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 Season 11 (NHL 4), 1982-83: Continued Improvement [message #824505 is a reply to message #824021 ]
Thu, 22 June 2023 17:40 Go to previous messageGo to next message
benv is currently offline benv
Messages: 604
Registered: May 2006
Location: Edmonton
No Cups
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	Coach: Glen Sather					
	GM: Glen Sather					
						
	Regular Season Record: 47W-21L-12T (.663)--106 points					
	424GF 315GA    Finish: 1st Smythe Division (3rd overall)					
						
				Regular Season		
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Gretzky, Wayne	F	80	71	125	196
2	Messier, Mark	F	77	48	58	106
3	Anderson, Glenn	F	72	48	56	104
4	Kurri, Jari	F	80	45	59	104
5	Coffey, Paul	D	80	29	67	96
6	Linseman, Ken	F	72	33	42	75
7	Huddy, Charlie	D	76	20	37	57
8	Hughes, Pat	F	80	25	20	45
9	Roulston, Tom	F	67	19	21	40
10	Lowe, Kevin	D	80	6	34	40
11	Lumley, Dave	F	72	13	24	37
12	Pouzar, Jaroslav	F	74	15	18	33
13	Hunter, Dave	F	80	13	18	31
14	Gregg, Randy	D	80	6	22	28
15	Semenko, Dave	F	75	12	15	27
16	Boschman, Laurie	F	62	8	12	20
17	Fogolin, Lee	D	72	0	18	18
18	Habschied, Marc	F	32	3	10	13
19	Lindstrom, Willy	F	10	6	5	11
20	Jackson, Don	D	71	2	8	10
21	Blum, John	D	5	0	3	3
22	Unger, Garry	F	16	2	0	2
23	Lariviere, Gary	F	17	0	2	2
24	Strueby, Todd	F	1	0	0	0
25	Nachbaur, Don	F	4	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L-T
1	Moog, Andy	50	2833	3.54	0.891	33-8-7
2	Fuhr, Grant	32	1803	4.29	0.868	13-12-5
3	Low, Ron	3	104	5.77	0.818	0-1-0
4	Middlebrook, Lindsay	1	60	3.00	0.909	1-0-0


				Playoffs		
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Gretzky, Wayne	F	16	12	26	38
2	Kurri, Jari	F	16	8	15	23
3	Messier, Mark	F	15	15	6	21
4	Anderson, Glenn	F	16	10	10	20
5	Coffey, Paul	D	16	7	7	14
6	Linseman, Ken	F	16	6	8	14
7	Lindstrom, Willy	F	16	2	11	13
8	Hunter, Dave	F	16	4	7	11
9	Lowe, Kevin	D	16	1	8	9
10	Huddy, Charlie	D	15	1	6	7
11	Hughes, Pat	F	16	2	5	7
12	Jackson, Don	D	16	3	3	6
13	Gregg, Randy	D	16	2	4	6
14	Coté, Ray	F	14	3	2	5
15	Fogolin, Lee	D	16	0	5	5
16	Roulston, Tom	F	16	1	2	3
17	Pouzar, Jaroslav	F	1	2	0	2
18	Semenko, Dave	F	15	1	1	2
19	Lariviere, Gary	F	1	0	1	1
20	Unger, Garry	F	1	0	0	0
21	Nachbaur, Don	F	2	0	0	0
22	Lumley, Dave	F	16	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L
1	Moog, Andy	16	949	3.03		11-5
2	Fuhr, Grant	1	11	0.00		0-0

Playoff result: Eliminated in Stanley Cup Final				
Round 1: vs Winnipeg, won 3 games to 0;  14GF 9GA				
Round 2: vs Calgary, won 4 games to 1; 35GF 13GA				
Round 3: vs Chicago, won 4 games to 0; 25GF 11GA				
Round 4: vs NY Islanders, lost 0 games to 4; 6GF 17GA				
Summary: Series: 3-1; Games: 11-5; 80GF 50GA



Transactions

June 9, 1982
• 1982 NHL entry draft—Oilers selected Jim Playfair (20), Steve Graves (41), Brent Loney* (62), Jaroslav Pouzar (83), Raimo Summanen (125), and Dean Clark (167).

August 19, 1982
• Brent Loney*, and Risto Siltanen traded to Hartford for Ken Linseman and Don Nachbaur.

September 25, 1982
• Roy Sommer signed as free agent by New Jersey.

October 1, 1982
• Curt Brackenbury signed as free agent by St. Louis.

October 18, 1982
• Signed Randy Gregg as free agent.

October 27, 1982
• Signed Jim McTaggart* (formerly with Washington) as free agent.

February 19, 1983
• Ron Low and Jim McTaggart* traded to New Jersey for Lindsay Middlebrook and Paul Miller*.

March 7, 1983
• Laurie Boschman traded to Winnipeg for Willy Lindstrom.



One franchise movement in the NHL prior to the start of the 82-83 season: The Colorado Rockies got out of Denver and moved east to New Jersey, becoming the Devils as we now know and love them. This would begin a brief period of stability for the league with no franchise movements or expansions over the next nine years (which coincidentally coincides with the Oilers’ “decade of greatness”—did I just coin that?). New Jersey was placed in the Patrick Division, while the Jets would leave the Norris and join the other western Canadian teams in the Smythe division to balance things out. They would of course become the punching bags for the Oilers over the next eight years—probably would have been better off staying in the Norris which was perpetually weak through most of the 80s.

The Oilers were anxious to get going and make up for the previous season’s playoff failure. They still had three goalies on tap with Fuhr, Moog, and Low battling for playing time. For the third consecutive year, the guy that had won the starter job for the previous season’s playoffs would lose out for it the following one. After Fuhr’s outstanding rookie season (followed by his stinky playoff performance) he seemed to suffer a sophomore jinx and was outplayed by Moog who would take the starting job from him for this season. Fuhr was relegated to backup (even spending a month in the minors) while Low mostly sat on the sidelines, playing just 3 games before being dealt to the Devils. Moog was good, playing in 50 games and going 33-8-7 with a 0.891 save% (compared to Fuhr’s less than stellar 13-12-5 and 0.868) and would get the nod going wire to wire in the Oilers’ playoff run.

On defense, the Oilers decided to trade Risto Siltanen in the offseason in a three way deal with Hartford and Philadelphia that saw the Oilers get back forward Ken Linseman (more on him later). They replaced Siltanen’s offence internally with Charlie Huddy taking a huge leap forward and becoming Paul Coffey’s defense partner—a partnership that would prove formidable over the next five years. Huddy was able to cover for Coffey’s frequent rushes while contributing to the offense himself. Coffey ended up with 96 points (and another 2nd all star selection) while Huddy had an impressive 57 points and a +62 plus/minus rating that won him the Emery Edge award (wonder why that trophy doesn’t exist anymore). Lowe and Fogolin were back to anchor the 2nd pair while a couple of newcomers would now patrol on the 3rd pair: Randy Gregg and Don Jackson. This sextet would be would basically be six guys iced on D for almost every game that season.

