Do you have memories of Christmas where you and your brother would wrestle in the basement? Maybe over a game of mini-sticks, stealing a gift, or just because?

Well, that’s what the Edmonton Oilers game against the Calgary Flames on Tuesday reminded me of — an older brother doing the ol’ ground-and-pound on the scrappy younger brother.

Once Leon Draisaitl snapped his 8-game goalless drought with 17 seconds left in the first period to take a 2-1 lead, the result was never in doubt. It ended 5-1 for the Oilers, where every time you looked up from Tibb’s Eve dinner, Edmonton had the puck.

“I don’t think that was a very good night for us,” Calgary coach Ryan Huska said post-game. “I feel like we gave them way too much room, through the neutral zone in particular, for us. I thought their top players did a really good job and I don’t think we handled them all that well tonight.

“You have to stay on top of them, for one. If they have room to skate and nobody is in front of them, they’re the best players in the game. They’re dangerous. Then the power play as well, you can’t give them that many opportunities, they’ll make you pay.”

One-sided attack

The Flames got a fortuitous bounce off of Darnell Nurse to get Mackenzie Weeger his third goal of the season to equalize in the 1st period, but otherwise, they didn’t test Connor Ingram all too often.

Calgary launched just 19 shots on target and went 0/4 on the power play. Compared to the 39 shots on Dustin Wolf and the 3/6 power play for the Oilers, it was night and day different.

According to Natural Stat Trick, the game was about as one-sided as it gets. The Oilers outchanced the Flames 29-11 at 5-on-5, and a whopping 43-23 in all situations.

Plain and simple: it was another game where the McDavid and Draisaitl lines dominated, and the Flames couldn’t sustain any type of pushback.

“They came out with a lot more intensity than us,” Calgary defenseman Kevin Bahl said. “Our keeper was excellent, and we have lots to learn from there, and we have to be a lot better.”

Bahl vented his frustrations with a scrap against Trent Frederic in the struggling forward’s first game after being a healthy scratch.

“If we could have shut down their power play, I think we could have given ourselves a good shot in that game.”

Perfectly mediocre

The Flames penalty kill will have to be better on Saturday night. It was sitting top-10 heading into the game, but fell to 17th after that showing, with percentage points in the mushy middle bunched up.

Being 17th overall is apropos of this franchise’s identity. Listening to Bob Stauffer on CHED on my Christmas drive back to my hometown of Vermilion on Tuesday, Sportsnet’s Eric Francis relayed an unbelievable stat.

Since the lockout, the Flames are 17th best in the NHL. Perpetually on the outside looking in, perfectly mediocre.

That’s not all! Recent CNBC franchise evaluations for all 32 NHL teams were published in November. Which NHL franchise is the 17th most valuable?

You guessed it. The Calgary Flames.

Currently, they are two points better than worst, and five points back of the last wildcard in the Western Conference. It’s still a run of 6-4 in the month of December for the Flames, but heading into the new year, the questions surrounding Rasmus Andersson, and then Nazem Kadri and Blake Coleman loom.

Rest or rust?

Who comes out of the gates with turkey legs? Which team can be more detail oriented? The Oilers have a tendency after a break to look for the path of least resistance, shying away from the simple play in these spots.

Does that favour the more meat and potatoes style of the Flames? Only time will tell, of course.

The Oilers are 2-2-1 in the last five occasions coming back from Christmas, but under Knoblauch are 1-0-1, losing 4-3 in overtime to the Kings on Dec. 28, 2024. The last three seasons this has been a crucial turning point of their years, going 8-2-1 after xmas last season, 14-0 in 2023-24, and 9-3-1 in 2022-23.

The Flames are 3-2 in their last five.

What can be gleaned from these trends towards tonight’s game? Not a heckuva lot, but the Oilers begin the post-Christmas stretch in a tie for first in the Pacific Division, and will attempt again a three-game winning streak, which was eluded them all season long.

Notes:

That Connor McDavid fella is playing well. He abused the Flames for five assists to make it 31 points garnered during an 11-game point streak, which is simply Gretzkian stuff. Tuesday was McDavid’s 45th career game with four or more points, tying Kurri for second in Oilers history.
He has no goals in two games vs the Flames this season, but seven assists.
Leon Draisaitl is second in the NHL in points in December following his hat-trick on Tuesday, his ninth career regular-season hat-trick. All three of his goals were on the power play. His point streak is now nine games.
Draisaitl loves playing against the Flames. In 50 career games vs CGY, he has 18 goals and 50 assists. He also surpassed Glenn Anderson (417) to become the Oilers’ 3rd greatest goal scorer in franchise history.
Mackenzie Weegar was ejected after his stick taps against the penalty box glass after a 2nd period penalty. There was also a big scrum at the end of the game. Is there carryover bad blood?
This game starts a five-game homestand for the Flames. They welcome Boston, Philadelphia, Nashville, and Seattle during this stretch.
Oilers forward David Tomášek will be heading back home to Sweden, as he will placed on waivers for a mutual parting of ways. He hadn’t played since Dec. 13 vs Toronto.
Coach Ryan Huska has been yo-yoing starts for his netminders, so it stands to reason we see Devin Cooley tonight since he hasn’t faced the Oilers yet. It would be just his 20th career start.
Cooley this season: 4-4-2, 2.40 GAA, and .914sv%, pretty impressive numbers for the backup. But no starter has been confirmed as of time of writing.
The Oilers’ record in their last 10 games vs the Flames is 7-2-1.

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