It had been 31 years since the provincial rivals Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames had met one another in a Stanley Cup Playoff series, but in May 2022, that was the situation that both teams found themselves in.
Making the series even more interesting was that a pair of key players on either side had previously played for the other team; Edmonton Oilers goaltender Mike Smith spent several years in a Flames uniform, while Milan Lucic, a former Stanley Cup winner with the Boston Bruins, had been signed by the Oilers to a lengthy contract in 2016.
Ultimately, it would be the Oilers who outlasted the Flames in five games, and it was Connor McDavid delivering the dagger in heartbreaking fashion to Flames fans.
Edmonton Oilers Captain Connor McDavid Broke Flames Fans Hearts On This Day In 2022
While the Flames managed to draw first blood in the series, it was the Oilers who rebounded with four straight victories, including the overtime series clincher in Game 5.
Connor McDavid beat goaltender Jacob Markstrom with a quick snap shot from the slot, beating him glove side and then celebrating exuberantly with the rest of his teammates.
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His longtime teammate Leon Draisaitl picked up the assist on the goal, which was one of four assists he had during the game as part of the win.
“He’s everything to us,” Draisaitl said of McDavid after the game. “He’s our leader, he’s our go-to guy. He’s the guy that everyone looks up to when you need him. He’s done it all season, he’s done it all his career. Last two months or last month or whatever it has been, he’s been amazing for us. Eventually you just kind of run out of words.”
“We all want to win,” McDavid said. “Everybody wants to win. I think our group has been through a lot this year and in years past. I think it’s just made us hungrier and hungrier to be successful. We’ve had to learn a lot of lessons along the way, and it’s got us up to this point, and obviously we want to keep going here.”
However, the Oilers would eventually be eliminated from the postseason in a clean four-game sweep by the Colorado Avalanche, who went on to win their first Stanley Cup since 2001 with a six-game victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Calgary Flames Have Never Been The Same
Since the fateful goal of McDavid to knock them out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs that spring, the Flames have yet to return to the postseason, and are back in a rebuilding process under GM Craig Conroy.
Not only that, but they underwent a massive change that summer, trading Matthew Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers for Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar in a blockbuster deal that caught the entire hockey world by surprise.
Tkachuk and the Panthers went to the Stanley Cup Final three straight years, winning the last two, ironically both over McDavid and the Oilers. Meanwhile, the Flames have failed to qualify for the playoffs since then.
On This Day: Oilers’ Connor McDavid Broke The Flames