Holloway unlikely to make his debut in Battle of Alberta

There's been a lot of fan discussion about Dylan Holloway, the Edmonton Oilers top prospect forward, maybe getting into the playoff fire in the Battle of Alberta. But that's a long-shot unless there's a run of injuries, plus they also have veterans Devin Shore and Derick Brassard sitting.

“There's a sequence of events,” said Oilers general manager Ken Holland.

Short answer for a long set of circumstances. Holloway would need to leapfrog worthy NHL players first, plus there would have to be lots of medical issues.

Holloway is part of the Bakersfield call-up list, along with older forwards Brad Malone and Seth Griffith.

He skated in pre-game in Calgary, a tipoff that they aren't just looking at the 20-year-old as an extra body. But, again, this doesn't look like a 1985 scenario where Glen Sather put the untried Esa Tikkanen in after a Game 1 Stanley Cup final loss to Philadelphia. Tikkanen came over from IFK Helsinki.

Holloway, who will almost surely be on the team next season because he'll be on a US$925,000 Oilers contract, has yet to play an NHL regular season or playoff game, mostly because of injuries ( broken scaphoid bone, leg).

“Yes, the plan was he would be up with us the last month but he got hurt (charley horse) in Bakersfield,” said Holland.

DOLING OUT THE MINUTES

Calgary coach Darryl Sutter, like the good Viking farm boy he is, is plain-speaking.

So when asked about line-matching Tuesday morning, his eyes squinted, his shoulders rolled.

“Well, they've (Oilers) only played eight forwards (in the series). ... I don't know about matchups,” said the Flames head man, who isn't wrong.

Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft has shortened his bench, for sure. Derek Ryan went into Game 4 averaging 9:35 in ice time per game, Warren Foegele 7:46, Zack Kassian 7:12 and Josh Archibald 6:57. And Ryan and Archibald kill penalties, so not much 5-on-5 time with Kassian.

BACK IN THE SADDLE

Sutter is a Jack Adams finalist for coach of the year — along with Gerard Gallant and Andrew Brunette — but he says he wouldn't have come back to the bench after stepping away in semi-retirement unless it was with an Alberta team, as a lifelong fan of both the Flames and Oilers.

“The reason I came back, I said this lots, I watched the Oilers and Calgary lots. ... I thought the Flames were falling behind in terms of what was going on in the division and what was going on in the league. That was the biggest reason I came back,” said Sutter.

“I've been fortunate to be in the places I've been with the owners and types of teams you'd like to see have success (Los Angeles, San Jose, Calgary).

“You get to the point where you can, not pick and choose, but don't have to go through the process to take that position.”