edbreadsaidhockey: he Game of our lives...born to win!

Civic Arena, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Sunday March 29 1981:
After a scoreless first period, Gretzky sets up Anderson, and Esposito’s record is broken. As the game winds down, he sets up Callighen and then Kurri, as the Oilers win 5-2, and Bobby Orr’s’ record is tied. In seventy-seven games Gretzky has 155 points, fifty-three goals and 102 assists, more than any other player has ever scored in the same number of games.
Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, Friday, April 3:

They are in! The Oilers roll easily over the Canucks as they coast to a 7-2 win. The two points push them ahead of Pittsburgh and out of the reach of Toronto and Washington.

Northland Coliseum, Saturday April 11:

By the middle of the third period, Montréal is hurling itself into every rush, desperately trying to avoid humiliation. The Oilers defense is content to break up the play however it can and lob the puck to safety. “Go Oilers Go” The players stand at the bench, raising their fists in exultation. “Andee. Andee.” Sather’s face is as red as a Montreal sweater, but his expression remains solemn. With just 1:14 left on the clock, Montreal pulls Sevigny and sends out a line-up that resembles an all star team; Napier, Shutt, Robinson, Savard, Gainey, Lefleur.

Sather responds with the forward line that has meant so much in the whole series:Weir, Hunter, and, his head now bandaged, Dave Lumley. With just thirty-seven seconds left Lumley scores into the empty net, his aching head now forgotten. And with Sevigny still out, Gretzky, for once finding no one else to give a hat trick too, completes his own. The game ends 6-2; the series 3-0, the first time the Canadians have been eliminated without a victory since 1952.

It is the most incredible playoff upset anyone can remember!
Do you remember? What a tremendous moment in Edmonton Oilers hockey history. The team had finally arrived as a serious contender. Boasting perhaps the youngest group of players to challenge in the playoffs, in a pinch the Oilers of the eighties could have iced a line-up of eligible juniors. Kevin Lowe was twenty one and in his second year. A couple of rookies, Glen Anderson and Jari Kurri were twenty and Coffey, Messier and Gretzky nineteen. Even excluding these six, the team’s average age was just over twenty-one. Perhaps it is this fresh new attitude they brought to the sport that drew me back to the professional game as a fan. My taste for the Game had gone stale, tainted by the predictability of the powerhouse teams and the measures taken to combat their dominance.

Fact is, as much as the Oilers carried the banner for the new expansion National Hockey League an era was in decline. The early seventies had seen the first growth in the numbers of teams, birthing a new game. As Conn Smythe was quoted saying at the time “I’m not a drinking man, but I know that if you pour too much water in the whiskey, the whiskey gets weaker.” In order to skate with the elite the watered down league reacted with intimidating strategies. Teams unable to find players to skate with the genuine stars began to dress players that could knock them down, ‘goons’ as even their proponents called them. In response other teams acquired more goons and soon the best offensive play they could muster was to toss the puck in the corner and see who was big enough to go in there and root it out. The Philadelphia Flyers rose to the top of the expansion pyramid perfecting this approach, although some fine players, the Broad Street Bullies were characterized by such brutes as Bob ‘Mad Dog’ Kelly who spent six hours in the penalty box in two years and Dave ‘The Hammer’ Schultz, who spent more than ten.

As a reaction to the disintegration of our game reforming hockey became a Canadian sub-industry. The mid-1970’s brought educated, conditioned coaching to the rink. This new breed was students of the game, educated; they were able to communicate what they knew. They were a different bunch than the guys who had shown up on Saturday mornings, blurry eyed and nostalgic, telling our sons and daughters about how they used to play. Along with these new found initiatives the professionals were finally admitting a pool of well-trained hockey talent outside of North America. The Maple Leafs Borje Salming dispelled the ‘chicken’ label the Swedes had earned and soon the World Hockey League Winnipeg Jet’s brought over his former teammates Anders Hedburg and Ulf Nilsson (father to Robert of the current Oilers) to play with Bobby Hull creating one of the best lines in hockey.

The game changed. Instead of plodding up and down their wings, forwards were crisscrossing as they attacked. The role of defense changed as well when a fellow named Orr carried the puck up the ice, directing traffic from the back end, reinventing the position where launching goals was as valuable as preventing them.

So, let’s start there, at the back end, as I introduce the core of a team that would, as time rolled on, rewrite the record books, turbo charging hockey as we know it today. The following is the line-up that faced the mighty Montreal Canadians that fateful April evening.

Although Ron Low and Eddy Mio both played on the early Oiler roster it was Gary Edwards backing up the diminutive rookie Andy Moog who led the way between the pipes. Many a sports commentator wondered out loud if Sather was thinking of Ken Dryden and his rookie success when choosing Andy for the start.

Number two; on defense Lee Fogolin is a case in study for playing hurt. Although showing up for the games on crutches he goes into battle with the fierceness that has earned him the captaincy this season.

