EDMONTON — Connor McDavid was riffing on that series-winning goal he scored in Calgary last season.
“It was a fun to be a part of that series and obviously fun to win it,” he said. “Anytime there’s an overtime goal in the playoffs, especially a series clinching one, it’s always fun.”
Then he paused.
“I shouldn’t say ‘It’s always fun.’ I’ve never really done it before,” he admitted. “But, yeah, it was definitely a goal I’ll never forget.”
We’ve always said it, the Battle of Alberta gives us moments that we just don’t get anywhere else.
From Wayne Gretzky’s all-time favourite goal, to goalie fights, to a 9-6 playoff game last spring, to McDavid actually accomplishing something he has yet to accomplish. Somehow, Edmonton versus Calgary has become hockey’s gift that keeps on giving.
The latest, that mental picture of a celebrating Oilers captain, cruising out of the Flames zone on one knee, leaving the scene of the crime in a silent Saddledome with both fists pumping like two six-shooters in an old Spaghetti Western.
It was a moment, indeed, to put into the BOA archives. For us.
For McDavid, on a personal level?
“I think it’s a little bit more than that,” said McDavid, who has returned this season as a more thoughtful, engaged quote as he grows into his role as the face of our game. “You know, you always want to be the best player in the biggest games. In the biggest moments.
“It was obviously a big moment, and to be able to score a goal like that, it meant a lot to me. You know, I’ve never really done anything like that. We’ve never been in many positions like that. So it was just exciting.
“It was new and exciting.”
It’s hard to know if any juice from that Round 2 series in late May is left to prime the first BOA of the 2022-23 season Saturday in Edmonton. In a ridiculous glitch in NHL scheduling, this visit — Game 2 of each team’s season, on Oct. 15 — marks Calgary’s only game in Edmonton the entire season, with two more tilts set for the Saddledome.
The three-game series is complete on Dec. 27 — unless the teams can meet again when it counts.
But forget about that for a moment, and savour the fact that the Flames visit Edmonton on Saturday with a chip on their shoulder that is recent, not historic. There are players on that roster who felt the sting of coming up short in one of “those moments” that McDavid referenced, and a goalie in Jacob Markstrom who was freshly fileted by the Oiler offence.
“Saturday night,” began Zach Hyman, who was a royal pain in the Flames backsides with 2-8-10 in that five-game series. “Hockey Night in Canada. Calgary- Edmonton. Toronto-Montreal. You’re on national TV — it’s an elevated stage. And it’s fun. It’s a lot of fun.”
He was talking about Saturday’s game, because NHL players really don’t like to speak rto playoff implications prior to a game ion October. It’s just not they’re wired.
“But,” he admits, “it’s added another element to it, for sure. Going into a playoff series where we had two really good teams vying for a Western Conference Final, that elevated it. The first game? Nine-six? It was crazy.”
After Saturday, the Oilers next two games are against Buffalo and Carolina. For Calgary, it’s Vegas and Buffalo.
The chances of anything memorable occurring in those games, history tells us, pales next to the chances of what could happen when the Flames and Oilers meet.
“Whenever you have two really good teams that close to each other,” said Hyman. “Two fan bases who probably have family members on both sides, or friends, there’s extra motivation to cheer as a fan. As a player you feed off that, whether you’re at home on the road.”
Gone is Matthew Tkachuk, and with him goes the turtle memes that are his legacy in this rivalry. Gone too is Zack Kassian, who was always good for a big hit — whether he was giving it or taking it.
Burt the Battle lives on, even as the participants change themselves out.
“It’s a different Battle of Alberta than it was in the ‘80s, right? It’s not quite as vicious, or violent,” ceded McDavid. “Still, there are lots of hits and scrums and chippiness… Just to see the fans kind of come together — on both sides really — it kind of brought people together. I thought that was just a great thing.”
And he heard about it, all summer long. As, no doubt, did the Flames players.
“The number of times you’re around town, or even back home (in Ontario), people always mentioned that series. It caught the attention of a lot of people,” McDavid said.
“To feel the magnitude of it all was surprising.”
