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Remember when an Oilers-Flames game used to mean something?
It’s a showdown that is supposed to stop traffic no matter what, but with Calgary’s season having crashed on the rocks a long time ago Saturday night at the Saddledome just wasn’t the same.
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When an Edmonton coach says before a Hockey Night in Canada game in Calgary that “it’s important we don’t have a letdown” you know that one side of the Battle of Alberta isn’t pulling its weight.
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Still, even though the 25th-place Flames, gutted by an exodus of top players, are no longer relevant, there was still a week’s worth of drama packed into Edmonton’s 4-2 victory.
To make it fair, the Oilers were playing the second of back-to-back games and third in four nights, they started their backup goalie and spotted the Flames three straight power plays in the first period.
So, anyway, it’s 2-0 Oilers early in the second period on the 40th goal of the season from Leon Draisaitl and fourth of the season from the Connor Brown, who’s come to life with four goals in the last 11 games after none in the first 63.
Edmonton had things well in hand.
Then came the drama. Plenty of it, actually.
For starters, Zach Hyman took an Evan Bouchard slap shot off the inside of his right foot and was down for a longer than Zach Hyman ever stays down. The post-season flashed before Edmonton’s eyes because losing him would do grave damage to their playoff aspirations, but he wasted no time getting back in the mix.
Then there were the standings. An Edmonton win and a Vancouver loss would leave the Oilers three points back of first place in the Pacific Division with a game in hand and a head-to-head meeting with the Canucks still to come. So while the Flames had nothing to play for, Edmonton did.
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With Vancouver being throttled by Los Angeles on the out-of-town scoreboard, it didn’t help the Oilers situation much when Evander Kane’s retaliatory slashing penalty led to a power-play goal that brought the Flames back to life.
Near the end of the second period, CBC cameras picked up Corey Perry lambasting Kane on the Oilers bench, possibly over a careless turnover in the Calgary zone. Or perhaps an accumulation of things.
Either way, the Oilers brought Perry in, among other things, for his experience, leadership and commitment to winning, so if he’s that wound up about something it’s very likely something that needs to be addressed.
The excitement continued in the third period when Calgary tied it on another power-play goal and Bouchard returned the favour to make it 3-2, on the 99th assist of the season from Connor McDavid.
All that remained to be seen was whether Edmonton could hold the lead and whether McDavid would use Saddledome ice to join Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Bobby Orr as the only other players to reach 100 assists in a season.
Yes and no. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins closed out the win with an empty netter, but McDavid didn’t assist on it.
• Draisaitl hit 40 goals for the fifth season, putting him third on the Oilers all-time list. Wayne Gretzky did it nine times and Jari Kurri had seven seasons with 40 or more. He is also the fourth active player with at least five 40-goal seasons, joining Alex Ovechkin, Auston Matthews and Steve Stamkos.
E-mail: rtychkowski@postmedia.com
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