Matthew Tkachuk can pretty much take full responsibility for re-igniting the Battle of Alberta. While some will claim it never went anywhere, geographic rivalries always experience ebbs and flows, and it’s been a very long time before you can find an era where the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers mutual hatred for each other has been this intense.
The teams grew a strong dislike for each other this season as the result of Matthew Tkachuk taking a number of runs at Oilers bruiser Zack Kassian. Based on the nature of Kassian’s game, it doesn’t take a genius to guess that he didn’t respond well to the checks.
While some claim the runs were legal, and others believe they were cheap, just about everyone can agree that they’re the sort of actions that have often required further actions in the past.
Tkachuk vs. Kassian was no different.
After a terrific buildup that had both players chirping off to the media, the two teams met again in a 1st period that may well have been the most exciting period all season long. Kassian and Tkachuk went at it, Sean Monahan and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also dropped the mitts.
Two days later, more fisticuffs, including one of the more memorable goalie fights in recent years between Cam Talbot and Mike Smith.
As we recently found out on OverDrive, that almost never happened. In fact, Matthew Tkachuk was convinced he was going to be on the exact other side of the battle.
After Columbus surprised everyone and took Pierre-Luc Dubois instead of Jesse Puljujarvi, Tkachuk believe’s Edmonton scrambled and changed their plans. He even went on to say that he believes Edmonton had a jersey with his name on it, and that they changed the nameplate afterwards.
With Vancouver next on the clock and a strong belief he wouldn’t be going there, Tkachuk suddenly realized Calgary was a possibility.
All we can say is that we are super glad the Battle of Alberta is what it is, so thank you Pierre-Luc Dubois for that. Now can we just have that first round matchup or what?
(H/T OverDrive)
