NHL has disrespected the Battle of Alberta with horrible planning
Photo credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images
The Battle of Alberta built the Saddledome's biggest nights.
In its final season, the NHL made sure the rivalry never gets the building's last one.
Calgary's home opener on October 1 goes to the Seattle Kraken. The final regular-season game at the Dome, April 10, goes to the Vancouver Canucks.
Neither honour went to Edmonton, and most coverage has stopped there - another Oilers snub, another Saturday handed to somebody else.
The last Battle of Alberta ever played at the Saddledome is March 23, a Tuesday, 7 p.m., no national window, wedged 20 days after the March 3 meeting.
The league had the whole grid and still chose this
Edmonton closes its season with a home-and-home against Winnipeg on April 7 and 10.
That means on the night Calgary says goodbye to the building, the Oilers are already booked in their own barn against the Jets.
The NHL didn't simply prefer Vancouver for the finale. It scheduled Edmonton out of contention for it, then dropped the rivalry's real farewell onto a mid-week March date with zero ceremony attached.
Why the "snub" reading undersells it
Calling this an oversight is generous. The Saddledome hosted five Battle of Alberta playoff series in the 1980s and the 2022 second round - the games that made the barn matter.
A league that wanted to honour the building's history had every one of 84 dates to work with. It still let a Kraken opener and a Canucks closer bracket the farewell while the rivalry got a Tuesday.
That is not a scheduling accident.
It is a choice about what the NHL thinks is worth selling, and the answer was not the Battle of Alberta.
Calgary and Edmonton will play four times, split evenly. The rivalry's loudest building just won't host one of those nights when it counts.
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