NHL preseason games are almost always uneventful, immediately forgettable affairs. The level of intensity isn’t what’s normally seen from the average regular season contest.
Which is what makes what went down between the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise on Saturday (Oct. 4) so remarkable.
The Sunshine State rivals combined for 322 penalty minutes in what ranks as one of the most penalty-filled games in NHL history, be it preseason, regular season, or postseason.
It was “old-time hockey”, the likes of what you could have seen in the 1970s and ‘80s, or maybe even the ‘90s, but certainly not today.
That got us wondering, what are the most penalty-filled games in Edmonton Oilers history? So we dusted off the record books, and here’s what we found:
3) Oilers vs. Calgary Flames – March 20, 1987
Of course, one of the Oilers’ most penalty-filled games involved the Calgary Flames during the 1980s. The provincial rivals have several games with well over 200 total penalty minutes, but this edition of the Battle of Alberta at Northlands Coliseum late in the 1986-87 regular season ranks above the rest: The teams combined for 250 penalty minutes, with 108 of them coming before the game was a minute old.
At 28 seconds of the first period, a brawl erupted after Oilers defenceman Kevin Lowe took exception to a slash from Calgary’s Al MacInnis and picked a fight with Flames blueliner Jamie Macoun. When the dust settled, four players from each team were assessed fighting majors, with three on either side receiving game misconducts. By the end of the opening period, the Oilers and Flames had been assessed 76 penalty minutes apiece.
After a relatively calm (by Battle of Alberta standards) period and a half, all hell broke loose again midway through the third when Edmonton’s Kevin McClelland started throwing punches after a vicious high stick from Flames forward John Tonelli. The teams proceeded to combine for 78 penalty minutes in a span of just 6:36 of game time, with multiple scraps.
When the dust settled, the visitors skated away with a 6-3 win. Calgary capitalized on all the special team scenarios, scoring twice on the power play and two more times while Edmonton had the man advantage.
“That’s the most embarrassed I’ve ever been. It’s the worst kind of hockey game you’ll ever see. It takes three and a half hours and it’s a waste of time for the fans and the coaches,” Edmonton bench boss Glen Sather said after the game (from ‘Flames Keep Drilling Oilers,’ Edmonton Journal, 3/21/87).
Flames captain Jim Peplinski echoed those sentiments: “Sometimes these teams can play as good a game as you’ll ever see, then you get this. It was sickening.”
2) Oilers at Pittsburgh Penguins – Jan. 19, 1980
No one could have predicted things would get so heated when Edmonton visited the Pittsburgh Penguins in early 1980. It’s not like there was a history of dislike between the teams; in fact, there was literally no history between them: the Oilers were only three months into their inaugural NHL season and had never played Pittsburgh before.
But it only takes a spark to start a fire, and that came during the second period in the form of Pittsburgh’s Kim Clackson taking his stick to Wayne Gretzky while the Oilers superstar was down on the ice. Gretzky’s protector, Dave Semenko, immediately went after Clackson, and what ensued was an ugly bench-clearing brawl that saw fans get involved and took nearly an hour for order to be restored.
Fights broke out all over the rink. Every time things seemed to be settling down, it started up again. Players even returned to the ice after being escorted to the penalty box. Clackson and Semenko engaged each other on three separate occasions during the brouhaha.
Sather threw a water bottle at his Pittsburgh counterpart, Johnny Wilson. The Oilers coach was attacked by fans and tried to climb the glass to go after them. Police hauled away one fan who was found to have a knife (from ‘’Goon Show’ Disrupts Pittsburgh Game,’ Edmonton Journal, 1/21/80).
At the end of the night, the teams had been penalized a whopping 267 minutes, 201 of which came out of the brawl at 7:33 of the second period. The teams actually played a peaceful third period, with just one penalty, a minor, being called during the entire frame.
The Oilers got the last laugh, winning 5-2 on the strength of a hat trick by Blair MacDonald and a pair of goals from Gretzky.
1) Oilers at Los Angeles Kings – Feb. 28, 1990
Unlike Edmonton’s game in Pittsburgh a decade earlier, the penalty box attendants probably knew they’d be busy when the Oilers and Los Angeles Kings faced off at the Great Western Forum with about a month to go in the 1989-90 season. After all, the Oilers and Kings were division rivals with a long history, and that was before Gretzky was shockingly dealt to Los Angeles in 1988 and the Kings rallied from a 3-1 deficit to knock off Edmonton in the 1989 Stanley Cup Playoffs, escalating the rivalry even further. But they never could have imagined they’d be this busy.
Los Angeles was penalized 157 minutes, and the Oilers racked up 199 minutes worth of infractions, combining for what was at that time the third most penalty minutes in an NHL regular season game. There were a total of 86 penalties called, which to this day remains the most in NHL history.
This wasn’t a game where one or two major incidents accounted for most of the penalties. Rather, it was an absolute gong show from start to finish, beginning with a pair of scraps in the opening two minutes.
Late in the second period, Tomas Sandstrom was punched in the face by Edmonton’s Glenn Anderson, which resulted in the Kings forward being taken to the hospital, where he was found to have a broken cheekbone. At that point, the game was such a powder keg that referee Denis Morel suspended play and sent the teams to their respective locker rooms to cool down. The remaining 3:32 of the second period was tacked on to the third period.
After a couple of scraps earlier in the third period, it looked like the teams would get to the final horn without further incident. But then Gretzky scored into an empty net with 41 seconds left to put the Kings ahead 4-2, and with the outcome of the game effectively decided, there was nothing left keeping the players in line. A line brawl erupted off the ensuing faceoff, with even the goalies, Edmonton’s Bill Ranford and the Kings’ Ron Scott, getting into it. Another 119 penalty minutes later, the game was finally over.
Los Angeles won this battle, but it would be the Oilers who ultimately won the war: Less than two months later, Edmonton swept Los Angeles in the second round of the playoffs en route to winning the Stanley Cup.
Related: Edmonton Oilers Announce 2025-26 Opening Night Roster
Times sure have changed over the last 35 years. The Oilers will play a dozen times in October, and it’s quite possible that all the penalties called in those games don’t reach 200 minutes. Of course, if there’s an opponent that Edmonton is most likely to get into a dust-up with, it’s Calgary, and that’s just who the Oilers happen to be hosting when they kick off their 2025-26 schedule at Rogers Place on Wednesday (Oct. 8).
