Report: Baby born inside Rogers Place during Oilers game

They say playing a high-stakes game on Hockey Night in Canada is a lot of pressure for some.

Well, what if, instead of facing one of the top teams in the NHL in a marquee matchup, you were tasked with delivering a baby, inside the arena where the game was taking place?

That apparently happened on Saturday at Rogers Place in Alberta’s provincial capital. At the beginning of the second period of a game between the Edmonton Oilers and the Vegas Golden Knights, Hockey Night in Canada rinkside reporter Scott Oake revealed that a woman was in labor high atop the ice.

“There’s a baby being born on the seventh floor of Rogers Place,” Oake said. “Someone’s going to have a great story to tell. It would be nice to have them join us on After Hours to describe what’s happened, but that would be asking too much.”

The details of the baby and its name have yet to be revealed. Though if it were a boy, and its name rhymed with honor or eon, we’d probably understand.

Unfortunately, for the presumed fan of the blue and orange, things didn’t go the home team’s way. As the person was busy trying to deliver the miracle of life, the Oilers ended up falling behind 3-0 to the Golden Knights by the halfway mark of the middle stanza. Despite defenseman Evan Bouchard’s 21st goal of the season, the Oilers were unable to bounce back from the deficit, losing 5-1, snapping the team’s five-game win streak.

This apparently isn’t the only time a baby has been born at a sporting event. In 2023, a cousin of Cleveland Browns wide receiver David Bell delivered a child inside Lucas Oil Stadium during a matchup with the Indianapolis Colts. The mother reportedly went into labor as she was arriving at the game. Eight years earlier, a baby was born inside Petco Park during a game between the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres, with the stadium’s on-staff just happening to also be a midwife.

Those kids certainly have an interesting story to tell for eternity.