What could Gretzky do after shattering records in 81-82? Well he couldn’t go much higher, so he came down a little bit. His paltry 71 goals was 21 less than what he got the previous year—yet still enough to win the goal scoring title by 11 goals over Mike Bossy. He did break his own assist record for the third straight year amassing 125 for a total of 196 points. Obviously this was good enough for another Hart, Art Ross, and 1st team all-star selection. The supporting cast was also impressive with three other forwards getting 100 points: Messier (106), Anderson (104) and Kurri (104)—Messier was named the 1st team all-star left wing for the 2nd consecutive year. The newly acquire Linseman managed 75 points while also being the super-pest his “rat” nickname implied—the Oilers had acquired him for his combination of offense and nastiness, and he delivered in spades. Rounding out the forwards were a mix of old and new faces in Pat Hughes (great on the penalty kill), Tom Roulston, Dave Lumley (came back down to earth getting only 37 points after his 73 point campaign the year before), Jaroslav Pouzar (the most common LW to play with Gretzky and Kurri), Dave Hunter, and Dave Semenko. One player that had a disappointing season was Laurie Boschman. The Oilers had acquired him the previous season for his offensive ability and toughness, but he never seemed to fit in with the team. He managed just 20 points in 62 games on an offensive juggernaut and the Oilers would cut bait with him at the deadline, dealing him to the Jets for the wily veteran Willy Lindstrom, who would soon find chemistry playing with Ken Linseman.

On the ice it was another great season for the team going 47-21-12, good for 106 points and 1st place in the Smythe division (a full 28 clear of 2nd place Calgary) and tied with Philadelphia for 2nd in the league behind only Boston. Their first round opponent was their old WHA rival the Winnipeg Jets, who were a full 32 points worse than the Oilers. The team was determined not to let another upset happen, and although the Jets played them hard and kept the games close, the Oilers would prevail in a 3 game sweep. The second round would give us our first battle of Alberta. The Oilers would absolutely destroy the Flames, winning the first two games easily before the series shifted to the old Calgary Corral where the Oilers demolished the Flames 10-2. They would let their guard down for a moment in game 4, allowing Calgary to eke out a 1-goal victory, but then returned to Edmonton to curb stomp them 9-1 in game 5.

Their Campbell Conference Final opponent would be Chicago who were easily the best team in the Norris division and had finished just 2 points back of the Oilers. A long competitive series was anticipated, but the Oilers turned things up to 11 and easily swept the Hawks, outscoring them 25-11. In just their fourth year in the league, the Oilers had made the Stanley Cup Final.

Their opponent would be the Islanders who had won the cup in the previous 3 years. After getting 118 points in 81-82 on their way to cup 3, the Islanders dropped 22 points in 82-83 and had just 96. They had really turned things on in the playoffs, though, beating the President’s trophy winning Bruins in the Wales final in 6 games. A tremendous SCF was anticipated between the young upstart Oilers and the aging but still formidable Islanders. The Islanders played a defensive system that completely shut down the Oilers offense, and when they did get opportunities Billy Smith was there to stop seemingly everything (he would win a well deserved Conn Smythe trophy). Smith’s combative nature made him publicly enemy number one in Edmonton (after this series I remember writing an essay for my grade 3 Language Arts class about how much I hated him), but there was no doubt how good he was in this series. The Islanders would sweep the Oilers. After seemingly scoring at will against the Flames and Black Hawks, the Oilers only managed a paltry 6 goals in the four games against the Islanders.

When the Oilers talk about this series they always say that they really learned from the Islanders what it took to win—a lesson they would take into the next several years.

[Updated on: Wed, 26 July 2023 21:08]

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 Season 12 (NHL 5), 1983-84; Champions at last! [message #824516 is a reply to message #824021 ]
Sat, 24 June 2023 18:24 Go to previous messageGo to next message
benv is currently offline benv
Messages: 604
Registered: May 2006
Location: Edmonton
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	Coach: Glen Sather					
	GM: Glen Sather					
						
	Regular Season Record: 57W-18L-5T (.744)--119 points					
	446GF 314GA   Finish: 1st Smythe Division (1st overall)					
						
				Regular Season		
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Gretzky, Wayne	F	74	87	118	205
2	Coffey, Paul	D	80	40	86	126
3	Kurri, Jari	F	64	52	61	113
4	Messier, Mark	F	73	37	64	101
5	Anderson, Glenn	F	80	54	45	99
6	Linseman, Ken	F	72	18	49	67
7	Hughes, Pat	F	77	27	28	55
8	Hunter, Dave	F	80	22	26	48
9	Lowe, Kevin	D	80	4	42	46
10	Huddy, Charlie	D	75	8	34	42
11	Gregg, Randy	D	80	13	27	40
12	Lindstrom, Willy	F	73	22	16	38
13	Pouzar, Jaroslav	F	67	13	19	32
14	McClelland, Kevin	F	52	8	20	28
15	Lumley, Dave	F	56	6	15	21
16	Fogolin, Lee	D	80	5	16	21
17	Jackson, Don	D	60	8	12	20
18	Semenko, Dave	F	52	6	11	17
19	Roulston, Tom	F	24	5	7	12
20	Conacher, Pat	F	45	2	8	10
21	Chartraw, Rick	F	24	2	6	8
22	Summanen, Raimo	F	2	1	4	5
23	Berry, Ken	F	13	2	3	5
24	Playfair, Jim	D	2	1	1	2
25	Gorence, Tom	F	12	1	1	2
26	Strueby, Todd	F	1	0	1	1
27	Sherven, Gord	F	2	1	0	1
28	Blum, John	D	4	0	1	1
29	Habschied, Marc	F	9	1	0	1
30	Clark, Dean	F	1	0	0	0
31	Graves, Steve	F	2	0	0	0
32	Jalonen, Kari	F	3	0	0	0
33	Kerr, Reg	F	3	0	0	0
34	Coté, Ray	F	13	0	0	0

						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L-T
1	Fuhr, Grant	45	2625	3.91	0.883	30-10-4
2	Moog, Andy	38	2212	3.77	0.882	27-8-1


			Playoffs			
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Gretzky, Wayne	F	19	13	22	35
2	Kurri, Jari	F	19	14	14	28
3	Messier, Mark	F	19	8	18	26
4	Coffey, Paul	D	19	8	14	22
5	Anderson, Glenn	F	19	6	11	17
6	Linseman, Ken	F	19	10	4	14
7	Hughes, Pat	F	19	2	11	13
8	Huddy, Charlie	D	12	1	9	10
9	Hunter, Dave	F	17	5	5	10
10	McClelland, Kevin	F	18	4	6	10
11	Gregg, Randy	D	19	3	7	10
12	Lowe, Kevin	D	19	3	7	10
13	Lindstrom, Willy	F	19	5	5	10
14	Semenko, Dave	F	19	5	5	10
15	Lumley, Dave	F	19	2	5	7
16	Summanen, Raimo	F	5	1	4	5
17	Fogolin, Lee	D	19	1	4	5
18	Pouzar, Jaroslav	F	14	1	2	3
19	Jackson, Don	D	19	1	2	3
20	Conacher, Pat	F	3	1	0	1
21	Melnyk, Larry	D	6	0	1	1
22	Chartraw, Rick	F	1	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L
1	Fuhr, Grant	16	883	2.99	0.910	11-4
2	Moog, Andy	7	263	2.74	0.891	4-0

Playoff result: Won Stanley Cup 				
Round 1: vs Winnipeg, won 3 games to 0; 18GF 7GA				
Round 2: vs Calgary, won 4 games to 3; 33GF 27GA				
Round 3: vs Minnesota, won 4 games to 0; 22GF 10GA				
Round 4: vs NY Islanders, won 4 games to 1; 21GF 12GA				
Summary: Series: 4-0; Games: 15-4; 94GF 56GA


Transactions

June 8, 1983
• 1983 NHL entry draft—Oilers selected Jeff Beukeboom (19), Mike Golden* (40), Esa Tikkanen (80), Don Barber* (120), and John Miner (220).

