Why the Battle of Alberta isn’t what it used to be
Wednesday, 19 September 2007
It isn’t just because the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers finished eighth and twelfth respectively last season, instead of both being true perennial Stanley Cup contenders.
It isn’t just because these two clubs haven’t clashed in the playoffs since 1991, instead of meeting almost annually in the Smythe Division playoffs.
It’s because a rivalry is defined by names and faces, not just by jerseys.
Sure, the Calgary and Edmonton fans and media still love to talk it up.
But how can you expect players to build up either amazing internal team chemistry or relentless dislike for a rival club, the kind we witnessed in the 1980’s, when constant roster turnover is the norm today?
Let’s use a six-year window to illustrate this point. In 1983-84, the Oilers won their first Cup, and in 1988-89, Calgary did the same. In addition, during that period, one of these clubs either appeared in or won the Cup finals each year.
Look at how many players suited up at least once for their respective clubs in each of those seasons, and for no other NHL club:
1983-84 to 1988-89
Calgary Flames (7)
Tim Hunter
Hakan Loob
Al MacInnis
Jamie Macoun
Lanny McDonald
Colin Patterson
Jim Peplinski
Edmonton Oilers (7)
Glenn Anderson
Grant Fuhr
Randy Gregg
Charlie Huddy
Jari Kurri
Kevin Lowe
Mark Messier
Now compare that to the most recent six-year span (covering but not counting the 2004-05 lockout):
2001-02 to 2006-07
Calgary Flames (2)
Jarome Iginla
Robyn Regehr
Edmonton Oilers (4)
Shawn Horcoff
Ethan Moreau
Jason Smith
Steve Staios
Of course, those 80’s clubs would have seen more turnover if they hadn’t been so successful. But at the same time, their success was at least partly due to core stability, and seeing mostly the same guys go to war year after year was a huge part of what made it all so memorable.
Under the salary cap system, it’s become far more challenging to retain players long-term and build up that level of familiarity.
Salary dumping at the trade deadline is not going away. But in the next round of CBA negotiations, it would be wise for the NHL to press for an increase to the minimum age or length of league service when a player can become an unrestricted free agent (as of 2008, it’ll be 27 years old or seven years of league service), in exchange for other concessions.
Not just for the Battle of Alberta, but for all league rivalries, it’s better when the familiarity factor dominates.
HockeyAdventure.com brings you the best of Lucas Aykroyd's current blog entries and archived articles. Based in Vancouver, Aykroyd has written about NHL, international, and junior hockey for The Hockey News, The Sporting News, the NHL Yearbook, Rinkside, NHL.com, Eishockey News, and Prospects Hockey. As an editor and journalist, he has covered three Olympics, ten World Championships, three World Junior Championships, one World Women's Championship, and one World U18 Championship for IIHF.com and HockeyCanada.ca. He was one of 56 experts chosen to vote for the IIHF's Centennial All-Star Team.
No. 1 — September 20th, 2007 at 8:36 am
Good to hear from you Lucas.
As far as it stands, rivalries might mean little to the players involved but no one cares about them anyways. Such interchangable parts have no real purpose outside of filling in lineup cards.
The rivalry between Calgary and Edmonton is more about the fans and letting them enjoy an interesting atmosphere. Professional sports is for them and not atheletes. If it were, we could just shut the doors and offer the Iginlas and Sourays a pressure-free zone to play the game. But what fun would that be?
Instead hockey teams build up the fantasy of rivalries so that fans will unquestionably pay $100-and-up at least eight times per season. Not a bad business plan.
Lastly, I couldn´t disagree with you more on increasing the already restrictvie labour relations hockey players face today. Though they are highly compensated, the fact that they are unable to sign freely anywhere when they are “freeagents” merely speaks to how much of a lie sports can be.
I love hockey and the NHL, so don´t get me wrong. But we need to realize that fans now, and maybe always did, care more for the jerseys (as ugly as some might be)athletes wear than the athletes themselves.
Enjoy your day.
No. 2 — September 21st, 2007 at 12:55 am
George,
Thanks for your thoughtful comments. The key point I wanted to make is that it’s more enjoyable for the fans if they can recognize and identify with the players, if you will, instead of being obliged to view them as “interchangeable parts,” which is what happens if your roster is constantly gutted due to free agent moves or trades.
Personalities stick in your mind long after everyone’s forgotten how the power play performed in 1997-98.
Now, certainly there are plenty of rivalries that have been more driven by media or team PR hype than what was taking place on the ice. (In Ken Dryden’s book The Game, he describes a 1979 Leafs-Canadiens game where Montreal easily prevails, and he concludes: “I’m angry–at the last two goals, at the game, at the Leafs, at the Gardens, at me; at people who all day have promised me a Leafs-Canadiens rivalry. There is no Leafs-Canadiens rivalry. It’s dead: the Leafs killed it. I feel duped.”)
By the same token, ask the Oilers or Flames who played in those 1980’s Battle of Alberta games whether the rivalry was real for them on the ice or not. Even though most of them now no longer have a direct monetary or promotional incentive to say “Yes,” I’ll bet most of them will tell you that those games were real struggles.
Obviously, most players who don’t hail from their particular NHL club’s city (Patrice Brisebois in Montreal, to take a somewhat masochistic example) or haven’t lived there for a long time (Trevor Linden in Vancouver) aren’t going to identify with their club and city the same way as ones who fall into the aforementioned categories. But that’s why I think it’s in the league’s best interest–to build up long-term fan interest–to create conditions where players often end up staying with the same club for years and building up an identification.
Having said that, would I personally enjoy being told I had to work in X city? No, I wouldn’t. But as you pointed out, NHLers are highly compensated for what they do, and they aren’t solely restricted to making big money in the NHL. The money in Europe isn’t as big, but it was big enough, for instance, to lure Mark Giordano (a restricted free agent whose NHL rights still belong to Calgary) to the Russian Super League this year.
I think if the league prioritizes protecting the health, safety, and long-term well-being of the players and enshrines that in a future CBA, that would go a long way toward making up for increased restrictions on player movement.
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