Jamie Nye: Consider me a fan of Matthew Tkachuk

Depending on if you’re north or south of Red Deer may influence whether you think Matthew Tkachuk is a ‘bleep’ – as described by Oilers forward Zack Kassian – or he’s a perfect pest, playing on the right side of the line.

I tend to think he’s the latter. A gritty, determined and calculated player, who knows where the line is more often than not and gets under the skin of the opposition.

Saturday night saw the blood boiling over by Kassian and his temper tantrum help lead to a Flames win in a reinvigorated edition of the Battle of the Alberta.

Kassian tried to do as much as he could by playing clean until a third hit by Tkachuk saw Kassian do his best Hulk impersonation. All Kassian missed was to turn green.

The NHL Department of Player Safety was fine with Tkachuk’s hits. Oilers nation thinks it was charging, boarding, head hunting and may consider it attempted murder.

I’m much more on the NHL’s side.

But the best part of Tkachuk: He has engaged a rivalry with Drew Doughty and now has thrown gasoline on the Battle of Alberta, and he’s doing it without licking anybody’s face, like a rat on the East coast.