[News] Mark Spector Book, "The Battle of Alberta"

[pope04]

Originally Posted by Fire of the Phoenix

It's no coincidence that the Oilers haven't had a winning season since Gretzky left.

I hate like hell to say it, but they won the Cup in 1990 without him.

[Fire of the Phoenix]

Originally Posted by pope04

I hate like hell to say it, but they won the Cup in 1990 without him.

Ya and I actually respect them for that one. Outside of that though, Oilers fans have nothing to chirp about in my view. Any team that got Gretzky would've been a dynasty.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by Fire of the Phoenix

Ya and I actually respect them for that one. Outside of that though, Oilers fans have nothing to chirp about in my view. Any team that got Gretzky would've been a dynasty.

Like LA and New York?


We can choose to argue it, but there's a reason there was so many Hall of Famers on that team that helped. Hockey is a team game and Gretzky wouldn't have fixed the Oilers last year either

[codynw]

Did Katz give him permission to use Battle of Alberta™?

[Fire of the Phoenix]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

Like LA and New York?


We can choose to argue it, but there's a reason there was so many Hall of Famers on that team that helped. Hockey is a team game and Gretzky wouldn't have fixed the Oilers last year either

Sorry I should've clarified: Gretzky in his prime and before Suter.

Ya there were a lot of HOF players on those teams but do you really think that they would've been that good without the Great One?

200 point Gretzky would've won a bunch of cups regardless of what team he was on was my point. He made everybody he played with better.

[Stay Golden]

Flames in battle of Alberta leads Greasers 108–90–18
(includes overtime and shoot-outs).

[Armchair Quarterback]

I'm willing to give the book a chance, if only because I myself was not around for the best days of the Battle of Alberta rivalry and would like to know more about it. Growing up in the young guns era, and seeing the Oilers rebuild and be terrible for 10 years, it has always seemed funny to me that Flames fans should hate the Oilers so much since the Oil have simply been terrible for so long. IMO the rivalry has not really been much of one in the past couple of years. Will be interested in the future, especially with the media ramping up the Bennett-McDavid connection.

Spector is obviously biased in his perspective. That said, I like that there is going to be a book out there about such a crucial time in hockey history. It could bring the younger generation up to speed on the history of the rivalry. And even if the book is biased that is a good thing.

[David Struch]

Originally Posted by Stay Golden

Flames in battle of Alberta leads Greasers 108–90–18
(includes overtime and shoot-outs).

Does this also include playoffs?

[Locke]

This book is a godsend, I've been running low on toilet paper.

[CliffFletcher]

I pity Flames fans who weren't around to enjoy the Battle of Alberta. When Calgary and Edmonton were the two best teams in the league, and every game between the two - including the eight regular season meetings a year - had the manic intensity of game 7 of a playoff series.

The ferocious rivalry of that era is the main reason I'm a Flames fan in the first place. The fact the two teams haven't met in the playoffs since 1991 is a tragedy. As Friedman commented in the post-game show, the league is better when there's hate between teams. And that hate is so much better when it's the hate between two excellent teams who stand in one another's way of advancing in the playoffs.

[Finger Cookin]

Originally Posted by David Struch

Does this also include playoffs?

Factoring in this season's results to date, the record including the playoffs favors the Flames 126-111-19 - although it seems that site doesn't account for OTL.

Adjusting for OTL, it looks like it would be something like 126-106-19-5. (W-L-T-OTL).

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Armchair Quarterback

I'm willing to give the book a chance, if only because I myself was not around for the best days of the Battle of Alberta rivalry and would like to know more about it. Growing up in the young guns era, and seeing the Oilers rebuild and be terrible for 10 years, it has always seemed funny to me that Flames fans should hate the Oilers so much since the Oil have simply been terrible for so long. IMO the rivalry has not really been much of one in the past couple of years. Will be interested in the future, especially with the media ramping up the Bennett-McDavid connection.

Spector is obviously biased in his perspective. That said, I like that there is going to be a book out there about such a crucial time in hockey history. It could bring the younger generation up to speed on the history of the rivalry. And even if the book is biased that is a good thing.

Interestingly, Spector isn't the first person to write a book about the BOA, or to even call it "Battle of Alberta". This version actually gives an interesting overview of the rivalry from over a century ago:

http://www.amazon.ca/The-Battle-Albe.../dp/1894974018

[Fire of the Phoenix]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

I pity Flames fans who weren't around to enjoy the Battle of Alberta. When Calgary and Edmonton were the two best teams in the league, and every game between the two - including the eight regular season meetings a year - had the manic intensity of game 7 of a playoff series.

The ferocious rivalry of that era is the main reason I'm a Flames fan in the first place. The fact the two teams haven't met in the playoffs since 1991 is a tragedy. As Friedman commented in the post-game show, the league is better when there's hate between teams. And that hate is so much better when it's the hate between two excellent teams who stand in one another's way of advancing in the playoffs.

There's always hate between good teams that are rivals, not sure what Friedman is getting at. It's not like this is exclusive to the BoA, it's just dependent on two rivals being good at the same time. The Flames and Oilers have been mostly mediocre to bad for the last 25 years, only occasionally taking turns being 'good', that's why their particular rivalry is not what it used to be. I don't think it matters for hockey overall if the BoA is good or not, there's always plenty of good teams that hate each other. Maybe not to the same degree as 80's BoA but the majority of NHL fans don't care about that as Flames and Oilers fans combined probably make up 1-5% of the NHL's fans.