Iconic arena music after a home team win is a staple of the NHL. From the Calgary Flames playing “Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash, the Boston Bruins with “Dirty Water” by The Standells, and the Las Vegas Golden Knights with Elvis’ “Viva Las Vegas,” it’s just part of the sport’s tapestry.
The Edmonton Oilers, however, have embraced “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan, and the reason behind it has quickly become of the most closely-guarded secrets in sports.
18,000 strong belting out “PINK PONY CLUB” after an #Oilers playoff victory is something I’ll never forget
This afternoon crowd had the JUICE today pic.twitter.com/mvasW0IaCM
— Preston Hodgkinson (@NHLHodgkinson) May 26, 2025
For much of the 2024-25 season the team has been rocking “Pink Pony Club” after wins, and let’s be honest: It’s a banger. Sure, my perception of the song could be flavored by the fact my wife and daughter love belting out a duet every time we’re in the car and it makes me smile, but objectively Chappell Roan has created one of the great earworms of our generation.
The team’s love of the song is so pronounced that it led to Wayne Gretzky being introduced to the song, pondering whether or not Roan was from Canada, then saying he had to “make it my ringtone,” which is a phrase nobody has said in 20 years.
Here’s the thing though: Oilers players will not explain why they are obsessed with “Pink Pony Club,” or how it became their song. In the aforementioned examples it’s pretty easy to work out. Flames = “Ring of Fire,” The Standells are from Boston, “Viva Las Vegas” goes without saying. When it comes to the Oilers and Chappell Roan nothing makes sense about how it came to be, and nobody from the team is going to tell you.
HELP WHY ARE THEY GATEKEEPING THE ORIGIN OF THE OILERS PINK PONY CLUB TRADITION PLS I NEED TO KNOW AND THE WAY BOUCH AND FREDDY JUST LOOK AT EACH OTHER SMILING WHEN THEY’RE ASKED THIS I CAN’T pic.twitter.com/2fZxSfUrgH
— x – Shan (@shan_savvy) May 26, 2025
Even with the Oilers’ own social media team tried to get it out of Darnell Nurse he wouldn’t tell them anything.
Rumors behind the team’s love of the song vary. Some speculate that it was adopted ironically as a patently un-macho song, and now it stuck. Others believe perhaps there’s a hidden team bonding story about the players rocking out to “Pink Pony Club” at a teammate’s wedding.
It’s also entirely possible there isn’t some grand theory behind it, and players don’t want to talk about the magic of “Pink Pony Club” because they’ve become superstitious. That seems as likely as anything else at this point. If the Oilers end up winning the cup me might find out, but until then we’ll just keep on dancing.
