BY MARK SPECTOR
sportsnet.ca

EDMONTON — You might have bled through last season with the injury-plagued Edmonton Oilers, as they stumbled, bumbled, and eventually just quit trying during their worst season in franchise history.

Or, more likely, you paid no attention at all, at a last place team that was every bit as bad as the standings showed them to be.

For one night however, as a hockey mad country sat down in front of the big screen, to see what all this fuss was about out in northern Alberta.

What happened was precisely what everyone outside the 403 area code had tuned in to see.

The Edmonton Oilers, cracking the seal on a new era and rolling out three of the best rookies an NHL team has put together in some time.

They had the kind of debut that went beyond anyone’s wildest dreams, a 4-0 shutout of the Flames, in an electric building.

And these kids are only going to get better from here.

"It’s so exciting," said Jordan Eberle, 20, who turned this game with a goal you’ve no doubt seen on the highlight packages 25 times by now. "There is so much energy — you can feel it in the stadium, and you feed off it."

"You don’t want to get too high…"

Yes, yes. And you don’t want to get too low. For a night, let’s leave the clichés be.

In a city that has endured last place teams, superstar defencemen demanding trades, goaltenders with DUI’s and the trash talk of Flames and Canucks fans on a daily basis for most of four seasons, this was simply delicious.

The kids were brilliant. The old goalie was bulletproof. The scorers scored, and before it was over, the fighter — a giant Saskatchewan slugger named Steve MacIntyre — sent his opposite number onto his back with a right hand, that gave Raitis Ivanans’ family a head ache back home in Latvia.

Truly, it couldn’t have gone any better than this for the Edmonton Oilers.

"Probably not," said newly minted captain Shawn Horcoff, who was credited with the fourth goal, when Eberle’s shot ripped off of his shin pad and behind a chanceless Miikka Kiprusoff.

"I can’t think of many things you could have added to make this a better scenario," Horcoff said. "It’s the Battle of Alberta, and we get a great win like that. A great fight by Mac. The fans came to get a glimpse of the future…"

Eyefuls like this one don’t come along very often.

Make no mistake: Edmonton is the little brother in this relationship now. In the oil business, Calgary is the corporate Dallas while Edmonton has become the blue collar Houston.

On the football field, the Eskimos were taken to the woodshed by the Stampeders this season in record-setting fashion.

In fact, the last Esks or Oilers regular season win against a team from Calgary occurred more than a calendar year ago: on Aug. 13, 2009, when the Esks beat Stamps 38-35.

That era of Flames dominance, appears to have been erased by a new era of Oiler, led by Eberle, the always dangerous Hall, and one of the more professional looking 19-year-olds you’ll see in Magnus Paajarvi.

"We just want to be a team that never quits," said defenceman Ryan Whitney, whose Oilers led 1-0 after 40 minutes, then blew it open with three goals by the 5:04 mark of the third. "The fans deserve a team that, at the very minimum, plays hard every night. That was what was missing here last year."

Edmonton scored first, then weathered a strong Flames second period.

And while Kiprusoff, the difference-make in this Battle for some time now, stoned them on chance after chance, the opportunity to simply go away presented itself to Edmonton.

It’s an option the Oilers of 2009-10 had selected on more than one occasion. But on this night, Jordan Eberle took a puck at his own blue-line, busted for the net, and outwaited Kiprusoff to score the kind of goal only a certain breed of cat can produce.

"A sick goal," said Hall, who had four shots and no points, but was dangerous all evening long on a line with Horcoff and Eberle. "If I get chances like that for 82 games? I’m going to have some goals."

If this team plays like this for 82 games, we’ll see you back here in mid-April.

I know, I know. It can’t happen.

But for a night at least, it did.

And even a Flames fans would have to admit, there is some magic here again.