Hockey is about winning but it’s also about firsts, so on Wednesday night we had 29-year-old Czech-born David Tomasek and 21-year-old U.S.-born Ike Howard making their NHL debuts for the Edmonton Oilers while Russian teenager Matvei Gridin was getting his ceremonial lap with the Calgary Flames , too, before pre-game warm-up at Rogers Place. Article content

There are 393 players who only got this one NHL game, going back 108 years, including Don Cherry and the late local goalie Ken Brown, who played 18 minutes one night for Hall of Famer Tony Esposito in Chicago before he joined the early-days WHA Oilers, then was the club’s NHL sales manager after retiring. Article content Article content

Also, Calgary coach and former centre Ryan Huska, for more immediate significance. He got in

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