For sparks to turn into flames, the right conditions must be met.
Combustible elements are needed. Rising heat is, too, to bring those elements to their flash point — the temperature at which they can ignite — and so is oxygen to keep the whole thing going.
If there were doubts that those conditions were present in this rendition of the Battle of Alberta, Saturday night erased them.
Matthew Tkachuk provided that initial spark weeks ago with his series of hits on Zack Kassian, stick flips and post-game wars of words filled Alberta arenas with oxygen and — perhaps most importantly — the Edmonton Oilers’ and Calgary Flames’ respective returns to playoff-picture relevance ratcheted up the temperature enough to to cause Saturday night’s goalie-fight ignition.
For Battle of Alberta veterans Jim Peplinski and Martin Gelinas, the formula for how it unfolded was familiar.
“When I go back into the early 80s,” Peplinski, who won a Stanley Cup with Calgary in the 1988-89 season, recalled during Hockey Night in Canada’s After Hours segment, “when I first got to Calgary I can remember [former Flames forward] Willie Plett saying in the first year ‘Why would we go to Edmonton, they should just mail us the two points.’ We didn’t expect the Oilers to be competitive.
“The next year, they just took off and then they schooled us. The way we ended up starting to compete was having to get involved. And when you got involved, as Tkachuk is doing now, it forces the rest of your team to either show up or disappear. If you look at the previous game in Edmonton, when you see Monahan getting into an emotional altercation, that’s showing up.”
Saturday’s Flames-Oilers battle had no shortage of that brand of “showing up.” All told, 102 penalty minutes were handed out. Six of those penalties were fighting majors. For the first time in Battle of Alberta history, goalies dropped their gloves and blockers and threw punches.
Those fireworks coinciding with Calgary and Edmonton’s stature in the standings is no coincidence. The Oilers hold a slight edge with 62 points, while the Flames are sitting at 60, and with that the spectre of a potential first-round playoff matchup looms over each regular-season meeting.
“We’ve got two teams that have got some highly skilled players, very competitive,” Gelinas, who played for Edmonton for five seasons and now serves as Calgary’s assistant coach, said. “We use the word ‘hate’ [to describe how the teams feel about each other], you put that in the playoffs, I think it would be amped up and get even bigger.”
That line of thinking stems as much from personal experiences as it does from knowing the players currently involved.
Among the many memorable Battle of Alberta tilts Gelinas laced up the skates for, the most notable in his mind was the 1991 playoffs — the last time Edmonton and Calgary met in the post-season, 29 years ago.
The Flames and Oilers went head-to-head in the first round that year. Despite Calgary finishing 20 points ahead of Edmonton in the regular season, it lost to the defending champion in seven games.
“Going back to that first playoff run in 1991,” Gelinas recalled, “every game, every shift meant something. I had to go back yesterday and look at some of the clips, and you could see every guy finishing their checks. It was skill, it was physical, it was hard, it was back-and-forth.
“You had some character on both sides, too. We had Esa Tikkanen on our side, they had Theo Fleury, some guys that were in the fabric of the game — just like Matthew Tkachuk.”
That sentiment — that for the Battle of Alberta to be at its best, both parties must be, too –is shared by Peplinski.
As someone who played against high-skill teams like the Montreal Canadiens and New York Islanders during the 70s and 80s, Peplinski is no stranger to what the modern-day, Connor McDavid-led Oilers are capable of offensively.
But the Oilers of the past — like these Oilers are now showing — were capable of beating you with more than just speed and skill.
“Edmonton was an interesting mix of a team that had an incredible amount of speed, but they also wanted to put you into the ground,” Peplinski recalled. “I think a lot of that had to do with [Glen Slather]. When we would play the Oilers, if they got up by one [goal] they wanted to be up by two, it was never over.
“And so I give Edmonton a lot of credit for what Calgary became because if you didn’t show up, if you weren’t ready, every second, you would either get hurt or you’d get embarrassed.”
No one was hurt on Saturday, thankfully, but an 8-3 margin of victory for the Oilers fits the embarrassing bill — for one side, at least — adding further fuel to a rivalry that’s once more burning bright.
TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced cookie brand Oreo as the team’s helmet sponsor for the upcoming NHL season.
The new helmet will debut Sunday when Toronto opens its 2024-25 pre-season against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Arena.
The Oreo logo replaces Canadian restaurant chain Pizza Pizza, which was the Leafs’ helmet sponsor last season.
Previously, social media platform TikTok sponsored Toronto starting in the 2021-22 regular season when the league began allowing teams to sell advertising space on helmets.
The Oreo cookie consists of two chocolate biscuits around a white icing filling and is often dipped in milk.
Fittingly, the Leafs wear the Dairy Farmers of Ontario’s “Milk” logo on their jerseys.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
MacKenzie Weegar wasn’t bitter or upset as he watched friends live out their dreams.
