Due to the sheer talent and skill exhibited by both teams in the mid to late-1980s, Alberta was considered a "Death Valley" for teams coming to play on a road trip. The regular season schedule had the two teams play against each other 8 times a year during this period, representing 10% of their games—the honing of skills developed by the Oilers and Flames by playing the "other" best team in the NHL this many times a year made a swing through Alberta quite daunting for the rest of the teams in the league. The two Alberta teams showed their collective domination over the other 19 teams in the NHL by finishing a joint first and second in the Smythe Division 6 times between the 1982–83 and 1989–90 regular seasons (neither team lower than third in the 9 seasons from 1981–82 through 1990–91), finishing a joint first and second in the larger Clarence Campbell Conference 4 times between the 1985–86 and 1989–90 regular seasons (neither team lower than fifth from 1981–82 through 1990–91) and finishing with both teams in the top 10 of the entire NHL 7 times between the 1983–84 and 1989–90 regular seasons (with both teams in the top 5 of the entire NHL in 4 of those seasons). At least one of the two Alberta teams finished first or second overall for the entire NHL in every one of those 9 seasons.