October 3, 1983
• Don Nachbaur claimed on waivers by Los Angeles.

October 4, 1983
• Signed Pat Conacher (formerly with NY Rangers) as free agent.
• Signed Mike Zanier as free agent.

November 1, 1983
• Signed Tom Gorence (formerly with Philadelphia) as free agent.

November 9, 1983
• Signed Reg Kerr (formerly with Chicago) as free agent.

December 1, 1983
• Signed Kari Jalonen (formerly with Calgary) as free agent.

December 5, 1983
• Tom Roulston traded to Pittsburgh for Kevin McClelland and 6th round pick in 1984 (Emanuel Viveiros*).

January 20, 1984
• 9th round pick in 1984 (Heinz Ehlers) traded to NY Rangers for Rick Chartraw.

March 6, 1984
• John Blum traded to Boston for Larry Melnyk.
• 4th round pick in 1985 (Larry Shaw) traded to Washington for Risto Jalo.


So it was pretty clear the Oilers were an elite team that just needed to find a way to beat the Islanders. For the most part they would stand pat on their roster, going into the season with basically the same lineup as the year before. One change that did happen prior to the start of the season was that Lee Fogolin voluntarily gave up his captaincy to Wayne Gretzky. Fogolin basically stated that this was now Gretzky’s team and it was up to him and the other young players lead them to glory.

So let’s see how that all worked out. After 81-82 was the year of Fuhr and 82-83 was the year of Moog, the two would, starting this season, settle into a partnership where they would share the Oiler crease fairly evenly. Fuhr appeared in 45 games to Moog’s 38, both with similar numbers splitting the Oilers 57 total wins. Both allowed nearly 4 goals a game, but with the Oilers high power offense, it would prove sufficient.

On defence it was exactly as it had been the year before with the same six guys. Coffey went absolutely super-nova getting 40 goals and 126 points. This was not only second on the team but second in the entire league. Despite this, the NHL decided that Rod Langway (whose 33 points were a mere 93 less than Coffey) was more deserving of the Norris trophy—Coffey had to settle for another 2nd all star selection. Kevin Lowe had his best season points wise so far with 46, while Charlie Huddy and Randy Gregg also put up 40 point seasons. Fogolin and Jackson again rounded out the d-corps.

So about the forwards. Well Kurri had a career high with 52 goals and 113 points (2nd team all star RW), Messier chipped in 101 points (2nd team all star LW) and Anderson just missed giving the Oilers five 100 point scorers by getting 99. Oh and Gretzky? Well for the first time since his rookie season, Gretzky didn’t break any records for goals, assists or points—but despite this I would consider this to be his best season. He finished with 87 goals, 118 assists and 205 points; but he also missed six games with an injury (which would probably mean another 15 points and 6 or 7 goals, and breaking his records. He started the season getting points in the first 51 games (averaging exactly 3 points a game during this stretch) before finally playing the 52nd, not getting a point and then sitting out 6 games (he was ailing badly at the time, but kept playing to keep the streak going). The usual Hart, Art Ross, and first team all-star selection were of course granted to him. For the remaining forwards Linseman had another good season, and Pat Hughes and Dave Hunter both set career highs in points (55 and 48 respectively). Rounding out the forwards were Willy Lindstrom, Jaroslav Pouzar, Dave Lumley, and newcomer Kevin McClelland (a tough guy forward acquired mid-season for Tom Roulston).

So how did they do this time? Well pretty damn good. They set a team record going 57-18-5 good for 119 points and first overall in the entire league-15 points clear of both the Islanders and Bruins. There was a bit of a rocky patch in February during that 6-game period when Gretzky was injured (this coincided with an injury to Kurri as well). They won the first game without #99, but then went on a five-game eastern road trip and dropped all 5 games, finishing off with embarrassing 11-0 and 9-2 losses to Hartford and Washington; but the team was able to shake this off and still finish strong.


For the playoffs, the Oilers anointed Fuhr as their main goalie over Moog, although Moog would get a few starts in order to rest Fuhr. Their first round opponent in the playoffs was Winnipeg again and the Oilers showed they were not fooling around winning game one 9-2 before cruising to a 3 game sweep. Calgary would be next, and despite finishing 38 points back of the Oilers, the Flames battled hard. The Oilers took a 3-1 series lead in four close games, and then had a bit of a scare when Calgary squeaked out a game 5 win at Northlands and then won an emotional game in OT (still remember the Lanny McDonald goal) in game 6 to send it to game 7. I remember the nervous times prior to that game, but the Oilers were able to get things together and won 7-4 going away. Minnesota was next in the conference finals and the Oilers would win this one going away, sweeping the Stars and never giving them any hope.

So the Oilers were back in the Stanley Cup Finals, and their opponent would once again be the Islanders who were gunning for their 5th straight Stanley Cup. Despite the fact that the Oilers were the better regular season team, the Islanders were given home-ice advantage in this series because it was based on the overall record of the Wales Conference versus the Campbell Conference (really dumb system if you ask me—I think it only applied to this season and the next one). One thing that would benefit the Oilers was that it would be 2-3-2 series, so the Oilers would get three straight games at home if the series went 5 games.

Game 1 is one of the most famous games in Oilers history. Grant Fuhr and Billy Smith were both incredible as they kept both teams off the scoreboard until mid-way through the 3rd period when Kevin McClelland of all people scored, as the Oilers would hold on for a rare 1-0 victory. Gretzky called McClelland’s goal the biggest in Oiler history. Game 2 did not go well, as the Oilers were shellacked 6-1.

So the series would then move to Edmonton tied 1-1 for three straight games at Northlands. There was a lot of concern in Oilerville as Billy Smith still seemed to completely have their number as they’d only scored 2 goals in the two games. But then a funny thing happened—Smith suddenly became not only mortal, but sieve like. In game 3 the Oilers pumped 7 goals by him in a 7-2 victory. Fuhr was injured in this game, but it didn’t matter as Moog would go in for game 4 and it was the exact same score, another 7-2 victory. With a chance to clinch the cup at home in game 5, the Oilers came out firing, building a 4-0 lead after 2 periods. Butts were clenched a bit when the rookie Islander forward Pat Lafontaine scored two goals in the first minute of period of 3, but the Oilers would hang on, getting an empty netter and posting a 5-2 win for their first Stanley Cup Championship. Messier was named the Conn Smythe winner.

