“Playing traditional rivals,” says Calgary-born goaltender Chad Johnson, “makes big games seem even bigger. There’s that extra motivation. When I was in Boston, it was always Montreal. The energy those games bring is … amazing. It’s hard to describe.
“I’ve heard all the stories about the Battle of Alberta.
“Your parents talk of it back in its heyday – the players involved and what happened, this moment or that moment, winning or losing – and it stays with you.
“As a player, there’s nothing more fun. They’re historic, those games. They’re the ones you dream of being a part of.”
So on to tonight, 8 p.m. puck drop at Rogers Place in Edmonton.
Not yet the biggest battleships in the pond, by any means, but their size and firepower is increasing.
So start firing, already.
What’s past is past. Gretzky and Gilmour, Loob and Kurri, Otto and Messier, Fuhr and Vernon, Coffey and MacInnis, Suter and Lowe, Anderson and Roberts, they built the Battle into the legend people remember with such passion and such fondness today.
Now Gaudreau and McDavid, Monahan and Draisaitl, Johnson and Talbot, Bennett and Eberle, Hamilton and Nurse are the ones entrusted with at long last pulling faded relevance out of the doldrums, giving us a new twist on an old classic.
“Rivalries grow as teams do,” reminds Versteeg. “When the games matter, when a lot is at stake for both sides, when feelings are high, when you’re fighting each other for something important.
“The geographical part is obviously already here, in place. So is the history.
“Hopefully, with the way we’re both headed, this is just the start.
“I’m getting older. When I’m done playing, looking back, it’d be neat to say I was part of the start of it; turn on the TV and see” – he glances around the locker room – “the young guys in here still playing important games against the Oilers.”
There’s much rough terrain yet to be traveled before each or both of them reach Lord Stanley’s Sweet 16 clambake this April.
But that day is close at hand, if not here already.
And, fingers crossed, perhaps a playoff series between the two is in the offing, in the not-too-distant future.
Versteeg can’t help but grin wistfully at the possibility.
“Can you imagine?” he grunts happily. “How nuts would that be?”
Nuts, alright.
Crazy nuts. Wonderful nuts.
It’s-About-Time nuts.
