Heading into the holiday break, the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers are inching back to where they should be in the NHL standings. How much of each team’s situation is dictated by their star players, their young prospects, coaching decisions, and more? Host Faiz (The Oil Rig) is joined by Alex (The Win Column) and Sean (The Oil Rig) as the trio discuss the different directions the Flames and Oilers have headed.

They also find common ground in expressing their surprise with how Team Canada’s 2025 World Juniors roster has panned out with notable snubs and questionable philosophies. Finally, they close out the episode with holiday wishes for the Flames and Oilers, both naughty and nice.

Articles mentioned in the episode:
🔥 Evaluating Ryan Huska’s system and player deployment
https://thewincolumn.ca/2024/12/13/evaluating-ryan-huskas-system-and-player-deployment/

Chapters
00:00 Introduction and New Faces Joining Fuel and Fire
02:42 Calgary Flames' Current Situation
08:38 The Oilers Are In A Better Spot
12:24 Dig In Right Now
19:10 Assessing Ryan Huska's Coaching
29:57 Kris Knoblauch's Impact on the Oilers
36:41 Comparing Coaching Styles: Woodcroft vs. Knoblauch
44:51 Assessing Team Canada's World Juniors Roster
57:36 Holiday Wishlists for the Oilers and Flames

The Fuel and Fire Podcast is a show that talks about the Battle of Alberta with fresh perspectives and hot takes on the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers. Hosts and guests on the show all feature as team members of The Win Column or The Oil Rig, where the sports rivalry lives on well beyond the ice.

Subscribe to our channel!

Follow all our socials!

Calgary Flames coverage
🔥 Website: https://thewincolumn.ca
🔥 Facebook: https://facebook.com/wincolumnCGY
🔥 Instagram: https://instagram.com/wincolumncgy
🔥 BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/wincolumncgy.bsky.social
🔥 Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/wincolumnCGY
🔥 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wincolumncgy

Edmonton Oilers coverage
🛢️ Website: https://theoilrig.ca
🛢️ Facebook: https://facebook.com/oilrigEDM
🛢️ Instagram: https://instagram.com/oilrigedm
🛢️ https://bsky.app/profile/oilrigedm.bsky.social
🛢️ Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/oilrigEDM
🛢️ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@oilrigedm

Episode 3 of Fuel and Fire sees the NHL exiting its first quarter as the American Thanksgiving benchmark is now behind us. Both the Edmonton Oilers and the Calgary Flames held the two Western Conference wild card spots with 28 points apiece, however, one team has trended up while the other team has trended down. Hosting the episode are Joshua (The Win Column) and Faiz (The Oil Rig).

The hosts get right into the NHL standings and also make some reasonable 4 Nations Face-Off roster predictions for the Flames and Oilers. Making its rounds on The Win Column’s social media, plenty of debate was had on Flames player career squares to look at who started good/okay/bad and ended good/okay/bad. Follow along on The Oil Rig socials to participate in voting for the Oilers' career squares!

Finally, the Dig In Right Now segment returns with Josh and Faiz picking new players they think need to dig in, right now as well as looking at how things have gone with Daniil Miromanov and Darnell Nurse. And of course, the first-ever Fuel and Fire bet gets an update as injuries to the players in the bet have made the unexpected drama to close out 2024. Josh bet that Anthony Mantha would have more goals than Zach Hyman by January 1, 2025. Did Josh accept Faiz’s olive branch to switch out Mantha for an active player or did he double down and stick to his initial bet despite Mantha being out long-term?

