When the Edmonton Oilers made their NHL debut in 1979, the league had 21 teams. It has since added 11 more clubs, while several existing franchises have relocated.
The latest of the latter is the Utah Hockey Club, which was formerly the Arizona Coyotes before moving from the Phoenix area to Salt Lake City in the offseason. Tonight (Nov. 29) will mark Edmonton’s first time playing in the Beehive State, as the Oilers take on Utah at the Delta Center.
If history is any suggestion, this will be a game that fans won’t soon forget. Since Edmonton joined the NHL, many of the Oilers’ first visits to a new NHL market have proven memorable. Here’s a look at the top five:
5) Dallas
In 1993, the Minnesota North Stars moved to Texas, becoming the Dallas Stars. Over the next decade, the Oilers and Stars would become legendary playoff rivals, with a couple of Edmonton’s most famous playoff victories coming at Reunion Arena.
Edmonton made its Dallas debut on Dec. 5, 1993, and just like many of the postseason battles between these two teams in the years to come, this regular season contest was a back-and-forth nail-biter that ended in heartbreak for the Oilers.
There was no scoring until 7:05 of the second period, when Zdeno Ciger tallied to put the visitors ahead. Dallas then responded with a pair of goals to take a 2-1 lead into the second intermission.
Louie DeBrusk’s first goal of the season, at 4:11 of the third period, tied the game up, and 89 seconds later Ciger scored his second of the night to put Edmonton up 3-2.
Edmonton was minutes away from victory, before Dallas regained the lead with two goals less than a minute apart, as Mike McPhee scored at 11:56 and Russ Courtnall tallied at 12:47. The Stars would hold on for a 4-3 win.
4) Las Vegas
In 2017-18, the Vegas Golden Knights became the first expansion franchise to join the NHL in 17 years. The Golden Knights had one of the most successful inaugural seasons in pro sports history, advancing to the Stanley Cup Final where they lost to the Washington Capitals in five games.
The Oilers, on the other hand, had a quite disappointing campaign in 2017-18, tumbling down the standings one year after advancing to the Stanley Cup Playoffs second round. But Vegas was one team Edmonton had a lot of success against that season, winning three of the teams’ four meetings, including the Oilers’ first game in Sin City on Jan. 13, 2018.
Many Oilers fans made the trip south to attend the Saturday night tilt at T-Mobile Arena, and they got their money’s worth when the game went to overtime after regulation ended with the teams deadlocked at two goals apiece.
Less than a minute into sudden death, the Oilers broke out on a 3-on-1 rush. Drake Caggiula fed the puck to Darnell Nurse who made no mistake wiring it past Golden Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, giving the visitors a 3-2 victory.
With that result, Edmonton became the first team to beat Vegas twice in the regular season. It was only the fourth loss on home ice for the Golden Knights, who came into the game with an 18-2-1 record at T-Mobile Arena.
3) Anaheim
The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim are probably the only sports team ever based on a movie. And that means the Oilers have the dubious distinction of being the first ever to lose to a sports team based on a movie.
The Mighty Ducks was a blockbuster hit for Disney in 1992, and one year later, it was the name of a team in the NHL. The Ducks played in The Pond, rode parade floats at Disneyland, and dressed like the Pirates of the Caribbean for their first team photo. In the traditionalist hockey world, many saw the whole thing as a joke. But the Oilers certainly weren’t laughing on the night of Oct. 13, 1993.
Anaheim got blown out in its inaugural game, 7-2 to the Detroit Red Wings. The Ducks were much more competitive in their second game, losing in overtime to the New York Islanders. And when Edmonton arrived at The Pond for Game No. 3, the Ducks were hungry for victory.
Troy Loney scored just 54 seconds into the game to put Anaheim ahead 1-0. Steven King and Joe Sacco scored late in the first period to make it 3-0 after 20 minutes. Then Bill Houlder tallied at 7:14 of the second period, and the Oilers found themselves trailing the Disney Ducks by four goals.
To their credit, the Oilers battled back. Igor Kravchuk, Vladimir Vujtek and Ciger all scored for the visitors, cutting Anaheim’s lead to one goal with more than half a period to play. But the Ducks withstood Edmonton’s late charge, holding on for the historic first win in their franchise history.
2) Calgary
The NHL’s version of the Battle of Alberta was born in 1980, when the Atlanta Flames moved north and became the Calgary Flames.
Edmonton and Calgary’s first regular season meeting in the NHL came on Oct. 22, 1980, with the host Oilers winning 5-3 at Northlands Coliseum. The rematch wouldn’t come until more than two months later, on Dec. 30, 1980, at the Stampede Corral. Calgary won the game 5-3, but the story of the game wasn’t the score; it was the penalty summary.
In a harbinger of what quickly became one of the nastiest, toughest, most intense, heated, infamous and famous rivalries in all of sports, the Oilers and Flames littered the Corral ice surface with sticks, gloves, maybe a couple teeth and probably some plasma.
Only 4:30 into the game, a brouhaha broke out that saw 68 minutes of penalties assessed between the two teams. And they were just getting started. Less than seven minutes of game time later, a second melee saw the teams combine for 101 minutes in penalties.
By the end of the game, the Oilers had taken 22 penalties for 113 minutes, while Calgary was penalized 19 times for 98 minutes. Edmonton blueliner Pat Price was the game’s biggest offender, earning 26 minutes in penalties.
1) Phoenix
The team that is now the Utah Hockey Club was originally the Winnipeg Jets. Along with the Hartford Whalers and Quebec Nordiques, Winnipeg and Edmonton were one of four teams that joined the NHL as part of the league’s merger with the World Hockey Association (WHA) in 1979.
Edmonton was the hurdle that Winnipeg could never overcome. The teams met half a dozen times in Stanley Cup Playoffs between 1983 and 1990, with the Oilers winning all six series.
In 1996, the Jets relocated to Phoenix, setting up shop at America West Arena, and taking on the moniker of Coyotes. But while the franchise’s name and locale changed, the Oilers continued to be its great tormentor.
The first regular season loss for the Coyotes at America West Arena came courtesy of the Oilers, who defeated the Coyotes 6-3 on Oct. 14, 1996. Phoenix had won its first two home games of the 1996-97 season, before the Oilers paid a visit to downtown Phoenix.
Edmonton never trailed and broke open a 2-2 tie over the final eight minutes of the third period, when it scored three straight goals, including back-to-back tallies from Dean McAmmond. Jason Arnott led the way for the Oilers with four points, which remains the most ever by an Oilers player in a game in Arizona.
Now that the former Jets turned Coyotes are in Salt Lake City, the Oilers will look to carry on the long-standing tradition of crashing the party when Edmonton and Utah face off tonight.
