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Alberta premier gives big shoutout to Oilers' Podkolzin after lopsided fight

Colton Pankiw
Colton Pankiw
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Nov 6 2026, 10:23 pm
Alberta premier gives big shoutout to Oilers' Podkolzin after lopsided fight
Sportsnet

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was loving what she saw from Edmonton Oilers forward Vasily Podkolzin on Thursday night.

The Oilers went head-to-head with the Anaheim Ducks last night in a scrappy affair that saw the latter walk away with a 5-4 victory. The score, however, wasn’t the main talking point.

The fireworks between the two Pacific Division rivals started early in the first period, when captain Connor McDavid was hit hard by Ducks defenceman Drew Helleson after driving the net.

After staying down on the ice to gather himself, McDavid then got up and tried to go after Helleson. Seeing how enraged the 29-year-old was, Podkolzin took it upon himself to get involved. The Russian winger jumped in and threw several punches at Helleson, which wound up resulting in him being ejected from the game.

Despite being ejected, fans were absolutely loving Podkolzin coming to the defence of McDavid. That included Premier Smith, who took to X to praise the 25-year-old on Friday morning.

“Yup, that’s how you stand up for the Captain,” Smith wrote. “Atta boy Podzy!”

As for the Oilers themselves, they too loved seeing Podkolzin stick up for their captain. What they didn’t agree with, however, was that he was thrown out of the game as a result.

“The reaction is what it should have been,” head coach Mike Babcock said. “I didn’t like the fact that you get an instigator on a thing where they’ve run your guy into the net. But that’s not up to the referees; that’s up for us to look after.”

Babcock clearly wanted to say more on the matter, but avoided doing so to avoid a potential fine from the league.

“I’m just going to stop talking,” he said.

McDavid himself, meanwhile, wasn’t too happy about the hit from Helleson, twice referring to it as “dangerous” when speaking with reporters postgame.

These two teams will meet up once again on Dec. 20 in a game at Rogers Place that suddenly seems as though it will be must-watch TV.

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