The Battle of Alberta isn’t what it used to be, and it hasn’t been for a while. But Kevin Lowe, the Edmonton Oilers’ president of hockey operations, is hoping that Brian Burke, the Calgary Flames’ new president of hockey ops, will help change that.
“All of us, the Flames and ourselves, we can only wish that we could get back to those days again in terms of the interest, the hype and the great hockey that it was,” said Lowe, per the Canadian Press.
“If Brian can add to that, it would be awesome.”
Now provincial counterparts, Lowe and Burke have already clashed in the past, with the latter famously suggesting the two men should fight in a rented barn.
Of course, Alberta hockey fans would rather watch their teams compete for the Stanley Cup than listen to the clubs’ executives talk tough. Neither side has made the playoffs the past four seasons, and the last time one of them won a postseason series was 2006.
The Oilers and Flames haven’t met in the playoffs since their classic seven-game series in 1991.