In just their 5th NHL season the Oilers had their first Stanley Cup in a season where everything seemed to come up Oilers. It was glorious moment that 12-year old me will never forget.

[Updated on: Tue, 08 August 2023 23:34]

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 Season 13 (NHL 6), 1984-85; The greatest ever? [message #824623 is a reply to message #824021 ]
Tue, 27 June 2023 22:43 Go to previous messageGo to next message
benv is currently offline benv
Messages: 604
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	Coach: Glen Sather					
	GM: Glen Sather					
						
	Regular Season Record: 49W-20L-11T (.681)--109 points					
	401GF 298GA  Finish: 1st Smythe Division (2nd overall)					
						
				Regular Season		
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Gretzky, Wayne	F	80	73	135	208
2	Kurri, Jari	F	73	71	64	135
3	Coffey, Paul	D	80	37	84	121
4	Krushelnyski, Mike	F	80	43	45	88
5	Anderson, Glenn	F	80	42	39	81
6	Messier, Mark	F	55	23	31	54
7	Huddy, Charlie	D	80	7	44	51
8	Hunter, Dave	F	80	17	19	36
9	Napier, Mark	F	33	9	26	35
10	Lindstrom, Willy	F	80	12	20	32
11	Hughes, Pat	F	73	12	13	25
12	Lowe, Kevin	D	80	4	21	25
13	Gregg, Randy	D	57	3	20	23
14	McClelland, Kevin	F	62	8	15	23
15	Jackson, Don	D	78	3	17	20
16	Semenko, Dave	F	69	6	12	18
17	Fogolin, Lee	D	79	4	14	18
18	Carroll, Billy	F	65	8	9	17
19	Sherven, Gord	F	37	9	7	16
20	Pouzar, Jaroslav	F	33	4	8	12
21	Melnyk, Larry	D	28	0	11	11
22	Habschied, Marc	F	26	5	3	8
23	Summanen, Raimo	F	9	0	4	4
24	Lumley, Dave	F	12	1	3	4
25	Martin, Terry	F	4	0	2	2
26	Smith, Steve	D	2	0	0	0
27	Coté, Ray	F	2	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L-T
1	Fuhr, Grant	46	2559	3.87	0.884	26-8-7
2	Moog, Andy	39	2019	3.30	0.894	22-9-3
3	Zanier, Mike	3	185	3.89	0.880	1-1-1
4	Reaugh, Daryl	1	60	5.00	0.857	0-1-0
5	Baron, Marco	1	33	3.64	0.778	0-1-0


			Playoffs			
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Gretzky, Wayne	F	18	17	30	47
2	Coffey, Paul	D	18	12	25	37
3	Kurri, Jari	F	18	19	12	31
4	Anderson, Glenn	F	18	10	16	26
5	Messier, Mark	F	18	12	13	25
6	Huddy, Charlie	D	18	3	17	20
7	Krushelnyski, Mike	F	18	5	8	13
8	Napier, Mark	F	18	5	5	10
9	Hunter, Dave	F	18	2	5	7
10	Gregg, Randy	D	17	0	6	6
11	Lindstrom, Willy	F	18	5	1	6
12	Lowe, Kevin	D	16	0	5	5
13	Melnyk, Larry	D	12	1	3	4
14	Fogolin, Lee	D	18	3	1	4
15	McClelland, Kevin	F	18	1	3	4
16	Pouzar, Jaroslav	F	9	2	1	3
17	Hughes, Pat	F	10	1	1	2
18	Tikkanen, Esa	F	3	0	0	0
19	Lumley, Dave	F	8	0	0	0
20	Jackson, Don	D	9	0	0	0
21	Carroll, Billy	F	9	0	0	0
22	Semenko, Dave	F	14	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L
1	Fuhr, Grant	18	1064	3.10	0.895	15-3
2	Moog, Andy	2	20	0.00	1.000	0-0


Playoff result: Won Stanley Cup 				
Round 1: vs Los Angeles, won 3 games to 0; 11GF 7GA				
Round 2: vs Winnipeg, won 4 games to 0; 22GF 11GA				
Round 3: vs Chicago, won 4 games to 2; 44GF 25GA				
Round 4: vs Philadelphia, won 4 games to 1; 21GF 14GA				
Summary: Series: 4-0; Games: 15-3; 98GF 57GA



Transactions

June 9, 1984
• 1984 NHL entry draft—Oilers selected Selmar Odelein (21), Darryl Reaugh (42), and Emanuel Viveiros* (106).

June 21, 1984
• Ken Linseman traded to Boston for Mike Krushelnyski.

August 1, 1984
• Hannu Kamppuri signed as free agent by New Jersey.

October 9, 1984
• Claimed Billy Carroll on waivers from NY Islanders.
• Dave Lumley claimed on waivers by Hartford.
• Claimed Terry Martin on waivers from Toronto.

January 24, 1985
• Terry Martin and Gord Sherven traded to Minnesota for Mark Napier.

February 1, 1985
• Signed Craig MacTavish (formerly with Boston) as free agent.


February 6, 1985
• Claimed Dave Lumley on waivers from Hartford.

February 21, 1985
• Signed Marco Baron (formerly with Los Angeles) as free agent.

March 5, 1985
• Tom Gorence signed as free agent by New Jersey.


So what do you do after one of the best seasons in NHL history, the top offensive attack ever seen, and a Stanley Cup Championship? You probably stand pat and see if you can do it again. That’s basically what Sather chose to do, but he did make one significant off-season move. Ken Linseman was dealt to Boston straight up for Mike Krushelnyski. Krushelnyski was two years younger than Linseman, was 4 inches taller, with slighltly worse point totals—obviously Sather saw something he liked in him. Longtime Oiler Dave Lumley was also lost just prior to the start of the season when the Whalers claimed him on waivers (the Oilers would reclaim him later in the season, but he would not be much of a factor for the rest of his career).

In goal it was basically rinse and repeat the formula from the previous year—games were fairly evenly split between Fuhr and Moog. Fuhr got more games (46 to 39) but Moog had slightly better numbers (.894 to .884).

Their top 6 d-men (Coffey/Huddy on top pair, Lowe/Fogolin on 2nd, Gregg/Jackson on 3rd) were all back for another go round, although Gregg missed about a third of the season and Larry Melnyk filled in for him. The Coffey/Huddy pairing was again fantastic as Coffey amassed another dominant season getting 121 points. This time the NHL could not ignore his accomplishments and awarded him the Norris (and 1st team all-star obviously). Huddy had a great season as Coffey’s wingman, and managed 52 points himself. Lowe and Fogolin were again a good shut-down pair, and Gregg and Jackson were adequate as a third pair.

