EDMONTON — What’s a Battle of Alberta without a little ‘friend’-ly rivalry?
That’s exactly what’s in store for this evening, as the Flames and Oilers drop the puck on the 2025-26 regular season at Rogers Place.
Calgary blueliner Rasmus Andersson and Edmonton forward Andrew Mangiapane have known each other going back to their days as juniors with the OHL’s Barrie Colts; they stuck together as AHLers in Stockton, then spent parts of seven NHL seasons together in the C of Red.
Andersson is already one of the more vocal Flames.
And both he and Mangiapane will be mic’d up by their respective clubs tonight.
“The little guy,” Andersson chuckled when asked about Mangiapane following morning skate. “(It) will be different seeing him in the wrong colours, so to speak.
“He's obviously one of my best friends and so to see him in an Edmonton jersey … will feel different for sure.”
Andersson skated Wednesday morning alongside his familiar partner Kevin Bahl; the duo were tasked with a heavy workload in their debut season together in 2024-25, a trend that’s likely to continue against Edmonton.
Mangiapane, meanwhile, is slated to make his Oilers debut against the club with whom he played close to 500 regular season games. Head coach Kris Knoblauch had him lined up alongside veteran Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and rookie Matt Savoie during the home side’s morning twirl.
But amid the momentarily-paused friendship, Andersson is steadfast about his group’s identity - and the belief he and his Flames teammates have in each other after exceeding outside expectations a year ago.
“We know what we have in here,” he said. “If we stick to our structure, we're a hard working group, we can battle with everyone and just play a tight game and win the 2-1s, the 3-2s and that kind of game.
“And that's what I think our team is, and you know, no matter what night it is, we're going to put on a hell of an effort.”
