Flames to open 2016-17 with home and home with Oilers

The Calgary Flames will open the 2016-17 season in a very familiar but very different manner. The National Hockey League today released the dates for the home openers for all 30 clubs.

The Flames will begin their home schedule on Friday, October 14 at the Scotiabank Saddledome by hosting the Edmonton Oilers. But their season will begin two days prior, as they visit the Edmonton Oilers in the first regular season game held in the new Oilers barn, Rogers Place.

The pair of games begin the 100th season of existence for the NHL (and its 99th that features actual hockey games) and the year is expected to include much pomp and circumstance given the 2017 centennial of the league’s founding and the 50th anniversary of the expansion of the league from six to 12 teams. Given the emphasis on history, it makes complete sense for the Flames to begin their campaign with a pair of meetings with their provincial rival.

All-time, the Flames posted a 47-51-12 in the Oilers original rink (which was variously known as Northlands Coliseum, Edmonton Coliseum, SkyReach Centre and Rexall Place) from their 1980 arrival in Calgary through the closing of the building at the end of the 2015-16 season. Their final visit was a 5-0 drubbing of Edmonton on Hockey Night in Canada on April 2.