Flames set to resume Battle of Alberta against Oilers with ‘a lot of juice there’

Michael Stone can appreciate how Stanley Cup Playoff implications impact the Battle of Alberta.

The then-Calgary Flames defenseman was in the thick of the provincial rivalry against the Edmonton Oilers in the 2022 playoffs and is looking forward to witnessing another critical installment in Edmonton on Saturday (10 p.m. ET; CBC, SN, CITY).

“Anytime there’s a meaningful game between Calgary and Edmonton, there’s going to be a lot of juice there,” said Stone, now in player development with the Flames. “It’s exciting all around and to be a part of it is so much fun. I hope there is more of that going forward and the only way to have that happen is to have both teams be relevant. To have both teams be relevant this late in the season is awesome.”

Calgary (34-26-11) trails the St. Louis Blues by six points for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference, and Edmonton (41-26-5) is third in the Pacific Division, two points behind the Los Angeles Kings for second.

It has been three seasons since so much was riding on a game between the Oilers and Flames this deep into the schedule. They split their two games earlier this season, with the Flames winning 4-1 on the road on Oct. 13 and the Oilers winning 4-2 at Calgary on Nov. 3.

This is their most meaningful encounter since the 2022 Western Conference Second Round, a best-of-7 series won by Edmonton in five games.

“It’s going to be exciting,” Stone said. “As a player, if I was playing in that game, it’s against Edmonton, you’re in the playoff hunt and it’s on ‘Hockey Night in Canada.’ You get all that juice coming, for me that’s exciting being a Canadian kid and those are the games that you live for.”

Stone played seven of his 12 NHL seasons with Calgary and retired after the 2022-23 season. He joined the Flames in a player development role shortly thereafter and has seen a complete revamping of the roster in three seasons.

Only four players -- defenseman Rasmus Andersson, forwards Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman, and goalie Dan Vladar -- remain from the playoff team in 2022.

Despite the changes, Calgary is back to being a playoff contender and is looking for one final push with 11 games remaining to qualify for the first time since 2022. The Flames were able to pivot and reload relatively quickly compared to other teams still going through a rebuilding process.

“I would say the guys that have come up from the American [Hockey] League and the job they’ve done has allowed that gap to be smaller than other teams,” Stone said. “That would be the biggest thing for me. I give them a lot of credit; they’ve done the work to become NHL players, and they’ve found that roles that have made them successful. I don’t think it’s been easy for anybody, but they’ve found a way to make things work.”

That 2022 playoff team was led by forwards Johnny Gaudreau, Matthew Tkachuk, Elias Lindholm, Tyler Toffoli and Andrew Mangiapane. Along with Stone, the blue line featured Noah Hanifin, Oliver Kylington, Chris Tanev and Nikita Zadorov, with Jacob Markstrom in goal.

The expiring contracts of Gaudreau, who signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets on July 13, 2022, and Tkachuk, who was traded to the Florida Panthers nine days later, resulted in Calgary making major changes. Among them, forward Jonathan Huberdeau and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar came over in the Tkachuk trade, and Calgary signed forward Nazem Kadri on Aug. 19, 2022.

General manager Craig Conroy took over a difficult situation with a number of pending unrestricted free agents when he was promoted to replace Brad Treliving on May 23, 2023, and in short order he had the Flames heading back in the right direction.

“Their play speaks for itself,” Stone said. “I would give [coach Ryan Huska] a lot of credit too. There’s no passengers on the team, everybody’s got to be playing and working and you can see that with the way the team plays. There’s no tiptoeing around games -- it’s work or you don’t play.”

Goalie Dustin Wolf has emerged as a bright spot for Calgary. The AHL most valuable player in 2022-23 and a two-time goalie of the year (2021-22, 2022-23), he’s made a successful transition to the NHL and taken on the No. 1 role. The 23-year-old is 24-15-5 with a 2.67 goals-against average, .909 save percentage and three shutouts in 44 games.

“I don’t know what the expectation was. We knew he was a really good goalie at every level he’s played at,” Stone said. “He puts the work in. It goes hand in hand with everybody in the team. You work and you try to get better every day, and he does that.”

Considering the changes, Calgary was not expected to be a playoff contender this soon but has defied the odds. Kadri and Huberdeau have been productive this season and led by example. Huberdeau leads the Flames with 58 points (27 goals, 31 assists), and Kadri is second with 56 points (30 goals, 26 assists), each in 71 games.

“You can see them driving the team to success,” Stone said. “And when things are going well, they’re going well and that’s a huge part of it.”

The Flames and Oilers each are coming off a loss on Thursday. Calgary outshot the Dallas Stars 48-19 and lost 5-2, and Edmonton lost 6-1 at the Seattle Kraken in the second game of a back-to-back.

The Oilers were without forwards Leon Draisaitl (undisclosed injury) and Connor McDavid (lower body), their leading scorers, along with No. 1 goalie Stuart Skinner (head) and defenseman Mattias Ekholm (undisclosed). Flames forward Connor Zary had to be helped off the ice with a leg injury sustained in the third period.

“It’s that time of year,” Stone said. “You can’t dwell on things that are no longer controllable and you have to move on and control what you can control, and that’s how you play on Saturday now.”