Battle? What battle?

You could see it in their eyes from the press box: the Calgary Flames wanted to be anywhere but face-to-face with the Edmonton Oilers.

By the midway mark of Tuesday’s beating at Rogers Place, the Flames looked like Jake Paul did when he tasted the first punch from Anthony Joshua last weekend.

They knew they were outclassed. They knew they didn’t have an answer. They knew they were done. And they knew it was going to be bad.

Only the Flames weren’t lucky enough to get knocked out with one punch. The Oilers toyed with them for 60 minutes, played with them like cats play with mice in a 5-1 victory that sets Calgary’s mental health back months.

They broke through the neutral zone for odd-man rushes like it was nothing. They threw the puck around like they owned it. They peppered the visitors like they were flavourless mashed potatoes … which they kind of were.

And Edmonton’s star players put on a clinic, with Connor McDavid leading the way with five points, Leon Draisaitl scoring a hat trick, Zach Hyman had three points and Evan Bouchard had two. The power play scored three goals on its first four chances.

As far as McDavid is concerned, that’s as strong a game as they’ve played all year.

“I thought it was as good as it’s been,” said McDavid. “Really solid all over. Special teams were great, five-on-five generated and didn’t give up much. The goalie played well. A lot of things to like.”

If not for some very strong work in net from Flames goalie Dustin Wolf (shots were 39-17 in the waning minutes) the fans would have spent the third period chanting ‘We Want 10!”

Edmonton heads into the Christmas break 8-2-1 in their last 11 and in a three-way tie for first place in the Pacific Division. They’re gaining serious momentum after a rocky start to the season.

“I think it’s been trending that way over the past couple of months, couple of weeks,” said Draisaitl. “We’ve been playing some consistent, good hockey and everyone is contributing and chipping in and doing their part. When we get to that point we are a tough team to handle.”

Ask Calgary. If the Flames’ recent run of success had them thinking they might be closing the gap on the their northern rivals, Tuesday night revealed the cold, hard truth.

They aren’t.

“At the end of the day it’s always tough to defend them,” said Calgary’s Jonathan Huberdeau. “They’re great players, they’re the top in the world, but we still have to find a way.”

The Oilers improved to 4-0, having outscored their opponents 26-10 in their third jersey.
“I love them,” said Draisaitl. “I love the look of them. Obviously our record and our stats are pretty good in them right now. Hopefully we can keep that up.”

Captain Unreal

A five-assist night from McDavid revved up what was already a ridiculous pace. It’s his fourth time with four or more points in the last 11 games and gives him 31 points in those 11 games. Just 38 games into the season he’s already leading the league with 67 points, on pace for the second-highest point total of his career.

It’s almost unfair when he’s going like this.

“It tilts the ice,” said Draisaitl. “He’s obviously feeling it. We’ve all seen it plenty of times in his career. The puck is following hm right now. He’s just too good right now. That’s not fun to play against.”

Draisaitl’s hat trick, meanwhile, ends an eight-game goal-scoring drought, but he had 15 assists in those eight games. He moves past Glenn Anderson and into third place on the Oilers all-time goal scoring list with 419 goals.

“I was never really in a panic mode because I didn’t score in (eight) games,” he said. “I felt like I had looks and that the other parts of my game were there and they were good. I think it was just a matter of time for it to bounce in.”

Thin Skinned

It was a tough night for Cody Beach. The referee lost his cool in the second period and wound up giving Calgary second-pairing defenceman MacKenzie Weegar a 10-minute misconduct and a game misconduct for tapping his stick against the glass after getting a well-deserved unsportsmanlike conduct minor.

To be that thin-skinned in a big game is a bad look.

Joining The Fight

Six-foot-six, 230-pound Calgary defenceman Kevin Bahl floored Hyman with a late hit that appeared to rattle the Oilers winger. With nobody else willing to step up, Trent Frederic took on the big guy later in the period. In his first game back after being a healthy scratch against Vegas, Frederic is looking to kickstart a season that never left the starting gate.

“Offensively I’m not really doing much so it’s trying to have an impact somewhere else in the game,” he said. “That’s what I did to start my career and from there I got better as a player, goals started going in. I’m trying to reset it all and get back to that.

“You can’t do anything about the past, you can’t go back, as much as you’d love to. You kind of use this as a restart, and start my season today.”

So far, so good.

“Freddy, not only his fight but I though he had a good game,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch. “You need some of that physicality, you need some guys stepping up once in a while. Our bench didn’t really like the hit on Hyman. And Freddy took it upon himself to make a statement. I liked everything Freddy did tonight, I thought it was a really solid game from him.”

E-mail: rtychkowski@postmedia.com