Edmonton Oilers vs Calgary Flames game preview: No one loves you, Edmonton.

Nothing is more satisfying as a resident of Edmonton than when your beloved Calgary Flames play the Oilers and in most cases, rip their still-beating hearts out of their chests and eat them at center ice. Eventually when both teams become elite (projected due date is like 30 years from now), we can take our children's children to these games and enjoy insanely talented teams play.

Edmonton is fresh off a victory over the Buffalo McDavids Sabres that I attended. I witnessed the glory of Zemgus Girgensons destroy Nikita Nikitin and I relished every moment of it. That said, the Oilers played pretty well and they won. You can check out Copper and Blue‘s recap for more info.

Meanwhile, the Flames are coming off a game they could have won maybe if they had a guy like Sven Baertschi in the line-up. The 1-0 loss despite it being a victory for the team possession wise was a loss that we didn’t need. Especially if you’re a believer in the playoff race. As usual here is our recap and underlying numbers recap. I hope Sven has fun in the press-box tonight eating pocket dogs.

The teams last met on New Years Eve and the Flames came out on top in OT thanks to Josh Jooris. Here are some video highlights to keep you entertained.

Game time: 8:00 p.m. MT

Channel: CBC HNIC and TVA Sports

All-time record: Calgary leads the all-time regular season series 107-90-18. Also let's not forget the horrendous 8-1 butt-kicking we gave the Oilers in Rexall last season. You can talk about your dynasty all you want, but that's in the past.

Common threads: One time Edmonton traded us Ladislav Smid and we’re still trying to get rid of him. Last I heard, Brad Treliving was going to take him to Red Deer to the Donut Mill and leave him there. If you don’t live in Alberta, you won’t get that reference.

Edmonton Oilers captain and stray dog eater Andrew Ference used to be a Flame until he was traded to Boston. Then he came home to Edmonton to be a horrible captain of a horrible franchise.

Approaching milestones: Another year, another draft – “The Edmonton Oilers are pleased to select from the Erie Otters of the Ontario Hockey League… Connor McDavid.” I’m sure there is some NHL record here for them — maybe at six or seven top five picks, you get a free pizza from Panago or something.

David Wolf might be slotting in for Paul Byron which means this will be his first NHL game excluding pre-season!

Edit: Looks like Byron is in.

Mark Giordano is one game away from 500 after tonight’s Battle of Alberta. So 499 tonight for our beloved Captain.

Current records and leaders

Possible starting lineups

by Mike Pfeil