Calgary Flames vs Edmonton Oilers game preview: Oh, hello again!

Happy New Year! It’s the final game of 2014, and right now, things in Alberta are pretty happy. We’ve got the Calgary Flames on a three-game winning streak, and the Edmonton Oilers actually won a game themselves. The two just met up four days ago, in which three quick Flames goals – including Joe Colborne’s first of the year, and two goals by Johnny Gaudreau in 16 seconds – sunk the Oilers, although the Oilers did their best to battle back. They couldn’t manage it, though, and two games into the five game season series, the Flames have a 2-0 lead. Battles of Alberta are always meaningful, though, in a way only Albertans really get nowadays, so it should be a fun finish to the year.

The Flames’ three-game winning streak comes on the back of the Oilers, as well as two straight victories over the Los Angeles Kings. The first go around, the Flames waited until the end to take the game, when Gaudreau’s first career hat trick tied it, and Mark Giordano ended it in overtime. The second time around, two early goals in 1:02 thanks to Curtis Glencross and Markus Granlund got it done. Jonas Hiller and his brand new black mask held off a seriously dominating Kings for the 2-1 win. | Recap | Stats | Boxscore | That mask is the best:

Three hours to the north, things are a bit happier. Just last night the Oilers, with the help of newly-acquired centre Derek Roy, jumped out to a 2-0 lead over the very same Kings. Because they’re the Oilers, they eventually gave up that lead, as the Kings outshot them 15-1 in the third period (how Flames of them!) to force overtime. It took four shootout rounds before David Perron scored the game-winner, giving Ben Scrivens his hard earned, 37-save (plus four more in the shootout) 3-2 win.

The win snapped the Oilers' nine-game losing streak, which followed their 11-game losing streak. The Flames aren't from California, though, so they just might be able to start them on a new one.

This could also be Leon Draisatil's final NHL game this season, with the Oilers expected to return him to junior – pending a trading of his rights from the floundering Prince Albert Raiders to the star-studded Kelowna Rockets – by the weekend. You can read up more on the state of Edmonton over at The Copper & Blue.

Game time: 7:30 p.m. MT

Channel: Sportsnet: it's a premier rivalry at a premier time!

All-time record: The Flames' record against the Oilers has improved a touch, now up to 122-107-19-3, and a +16 goal differential after the Flames' 4-1 victory just days ago.

Common threads: To recap: Ladislav Smid (who just had twins! Aw!), Corey Potter, and Keith Aulie were all members of the opposition in one way or another earlier in their careers. None of the defencemen are expected to actually play tonight, however, due to varying degrees of being terrible and/or injured. There’s also Edmonton’s captain, who seems to enjoy going after various Flames now, and made the Stanley Cup Final with Calgary that one time. Oh, Andrew Ference.

Approaching milestones: Jonas Hiller, who starts every game now, is just under three full games away from a solid 20,000 minutes played in the NHL. Twenty thousand minutes is about 3.8% of an entire year, so… that sounds a little less impressive, but that's still a ton of hockey.

Current records and leaders

Possible starting lineups

While Mikael Backlund is nearing his return and taking part in contact practices, he isn’t ready to join the Flames’ lineup just yet. Meanwhile, Josh Jooris is back after missing the last three games with an upper body injury. Mason Raymond sits in his stead.

by Ari Yanover