Chapters:
00:00 Intro and A Look at the NHL Standings
04:22 Outlook on the Western Wild Card Race
07:41 MacKenzie Weegar's Case to Make Team Canada's 4 Nations Roster
11:17 Zach Hyman Played Himself Out of a Team Canada Spot
12:47 Flames Who Can Make a 4 Nations Team
17:47 Flames Career Tenures Fan Vote
18:16 Lindholm's Flames Career Started Good, Ended Bad
19:18 Mangiapane's Flames Career Started Good, Ended Okay
20:24 Dennis Wideman's Flames Career Started Okay, Ended Bad
21:59 Mark Giordano's Flames Career Started Bad, Ended Good
25:22 Dig In Right Now: Jeff Skinner and Andrei Kuzmenko
31:19 Fuel and Fire Bets: An Update on Hyman versus Mantha
36:13 Outro

Articles mentioned in the episode:
🛢️ Making salary cap compliant 4 Nations Face-Off teams
https://theoilrig.ca/2024/12/03/making-salary-cap-compliant-4-nations-face-off-teams

🔥 Breaking down the Calgary Flames Career Square
https://thewincolumn.ca/2024/12/03/breaking-down-the-calgary-flames-career-square

The Fuel and Fire Podcast is a show that talks about the Battle of Alberta with fresh perspectives and hot takes on the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers. Hosts and guests on the show all feature as team members of The Win Column or The Oil Rig, where the sports rivalry lives on well beyond the ice.

Subscribe to our channel!

Follow all our socials!

Calgary Flames coverage
🔥 Website: https://thewincolumn.ca
🔥 Facebook: https://facebook.com/wincolumnCGY
🔥 Instagram: https://instagram.com/wincolumncgy
🔥 BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/wincolumncgy.bsky.social
🔥 Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/wincolumnCGY
🔥 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wincolumncgy

Edmonton Oilers coverage
🛢️ Website: https://theoilrig.ca
🛢️ Facebook: https://facebook.com/oilrigEDM
🛢️ Instagram: https://instagram.com/oilrigedm
🛢️ https://bsky.app/profile/oilrigedm.bsky.social
🛢️ Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/oilrigEDM
🛢️ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@oilrigedm

Episode 2 of Fuel and Fire comes in hot with the latest Battle of Alberta seeing the Edmonton Oilers taking the win over the Calgary Flames. Back to host this episode are Joshua (The Win Column) and Faiz (The Oil Rig). Also joining them as the first guest of the podcast is Darnell (The Oil Rig), who gives an analytical take on the latest battle and how the two teams are stacking up against each other and against their own expectations.

This episode introduces hot new segments too! Beyond the Battle of Alberta, things heat up as Josh and Faiz agree to the first ever Fuel and Fire bet, where a bold claim was made in comparing Anthony Mantha to Zach Hyman. Also newly introduced, the "Dig In Right Now" segment sees the two hosts identifying which players on their teams need to do exactly that—dig in, right now.

Check out all this and more as the Fuel and Fire team talks everything about the Flames and Oilers one month into the 2024–25 season!

Chapters:
00:00 The Battle of Alberta is All Evened Up
04:07 Diving into the Analytics
06:29 The Stats Behind the Second Battle of Alberta
09:50 Expected Goals from Flames and Oilers Stars
14:53 Level Setting Expectations
16:04 McDavid's Injury and Draisaitl Stepping Up
17:58 Fuel and Fire Bets - Josh makes a wager
21:03 Dig In Right Now
26:06 Outro

The Fuel and Fire Podcast is a show that talks about the Battle of Alberta with fresh perspectives and hot takes on the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers. Hosts and guests on the show all feature as team members of The Win Column or The Oil Rig, where the sports rivalry lives on well beyond the ice.

Subscribe to our channel!

Follow all our socials!

Calgary Flames coverage
🔥 Website: https://thewincolumn.ca
🔥 Facebook: https://facebook.com/wincolumnCGY
🔥 Instagram: https://instagram.com/wincolumncgy
🔥 BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/wincolumncgy.bsky.social
🔥 Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/wincolumnCGY
🔥 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wincolumncgy

Edmonton Oilers coverage
🛢️ Website: https://theoilrig.ca
🛢️ Facebook: https://facebook.com/oilrigEDM
🛢️ Instagram: https://instagram.com/oilrigedm
🛢️ https://bsky.app/profile/oilrigedm.bsky.social
🛢️ Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/oilrigEDM
🛢️ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@oilrigedm