The Flames haven’t fared well in Battle of Alberta season-openers

The 2025-26 National Hockey League season is starting this week, and the season is kicking off with a Battle of Alberta between the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers.

It’s just the eighth time in 45 seasons that these teams begin their seasons against each other. And the rarity of the match-up may be a blessing for the Flames, because they haven’t had the best results historically when opening their season against Edmonton.

Here’s a (rough) trip down memory lane, gang.

Oct. 5, 1982 (1982-83): Oilers beat the Flames 7-5 in Edmonton

The Oilers got out to a three goal lead 15:10 into the first period off markers from Jaroslav Pouzar, Glenn Anderson and Dave Hunter. But the Flames rallied back in the second to tie things up off goals from Guy Chouinard, Doug Risebrough and Jamie Hislop. Calgary just couldn’t grab a lead, though, and the Oilers pulled away, with Tom Roulston’s early third period goal standing as the winner.

Oct. 4, 1991 (1991-92): Flames beat the Oilers 9-2 in Calgary

The Flames were looking for sweet revenge after the Oilers eliminated them from the playoffs several months prior. They got that revenge, off goals from Theo Fleury (twice), Joel Otto, Robert Reichel, Al MacInnis, Ron Stern, Stephane Matteau, Martin Simard and Jamie Macoun. (Esa Tikkanen and Scott Mellanby replied for the visitors.)

Oct. 3, 2001 (2001-02): Flames beat the Oilers 1-0 in Calgary

A decade after their last season-opening meeting, these clubs met once more at the Saddledome. This time, Marc Savard had the only goal and Roman Turek pitched a shutout.

Oct. 5, 2006 (2006-07): Oilers beat the Flames 3-1 in Edmonton

Coming off a Stanley Cup Final loss in June, the Oilers got back in the rhythm of the season with a 3-1 win over the Flames. Petr Sykora had two goals and an assist, setting up a Daniel Tjarnqvist goal. Jarome Iginla scored for the Flames.

Oct. 7, 2010 (2010-11): Oilers beat the Flames 4-0 in Edmonton

The Flames were blanked, with Nikolai Khabibulin making 37 saves. Gilbert Brule, Jordan Eberle, Ales Hemsky and Shawn Horcoff scored for the blue team.

Oct. 12, 2016 (2016-17): Oilers beat the Flames 7-4 in Edmonton

In the first regular season game at Rogers Place, the Flames scored four goals but gave up seven and never had a lead. Connor McDavid (twice), Pat Maroon, Tyler Pitlick, Zack Kassian, Jesse Puljujari and Jordan Eberle all scored for the Oil, while Alex Chiasson, Troy Brouwer, Michael Frolik and Dennis Wideman scored for the Flames.

Oct. 4, 2017 (2017-18): Oilers beat the Flames 3-0 in Edmonton

The Flames got a re-do a year later, with another season-opener at Rogers Place. They got shut out, with Connor McDavid scoring a hat trick and Cam Talbot making 27 saves.

The Oilers beat the Flames in Calgary’s season-opener in 2021-22, but Edmonton had already opened their season against Vancouver three days earlier, so that game does not count. (But if it did, it would string the Flames’ losing streak against Edmonton in season-openers to five games.)

We’ll see if a road team can finally win a game in the season-opener series between these two traditional rivals.