While Krushelnyski had played as a center in Boston he was moved to left wing with Edmonton and played the entire season with Gretzky and Kurri on the top line. He seemed to fit well as he had by far his best NHL season getting 43 goals and 88 points. Kurri also had the best season of his career, getting 135 points and becoming just the 3rd player in NHL history to get 70 goals (he got 71 total)—it wasn’t enough to lead the league though as Gretzky put in another ho-hum season of 73 goals and 208 points. His 135 assusts again broke his own record. Both Kurri and Gretzky were first team all stars with Gretzky again collecting the Art Ross and Hart trophies. The Oilers second line had a bit of an off year with Messier missing 25 games and getting only 54 points—by far his lowest total since his rookie year. Anderson also had a bit off a down year with 81 points. Their left wing for the latter half of the season was veteran forward Mark Napier who was acquired in January. Napier was rejuvinated in Edmonton averaging over a point a game and was a welcome addition to the team. The bottom 6 were again a serviceable group of pluggers: Semenko, Hunter, McClelland, Hughes, Lindstrom and newcomer Billy Carroll.

The Oilers dropped 10 points in their regular season total, getting 109 points. This was good for 2nd in the league behind Philadelphia, and again tops in the Smythe division. The Oilers’ competition in the division was vastly improved with both Calgary and Winnipeg having above 90 point seasons.

For the 2nd year in a row, Grant Fuhr was tagged to be the Oilers’ goalie in the playoffs—he would go the whole way with Moog getting only a few minutes of mop up duty. The Oilers were quite determined to repeat as champions and their first round opponent was the Kings—a team the Oilers hadn’t seen in the playoffs since the big 1982 upset. The Kings once again played the Oilers tough. Although the Oilers swept the series, all 3 games were low scoring and close with 2 of them going to OT. Next up were the Jets who had vastly improved, finishing 2nd in the division with 96 points. While the first 3 games were all close, the Oilers again used their veteran savvy to pull them all out, before getting a game four blowout to sweep the series in 4 games. Up next was Chicago and this would be a very different series. The Oilers won the first two games by scores of 11-2 and 7-3. Counting their last 3 games of the SCF the previous season, the Oilers had now won twelve consecutive playoff games—a new NHL record. They seemed well on their way to another easy sweep, but the Hawks had other plans. When the series switched to Chicago Stadium, the Hawks found some scoring winning both games to even the series, and put a bit of fear into the Oilers and their fans. The Oilers would, however, dust themselves off and easily win games 5 and 6 by scores of 10-5 and 8-2. The Oilers and Hawks scored a total of 69 goals in the 6 games—an NHL record.

So it would be a third trip to the Finals. The opponent this time would be Philadelphia, who boasted the best regular season record and a Vezina winning goalie in Pelle Lindbergh (Lindbergh would be tragically killed in a car accident the following November—but that’s another story). The Flyers were able to smother the Oilers in game 1 winning easily 4-1. Sather was so pissed about the team’s performance, he burned the video tape and told the team to smarten up for game 2. The Oilers did strike back in game 2 with a 3-1 victory before the series would return to Edmonton for games 3, 4, and 5 (it was another 2-3-2 format). Gretzky owned game 3 scoring twice in the first 90 seconds and completing the hat-trick later for a 4-3 win. Game 4 saw the Flyers take a 3-1 lead, before Edmonton stormed back with four straight to win 5-3 and take a 3-1 series lead. Game 5 was a blowout as the Oilers dominated the Flyers (who started backup Froese in place of Lindbergh—bad hunch there) in an 8-3 stomping for their second straight cup victory. Gretzky took home the Conn Smythe with an amazing 47 points in 18 games--an NHL record that still stands today.

It was another fantastic year in Edmonton. This team was actually voted the greatest of all time in a Hockey News poll, although I think that title should have gone to the 83-84 version; but why quibble. It seemed nothing could stop the Oilers now—unless of course they started scoring on themselves.

[Updated on: Tue, 08 August 2023 23:35]

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 Season 14 (NHL 7); 1985-86: NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! [message #824662 is a reply to message #824021 ]
Thu, 29 June 2023 00:05 Go to previous messageGo to next message
benv is currently offline benv
Messages: 604
Registered: May 2006
Location: Edmonton
No Cups
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	Coach: Glen Sather					
	GM: Glen Sather					
						
	Regular Season Record: 56W-17L-7T (.744)--119 points					
	426GF 310GA     Finish: 1st Smythe Division (1st overall)					
						
				Regular Season		
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Gretzky, Wayne	F	80	52	163	215
2	Coffey, Paul	D	79	48	90	138
3	Kurri, Jari	F	78	68	63	131
4	Anderson, Glenn	F	72	54	48	102
5	Messier, Mark	F	63	35	49	84
6	Napier, Mark	F	80	24	32	56
7	MacTavish, Craig	F	74	23	24	47
8	Huddy, Charlie	D	76	6	35	41
9	Krushelnyski, Mike	F	54	16	24	40
10	Hunter, Dave	F	62	15	22	37
11	Summanen, Raimo	F	73	19	18	37
12	McClelland, Kevin	F	79	11	25	36
13	Gregg, Randy	D	64	2	26	28
14	Fogolin, Lee	D	80	4	22	26
15	Smith, Steve	D	55	4	20	24
16	McSorley, Marty	F	59	11	12	23
17	Lumley, Dave	F	46	11	9	20
18	Semenko, Dave	F	69	6	12	18
19	Lowe, Kevin	D	74	2	16	18
20	Tikkanen, Esa	F	35	7	6	13
21	Jackson, Don	D	45	2	8	10
22	Melnyk, Larry	D	6	2	3	5
23	Jalo, Risto	F	3	0	3	3
24	Sherven, Gord	F	5	1	1	2
25	Carroll, Billy	F	5	0	2	2
26	Brubaker, Jeff	F	4	1	0	1
27	Solheim, Ken	F	6	1	0	1
28	Rogers, Mike	F	8	1	0	1
29	Hopkins, Dean	F	1	0	0	0
30	Moller, Mike	F	1	0	0	0
31	Odelein, Selmar	D	4	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L-T
1	Moog, Andy	47	2664	3.69	0.889	27-9-7
2	Fuhr, Grant	40	2184	3.93	0.890	29-8-0


			Playoffs			
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Gretzky, Wayne	F	10	8	11	19
2	Kurri, Jari	F	10	2	10	12
3	Anderson, Glenn	F	10	8	3	11
4	Coffey, Paul	D	10	1	9	10
5	Messier, Mark	F	10	4	6	10
6	Krushelnyski, Mike	F	10	4	5	9
7	MacTavish, Craig	F	10	4	4	8
8	Tikkanen, Esa	F	8	3	2	5
9	Hunter, Dave	F	10	2	3	5
10	Napier, Mark	F	10	1	4	5
11	Lowe, Kevin	D	10	1	3	4
12	Lumley, Dave	F	3	0	2	2
13	Summanen, Raimo	F	5	1	1	2
14	Huddy, Charlie	D	7	0	2	2
15	Fogolin, Lee	D	8	0	2	2
16	McSorley, Marty	F	8	0	2	2
17	Smith, Steve	D	6	0	1	1
18	Gregg, Randy	D	10	1	0	1
19	McClelland, Kevin	F	10	1	0	1
20	Beukeboom, Jeff	D	1	0	0	0
21	Semenko, Dave	F	6	0	0	0
22	Jackson, Don	D	8	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L
1	Fuhr, Grant	9	541	3.11	0.897	5-4
2	Moog, Andy	1	60	1.00	0.963	1-0


Playoff result:  Eliminated in Smythe Division Final				
Round 1: vs Vancouver, won 3 games to 0; 17GF 5GA				
Round 2: vs Calgary, lost 3 games to 4; 24GF 25GA				
Summary: Series 1-1; Games 6-4; 41GF 30GA



Transactions

April 14, 1985
• Pat Conacher signed as free agent by New Jersey.

