oilers announcement to sign a former Team Canada junior player<\/a> acquitted of sexual assault last year has come as a massive bodycheck to one longtime superfan.<\/p>\n

Mary Loewen \u2013 affectionately known among Oilers fans as \u201cMama Stanley\u201d for dressing as a sequined Stanley Cup during the playoffs \u2013 took to social media to say she\u2019d no longer support the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am deeply disappointed by the Edmonton Oilers\u2019 decision to sign Alex Formenton,\u201d Loewen\u2019s post Wednesday says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough he was acquitted in court, I cannot ignore my conscience or what this decision represents to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loewen did not immediately respond to a request for an interview.<\/p>\n

The NHL team announced earlier Wednesday it had signed Formenton to a one-year contract worth US$850,000. He was one of five players from Canada\u2019s 2018 world junior team accused of sexual assault.<\/p>\n

The charges stemmed from an encounter with a woman after a Hockey Canada gala in London, Ont. The NHL later reinstated all five players after charges were dropped.<\/p>\n

Edmonton Oilers sign 2018 world junior player Alex Formenton to one-year deal<\/a><\/p>\n

After the signing, Formenton said he was grateful to join the team after what he called a \u201cdifficult road.\u201d<\/p>\n

A longtime hockey fan, Loewen caught Oiler fever during the team\u2019s heyday in the mid-1980s, when the team won its first of five Stanley Cups.<\/p>\n

In recent years, she developed the Mama Stanley persona and has been a regular fixture at Oilers games, with other team diehards posing for pictures with her.<\/p>\n

Some of her fans live as far away as Germany and Australia.<\/p>\n

Loewen\u2019s post Wednesday says her decision to no longer support the Oilers isn\u2019t tied to the team\u2019s already-signed players, but to management\u2019s decision to bring on Formenton.<\/p>\n

She says she feels betrayed and that she\u2019s lost a team she\u2019s supported for most of her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a sexual assault survivor, I must stand by my morals and stand with the woman at the centre of this case,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor that reason, as long as Formenton remains an Oiler, I CANNOT AND WILL NOT support or cheer for this team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Oilers were eliminated from the first round of last season\u2019s Stanley Cup playoffs after a 5-2 Game 6 loss to the Anaheim Ducks. The team fell in the final in both 2024 and 2025 to the Florida Panthers.<\/p>\n

Loewen\u2019s post did not state whether she\u2019d back another team. She ended her post by saying she was still \u201cMama Stanley.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMama Stanley belongs to ME \u2013 not the Edmonton Oilers organization,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe represents BELIEVE, kindness, children, survivors and community. I will not abandon her or EVER compromise her values.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Oilers fans cheers as they watch the Edmonton Oilers score a goal against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":890493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,23752,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-890492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-edmonton","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}