Between belting Shania Twain, heckling Sergei Bobrovsky and cheering the roof off for eight goals, the 18,347 Edmonton Oilers fans made quite the ruckus at Rogers Place on Saturday.
That comes with the territory during a Stanley Cup final, especially during such a convincing victory when facing elimination.
“I can’t even hear anyone because it’s so loud,” one fan told CityNews after the game.
“You could feel the vibration of the seats,” said another.
“It was probably the best hockey experience I’ve ever had of my life,” added a third.
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The volume inside Rogers Place touched 112 decibels before the puck was even dropped. That’s equivalent to standing right next to an ambulance siren.
Those types of sound levels can begin to pose a threat to a person’s ability to hear if subjected to prolonged exposure, says hearing specialist Larena Lewchuk.
“Eighty-five decibels for eight hours is OK. But for every three decibels you go up, your number of safe hours gets cut in half,” said Lewchuk, an audiologist at the Audiology Clinic of Northern Alberta.
On the ice, Edmonton Oilers players credited the fans for giving them energy.
“They were phenomenal,” Zach Hyman said after the game. “I’m sure as an opposing team, it’s not a fun place to play.”
While hockey crowds tend to be at the loudest for short periods of time, Lewchuk believes spectators should consider some form of hearing protection, especially if they have been following since the beginning of the playoffs.
“Any time our ears are ringing, any time were have to turn up the volume a little bit following an exposure, we’ve done hopefully temporary, possibly permanent damage,” she said. “And it’s a warning sign from our body saying don’t do that again.”