May 31, 1985
• Paul Houck* traded to Minnesota for Gilles Meloche*.

June 15, 1985
• 1985 NHL entry draft—Oilers selected Scott Metcalfe (20), Michael Ware (62), and Kelly Buchberger (188).

August 15, 1985
• Signed Ken Solheim (formerly with Minnesota) as free agent.

September 12, 1985
• Gilles Meloche* traded to Pittsburgh for Tim Hrynewich*, Marty McSorley, and future considerations (Craig Muni, October 6, 1986).

September 27, 1985
• Signed Dean Hopkins (formerly with Los Angeles) as free agent.

October 4, 1985
• Pat Hughes traded to Pittsburgh for Mike Moller.

October 7, 1985
• Willy Lindstrom claimed on waivers by Pittsburgh.

December 5, 1985
• Claimed Jeff Brubaker on waivers from Toronto.

December 20, 1985
• Don Barber*, Marc Habscheid, and Emmanuel Viveiros* traded to Minnesota for Don Biggs*, and Gord Sherven.
• Larry Melnyk and Todd Strueby traded to NY Rangers for Mike Rogers.

December 28, 1985
• Billy Carroll traded to Detroit for Bruce Eakin*.



So the Oilers obviously came into training camp in 1985 riding high with two straight cup victories. Their egos were inflated even more when the NHL changed the rule on coincidental minor penalties (they would no longer lead to 4 on 4 play) when it was felt the Oilers took advantage of the rule to give their stars more skating room (the rule was even informally known as the “Oiler rule”).

There would be some minor tweaks to the team. Veterans Pat Hughes and Willy Lindstrom were lost prior to the season. They would add another bruiser to their lineup in a trade with the Penguins: Marty McSorely. Additionally two of their recent draft picks would work their way into the lineup: Esa Tikkanen (who had actually debuted with a couple of games in the 1985 SCF) and Steve Smith. Finally they added a froward who would become a fixture of the team over the next several decades in Craig MacTavish. MacTavish had started his career with the Bruins, but had spent the entire 84-85 season in prison for vehicular homicide. In need of a fresh start, Sather signed him as a favour to his buddy Harry Sinden.

In goal, there was not much new. Moog played 47 games to Fuhr’s 40 and they had practically identical save and winning percentages. Once again, though, it would be Fuhr all the way in the playoffs, with Moog getting just one courtesy game.

The defense was also a repeat of the previous seasons, with a new guy mixed in. Coffey had one of the best seasons ever recorded by a defenseman, getting 138 points and 48 goals. The former was 1 off of Bobby Orr’s record, while the latter beat Orr by 2. He would win his 2nd straight Norris as well as his 2nd straight 1st team selection. Huddy continued to watch Coffey’s back, while Lowe and Fogolin continued their partenership for the sixth straight year. Gregg and Jackson played the entire season with the team, but a new defenseman had made the jump in Steve Smith, who impressed Sather and actually played more than Jackson did.

Wayne Gretzky spent the year shooting less and passing more. For the first time in 5 years he didn’t lead the league in goals, getting a paltry 52. He made up for this in helpers, though—he recorded a ridiculous 163 assists. Think about this fact—this was more assists than anyone else in the league had gotten in points. And I’m not just talking about 85-86, I’m talking about EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE LEAGUE. Wrap your head around that. His 215 points broke his own record. So once again it was the Hart, Art Ross, and 1st team all-star selections for the Great One.

Kurri also had an exceptional season getting 68 goals (leading the league) and 131 points for a 2nd team all-star selection. Interestingly, after the success of Krushelnyski playing with Gretzky and Kurri, the Oilers experimented with different left wingers for the two. While Krushenlnyski did get some time with the pair, they also played with newcomers Raimo Summanen, Esa Tikkanen and Marty McSorley. The 2nd line of Messier-Anderson-Napier all had pretty good season. Anderson gave the Oilers four 100 point men with a 102 point season and 54 goals (Gretzky was actually 3rd on the team in goals!). Messier rebounded somewhat from 84-85 getting 84 points in a season where he again missed some time with injury. Napier’s 56 points was sixth on the team. Newcomer MacTavish had good season putting in 47 points as the third line center—MacTavish was a good fit with the team and was obviously eager to get some positive things in his life. Some of their older pluggers in Hunter, Semenko, and Lumley were still around but starting to see their roles reduced.

The Oilers cruised through the regular season matching, their 83-84 season with 119 points—tops in the league and allowing them to win the President’s trophy (this was actually the first year it was given out). They obviously won their division for the fifth straight year and were a full 30 points clear of the 2nd place Flames.

Everything seemed set for another long playoff run. Their first round opponent was the Vancouver Canucks whose 59 points were a mere 60 less than the Oilers. The series would reflect this as the Oilers swept aside Vancouver in three lopsided games, setting up a Smythe division final with the hated Flames.

The Oilers had dominated the Flames in the regular season, so a win was definitely expected. Then they started playing. The Flames stole the Oilers lunch in game 1 winning 4-1. Game 2 saw the Flames take an early lead, and with a 2-0 deficit staring them in the face, the Oilers were able to rally, send the game to OT, and win on a Glenn Anderson snipe. Game 3 was a low scoring affair with the Flames coming out on top 3-2, but the Oilers found their offense in game 4 in an easy 7-4 victory. Coming back to Edmonton for game 5, surely the Oilers would put on their big boy pants and get things done. Nope. Calgary again dominated in a 4-1 win. The Oilers now faced elimination for the first time since game 7 against Calgary in 1984. They went back to Calgary and managed a tidy 5-2 victory to send the series to game 7. This game is of course legendary in both Oiler and NHL history. With the score tied 2-2 midway through the third period, Steve Smith accidently fired the puck off of Fuhr’s backside and into the Oilers’ net. This would stand as the winning goal and the Oilers’ drive for a third cup was done. The memory remains painful to this day, so I won’t say anymore except the obvious—this series should never have come down to a fluke goal in game 7.

So one of the greatest seasons was over too soon, and the Oilers would be forced to go home and think about they could recover from this.