The Calgary Flames defenceman just hopes to experience the same feeling one day. He also knows the road leading to that moment, if it does arrive, will likely be long and winding — much like his own path.
A seventh-round pick by the Florida Panthers at the 2013 NHL draft, Weegar climbed the ranks to become an important piece of a roster that captured the Presidents’ Trophy as the league’s top regular-season club in 2021-22.
Two months later following a second-round playoff exit, he was traded to the Flames along with Jonathan Huberdeau for Matthew Tkachuk. And less than two years after that, the Panthers were hoisting the Stanley Cup.
“Happy for the city and for the team,” Weegar said of Florida’s June victory over the Edmonton Oilers. “There was no bad taste in my mouth.”
His sole focus, he insists, is squarely on eventually getting the Flames to the same spot. The landscape, however, has changed drastically since Weegar committed to Calgary on an eight-year, US$50-million contract extension in October 2022.
Weegar has watched a list that includes goaltender Jacob Markstrom, defencemen Chris Tanev, Noah Hanifin and Nikita Zadorov and forwards Elias Lindholm and Andrew Mangiapane shipped out of town since the start of last season — largely for picks, prospects and young players as part of a rebuild.
Despite that exodus, he remains committed to the Calgary project steered by general manager Craig Conroy.
“It’s easy to get out of all whack when you see guys trying to leave or wanting new contracts,” the 30-year-old from Ottawa said at last week’s NHL/NHLPA player media tour in Las Vegas. “I just focus on where I am and where I want to be, and that’s Calgary.
“I believe in this team. The city has taken me in right away. I feel like I owe it to them to stick around and grind through these years and get a Stanley Cup.”
The hard-nosed blueliner certainly knows what it is to grind.
After winning the Memorial Cup alongside Nathan MacKinnon with the Halifax Mooseheads in 2013, Weegar toiled in the ECHL and American Hockey League for three seasons before making his NHL debut late in the 2016-17 campaign with the Panthers.
He would spend the next five years in South Florida as one of the players tasked with shifting an organizational culture that had experienced little success over the previous two decades.
“There’s always going to be a piece of my heart and loyalty to that team,” Weegar said. “But now I’m in a different situation … I compete against all 32 teams, not just Florida. There’s always a chip on my shoulder every single year.”
Weegar set career highs with 20 goals — eight was the most he had ever previously registered — and 52 points in 2023-24 as part of a breakout offensive performance.
“I think my buddies cared a lot more than I did,” he said with a smile. “All I hear is, ‘fantasy, fantasy, fantasy.'”
Weegar was actually more proud of his 200 blocked shots and 194 hits as he looks to help set a new Flames’ standard alongside Huberdeau, captain Mikael Backlund, Nazem Kadri, Blake Coleman and Rasmus Andersson for a franchise expected to have its new arena in time for the 2027-28 season.
“You have to build that culture and that belief in the locker room,” said Weegar, who pointed to 22-year-old centre Connor Zary as a player set to pop. “Those young guys are going to have to come into their own and be consistent every night … they’re the next generation.”
Weegar, however, isn’t punting on 2024-25. He pointed to the NHL’s parity and the fact a couple of teams surprise every season.
It’s the same approach that took him from the ECHL a decade ago to hockey’s premier pre-season event inside a swanky hotel on Sin City’s famed strip, where he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the game’s best.
“From the outside — media and even friends and family — the expectations are probably a bit lower,” Weegar said of Calgary’s outlook. “But there’s no reason to think that we can’t make playoffs and we can’t be a good team (with) that underdog mentality.
“You never know.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept 17, 2024.
Jose Maria Celestino da Costa was named vice-president and head of soccer operations while Marianne Brooks was appointed vice-president of partnerships, Kelly Shouldice as vice-president of brand and content and Joyce Sou as vice-president of finance and business operations.
The new six-team women’s pro league is set to kick off in April.
“Their unique expertise and leadership are crucial as we lay the foundation for not just a successful league in Canada, but one that stands among the top sports leagues in the world,” NSL president Christina Litz said in a statement. “By investing in top-tier talent and infrastructure, the Northern Super League is committed to creating a league that will elevate the game and set new standards for women’s professional soccer globally.”
Da Costa will oversee all on-field matters, including officiating. His resume includes stints with Estoril Praia, a men’s first-division team in Portugal, and the Portuguese Soccer Federation, where he helped develop the Portuguese women’s league.
Brooks spent a decade with Canucks Sports & Entertainment, working in “partnership sales and retention efforts” for the Vancouver Canucks, Vancouver Warriors, and Rogers Arena. Most recently, she served as senior director of account management at StellarAlgo, a software company that helps pro sports teams connect with their fans
Shouldice has worked for Corus Entertainment, the Canadian Football League, and most recently as vice-president of Content and Communications at True North Sports & Entertainment, where she managed original content as well as business and hockey communications.
Sou, who was involved in the league’s initial launch, will oversee financial planning, analysis and the league’s expansion strategy in her new role.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