Number four: Kevin Lowe. Always the gentleman Kevin transcends his years. At only twenty one he displays the qualities that would do him well in the years to come. This night as in many others he leads the road hockey ritual in the hallways on the Coliseum.

Number 5; Doug Hicks. Although a quite defenseman Hicks brought experience to the table. His stay at home brand of D had helped both the Minnesota North Stars and the Chicago Black Hawks to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Number 6; Garry Lariviere aka Bimbo is newcomer to the newcomers, Garry turns out to be just the anchor Coffey needs.

Number 7; Paul Coffey went through a lot of anxiety this year as he sat in fear of being sent back down to Kitchener of the Ontario Hockey League. Although always an amazing skater he has been inconsistent at his position. As we all know he need not have worried.

Number 8; Risto Siltanen; In these early days Risto, with his short choppy strides, was the offensive threat from the back end as he led all defenseman and most of the forwards in scoring.

Number 9; Glen Anderson. At this late point in the season it was now Andy and not Mork as he had been known before proving himself late season being named Hockey News player of the week. At the time some considered Andy cut from the same cloth as Maurice Richard. Shooting left and playing on the right wing he had an uncanny nose for the net.

Number 10; Matti Hagman had, as I recall , a tendency to get rid of the puck as quickly as he got it. Fortunately Messier and Anderson are the wingers he was giving the puck too. Another thing I remember was, as a Finnish import, his inability; it was reported, to fit in with his team-mates.

Number 11; is Mark Messier. Of all the factors that had turned the season around those last few weeks it was Mark. His game transformed from reckless abandonment to controlled power. Converted from center to left wing it was a favorite ploy of Sather’s to send Mark out to take crucial face-offs. He would have him out with , say , Stan Weir and then have Stan mix it up with the opposing center get waived out and send Mark in against another winger.

Number 12; Dave Hunter has the dubious job of shutting down Lafluer . He had a strange skating posture, skating with his elbows tucked in making it impossible to keep stride with Guy but no one on the team could bump and grind like Dave.

Number 17; Yari Kurri had certainly skated out a permanent place on Gretzky’s right wing scoring seventy-five points. While eighty-nine shy of Wayne’s total that was good for second on the team. I’ve spoken before about chemistry and how magical it can be. Well, these two guys wrote the book.

Number 18; Brett Callighen had a nasty eye injury earlier on in the campaign and was fitted for vision correcting contact lens that improved his sight tremendously, better than original. The improvement was evident by his twenty-five goals and thirty-five assists in only fifty-five games.

Number 20; Dave Lumley was another who did not have a good season but never stopped battling and was itching for a chance at the Habs as he had once been in their employ. Dave would prove to be invaluable in this series.

Number 21; Stan Weir , the old man of the group was playing out his final year and headed up the checking line of Lumley and Hunter.

Number 27; Dave Semenko is perhaps my favorite players on the team. His mix of role playing and actual delusions of grander brought on by his esteemed team-mates made for some colorful moments to say the least. This night he is penciled in to start with Gretz and Yari and he probably was the only one who believed he was being sent out there to score a goal.

Number 77; Gary Unger had through most of his playing career worn number 7 but had conceded it to Coffey when he arrived in Edmonton. Coming over from Los Angeles he only played 13 games that season.

Number 99; Wayne Gretzky. In the season of 1980-81 the Kid accounted for exactly half of the Oilers points. Yes that’s half; I challenge you to find any one and any sport that has ever done that! As my esteemed friend 'guardian of the galaxy' has chronicled in his excellent blog, Mr. Gretzky transcended his sport setting a new standard for all athletes to aspire.

If hockey history has revealed anything worth learning it is that life’s cycles are at work. Things don’t change they just reinvent themselves. Old becomes new. Bell bottoms, long hair and rock and roll, although cutting edge, I thought, were reinventions of my parents plain white t-shirts, cow lick and sock hops. In hockey terms the game has seen rule changes before. Playing surfaces have been changed, equipment improved and formats have been altered. True fans of sport realize what makes it worth watching are the athletes’, they set the stage. Nothing I had ever seen before excited me like Gretzky , Kuri and Anderson on a rush, Semenko fighting Tim Hunter or Messier flying down his wrong wing.

Today we witness a continuation of the cycle. Young guys like Kane, Crosby and Sam Gagner are exciting a whole new fan base and the game is better for it. Teams who have wallowed in wait, afraid of rebirth are now finally embracing the process. Chicago,Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and the new Edmonton Oilers are prime examples of this retooling. What a bright future they can expect!

The Oilers of my era, having beat the Canadians in perhaps the most exciting playoff series I could have hoped for went on to lose to the very experienced and powerful defending champion New York Islanders. Although disappointing fans took heart in their surging potential and as we all know they went on to be one of the last hockey dynasties. Perhaps we will see great teams win consecutively but I doubt we will witness long term domination again.

But as I have tried to point out, never say never.

originally posted in March of 2007...