[Updated on: Tue, 08 August 2023 23:36]

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 Season 15 (NHL 8). 1986-87; Back on the Horse [message #824871 is a reply to message #824021 ]
Sun, 02 July 2023 00:58 Go to previous messageGo to next message
benv is currently offline benv
Messages: 604
Registered: May 2006
Location: Edmonton
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	Coach: Glen Sather					
	GM: Glen Sather					
						
	Regular Season Record: 50W-24L-6T (.663)--106 points					
	372GF 284GA   Finish: 1st Smythe Division (1st overall)					
						
				Regular Season		
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Gretzky, Wayne	F	79	62	121	183
2	Kurri, Jari	F	79	54	54	108
3	Messier, Mark	F	77	37	70	107
4	Tikkanen, Esa	F	76	34	44	78
5	Anderson, Glenn	F	80	35	38	73
6	Coffey, Paul	D	59	17	50	67
7	Krushelnyski, Mike	F	80	16	35	51
8	MacTavish, Craig	F	79	20	19	39
9	Lowe, Kevin	D	77	8	29	37
10	Muni, Craig	D	79	7	22	29
11	McClelland, Kevin	F	72	12	13	25
12	Gregg, Randy	D	52	8	16	24
13	Smith, Steve	D	62	7	15	22
14	Napier, Mark	F	62	8	13	21
15	Huddy, Charlie	D	58	4	15	19
16	Nilsson, Kent	F	17	5	12	17
17	Summanen, Raimo	F	48	10	7	17
18	Hunter, Dave	F	77	6	9	15
19	Ruotsalainen, Reijo 	D	16	5	8	13
20	Beukeboom, Jeff	D	44	3	8	11
21	McSorley, Marty	F	41	2	4	6
22	Pouzar, Jaroslav	F	12	2	3	5
23	Gare, Danny	F	18	1	3	4
24	Kulak, Stu	F	23	3	1	4
25	Fogolin, Lee	D	35	1	3	4
26	Moller, Mike	F	6	2	1	3
27	Lemay, Moe	F	10	1	2	3
28	Graves, Steve	F	12	2	0	2
29	Lacombe, Normand	F	1	0	0	0
30	Lumley, Dave	F	1	0	0	0
31	Van Dorp, Wayne	F	3	0	0	0
32	Semenko, Dave	F	5	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L-T
1	Moog, Andy	46	2461	3.51	0.882	28-11-3
2	Fuhr, Grant	44	2388	3.44	0.881	22-13-3


			Playoffs			
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Gretzky, Wayne	F	21	5	29	34
2	Messier, Mark	F	21	12	16	28
3	Anderson, Glenn	F	21	14	13	27
4	Kurri, Jari	F	21	15	10	25
5	Nilsson, Kent	F	21	6	13	19
6	Coffey, Paul	D	17	3	8	11
7	MacTavish, Craig	F	21	1	9	10
8	Gregg, Randy	D	18	3	6	9
9	Tikkanen, Esa	F	21	7	2	9
10	Huddy, Charlie	D	21	1	7	8
11	Ruotsalainen, Reijo 	D	21	2	5	7
12	McSorley, Marty	F	21	4	3	7
13	Krushelnyski, Mike	F	21	3	4	7
14	Lowe, Kevin	D	21	2	4	6
15	Hunter, Dave	F	21	3	3	6
16	McClelland, Kevin	F	21	2	3	5
17	Smith, Steve	D	15	1	3	4
18	Lemay, Moe	F	9	2	1	3
19	Pouzar, Jaroslav	F	5	1	1	2
20	Muni, Craig	D	14	0	2	2
21	Buchberger, Kelly	F	3	0	1	1
22	Van Dorp, Wayne	F	3	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L
1	Fuhr, Grant	19	1148	2.46	0.908	14-5
2	Moog, Andy	2	120	4.00	0.784	2-0


Playoff result:  Won Stanley Cup				
Round 1: vs Los Angeles, won 4 games to 1; 32GF 20GA				
Round 2: vs Winnipeg, won 4 games to 0; 17GF 9GA				
Round 3: vs Detroit, won 4 games to 1; 16GF 10GA				
Round 4: vs Philadelphia, won 4 games to 3; 22GF 18GA				
Summary: Series: 4-0; Games: 16-5; 87GF 57GA



Transactions

June 21, 1986
• 1986 NHL entry draft—Oilers selected Kim Issel (21), Ron Shudra (63), Dan Currie (84), David Haas (105), Jim Ennis (126), and Mike Greenlay (189).

August 18, 1986
• Signed Tom McMurchy (formerly with Calgary) as free agent.

September 1, 1986
• Signed Danny Gare (formerly with Detroit) as free agent.

October 2, 1986
• Mike Golden*, Miroslav Horava*, Don Jackson, and future considerations (Stu Kulak, March 10, 1987) traded to NY Rangers for Clark Donatelli*, Vile Kentala*, Reijo Ruotsalainen, and Jim Wiemer.

October 6, 1986
• Acquired Craig Muni from Pittsburgh to complete trade of Sept. 12, 1985.
• Gord Sherven claimed on waivers by NY Rangers.

December 11, 1986
• Cash traded to Vancouver for Stu Kulak.

December 12, 1986
• Dave Semenko traded to Hartford for 3rd round pick in 1988 (Trevor Sim).

March 2, 1987
• 2nd round pick in 1988 (Link Gaetz) traded to Minnesota for Kent Nilsson.

March 6, 1987
• Lee Fogolin, Mark Napier and 4th round pick in 1987 (John Bradley) traded to Buffalo for Normand Lacombe, Wayne Van Dorp, and 4th round pick in 1987 (Peter Eriksson).

March 9, 1987
• Jeff Brubaker traded to Philadelphia for Dom Campedelli*.

March 10, 1987
• Stu Kulak sent to NY Rangers to complete trade of October 2, 1986.
• Raimo Summanen traded to Vancouver for Moe Lemay.



So the Oilers had to put the loss to Calgary behind them, lick their wounds and come out swinging for the 86-87 season. The core group would all be back, but there would be some tinkering around the edges. Three players that had been around since that first NHL season (or even longer) would see their Oiler careers end this season. Semenko played just 5 games before being shipped off to Hartford in December. Fogolin found his playing time greatly reduced and he would be traded to Buffalo at the deadline. Finally Dave Lumley only played a single game with the team and he would retire early on.

For the fourth consecutive year Fuhr and Moog split things evenly in the regular season, with Fuhr again getting the playoff nod. This would prove to be a last straw for Moog, but we will get to that later.

Coffey, Huddy, Lowe, Fogolin, Gregg, and Smith would all be back patrolling the blueline. As already mentioned, Fogolin would be traded at the deadline and Don Jackson was also gone, dealt prior to the season for Reijo Ruotsalainen, a smooth skating offensive d-man who had decided to leave the NHL to play in Switzerland, but would return late in the season to bolster the Oilers defense for their cup run. Three d-men missed significant time with injury: Coffey had an off year, missing 21 games, and getting only 67 points, his worst offensive season since his rookie one. Huddy also missed 22 games and had only 19 points, his lowest totals, while Gregg missed 28 games. Smith shook off his big gaff and played 62 strong games with the team. Lowe and newcomer Craig Muni were the only blueliners to not miss significant time both having good years. Another newcomer Jeff Beukeboom (a first round pick from 1983) played his first 44 games with the team, and the addition of Ruotsalainen really boosted things when he came in March.

For the forwards, well Gretzky also had his worst season in since 80-81, but his 62 goals and 183 points were still plenty to lead the league in both categories. So we’ll still consider that a success (tell me if you heard this before—he was a first team all-star and won the Hart and Art Ross trophies). In a year where scoring was down a bit (Gretzky was the only player in the league with over 110 points), Kurri was 2nd in league scoring with 108 points (good for a first team selection at right wing), while Messier had his best season in the league after permanently switching from left wing to center and getting 107 points and tying for 3rd in league scoring with Lemieux. Esa Tikkanen played his first full season with the Oilers on LW with Gretzky and Kurri getting 78 points. Messier’s wingers were Glenn Anderson (a down year for him with only 73 points) for the full year and Mark Napier for a good chunk. Napier would be dealt late in they year and his spot at LW would be taken by Kent Nilsson. Nilsson was a former 135 points scorer with Calgary who fit in nicely on the wing with Messier and Anderson and gave the Oilers two incredibly potent lines going into the playoffs. MacTavish, Krushelnyski, McClelland, and Hunter would get most of the third and fourth line time. One other note is that the Oilers did acquire veteran Danny Gare (he had shared the league lead in goals in 79-80) early in the season, but he retired in November when he realized he didn’t have it anymore.

The team’s performance in the regular was good as they got 106 points which was good enough for a second straight President’s trophy in a league that had more parity than before. The Smythe division was no longer weak, as both the Flames and Jets had great seasons; the Flames were 3rd in the league while the Jets were 6th. One thing that gave Oiler fans trepidation was their record against Calgary, who had won 6 out of the 8 games the teams played that year. It would be difficult to stomach another playoff loss to Calgary.

For the first round the Oilers would face Los Angeles. The league had changed the first round to a best of seven format. The Oilers played poorly in a 5-2 game 1 loss, but rebounded nicely in a 13-3 shellacking in game 2, before cruising to a 5 game victory. For round 2 it would not be Calgary, but Winnipeg who Edmonton would face as the Jets had pulled off the minor upset in round 1. While the Flames had had the Oilers number recently the Jets just didn’t, and despite keeping the games close it would be another 4 games sweep for the Oilers. The Oilers and Jets had now met 4 times in the playoffs with the Oilers now having a 14-0 record. For the Campbell Conference final the Oilers would meet Detroit for the first time. After dropping game 1, the Oilers would settle in and win four straight to get back to the Stanley Cup Final where they belonged.

It would be a rematch of 1985 with the Oilers facing the Flyers, the only other team in the league that had gotten 100 points. It would be a a fantastic series as the teams were fairly evenly matched. The Oilers took game 1, and then squeaked out a game 2 win on a Jari Kurri OT goal. The Flyers won game 3, before the Oilers managed a convincing 4-1 win in game 4 to take a 3-1 stranglehold. This game featured Flyer’s goalie Ron Hextall viciously slashing Kent Nilsson and not facing any discipline until the following season (Hextall was by far the best player on the Flyers in the series and the NHL didn’t want to take him out of it). So it was back to Edmonton where the Oilers could wrap up a third cup at home. Cards on the table—I was at this game after my dad got tickets through his work. When the Oilers took an early 2-0 lead, I was so pumped about being in the building when they lifted the cup. Of course the Flyers would spoil my plans when they rallied and eked out a 4-3 win (This remains the only SCF game I’ve ever been to). Anyway the series shifted back to Philadelphia for game 6 and the Oilers again took a 2 goal lead, before blowing it and losing 3-2. It would be game 7 back in Edmonton. The Flyers scored in the first few minutes, but the Oilers would dominate play from then on. Hextall kept the Flyers in it, but the Oilers would eventually take a 2-1 lead. Anderson finally iced it with a long shot goal between Hextall’s leg (this might have been his only weak goal of the series) giving the Oilers cup number three.

This one felt really good and it seemed there was not stopping the team now….

[Updated on: Tue, 08 August 2023 23:37]

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 Season 16 (NHL 9), 1987-88: The first cracks [message #824967 is a reply to message #824021 ]
Thu, 06 July 2023 22:44 Go to previous messageGo to next message
benv is currently offline benv
Messages: 604
Registered: May 2006
Location: Edmonton
No Cups
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	Coach: Glen Sather					
	GM: Glen Sather					
						
	Regular Season Record: 44W-25L-11T (.619)--99 points					
	363GF 288GA  Finish: 2nd Smythe Division (3rd overall)					
						
				Regular Season		
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Gretzky, Wayne	F	64	40	109	149
2	Messier, Mark	F	77	37	74	111
3	Kurri, Jari	F	80	43	53	96
4	Anderson, Glenn	F	80	38	50	88
5	Tikkanen, Esa	F	80	23	51	74
6	Simpson, Craig	F	59	43	21	64
7	Smith, Steve	D	79	12	43	55
8	Krushelnyski, Mike	F	76	20	27	47
9	Huddy, Charlie	D	77	13	28	41
10	MacTavish, Craig	F	80	15	17	32
11	McSorley, Marty	F	60	9	17	26
12	Beukeboom, Jeff	D	73	5	20	25
13	Lowe, Kevin	D	70	9	15	24
14	Hannan, Dave	F	51	9	11	20
15	Muni, Craig	D	72	4	15	19
16	Lacombe, Normand	F	53	8	9	17
17	McClelland, Kevin	F	74	10	6	16
18	Acton, Keith	F	26	3	6	9
19	Courtnall, Geoff	F	12	4	4	8
20	Graves, Steve	F	21	3	4	7
21	Hunter, Dave	F	21	3	3	6
22	Mantha, Moe	D	25	0	6	6
23	McMurchy, Tom	F	9	4	1	5
24	Shudra, Ron	D	10	0	5	5
25	Miner, John	D	14	2	3	5
26	Dykstra, Steve	D	15	2	3	5
27	Joseph, Chris	D	7	0	4	4
28	Wiemer, Jim	D	12	1	2	3
29	Gregg, Randy	D	15	1	2	3
30	Odelein, Selmar	D	12	0	2	2
31	Ennis, Jim	D	5	1	0	1
32	Buchberger, Kelly	F	19	1	0	1
33	Lamb, Mark	F	2	0	0	0
34	Metcalfe, Scott	F	2	0	0	0
35	Donnelly, Dave	F	4	0	0	0
36	Lemay, Moe	F	4	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L-T
1	Fuhr, Grant	75	4304	3.43	0.881	40-24-9
2	Ranford, Bill	6	325	2.95	0.899	3-0-2
3	Reaugh, Daryl	6	176	4.77	0.877	1-1-0
4	Skorodenski, Warren	3	61	6.89	0.720	0-0-0


			Playoffs			
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Gretzky, Wayne	F	19	12	31	43
2	Messier, Mark	F	19	11	23	34
3	Kurri, Jari	F	19	14	17	31
4	Tikkanen, Esa	F	19	10	17	27
5	Anderson, Glenn	F	19	9	16	25
6	Simpson, Craig	F	19	13	6	19
7	Smith, Steve	D	19	1	11	12
8	Krushelnyski, Mike	F	19	4	6	10
9	Huddy, Charlie	D	13	4	5	9
10	Gregg, Randy	D	19	1	8	9
11	McClelland, Kevin	F	19	2	3	5
12	Muni, Craig	D	19	0	4	4
13	McSorley, Marty	F	16	0	3	3
14	Lacombe, Normand	F	19	3	0	3
15	Courtnall, Geoff	F	19	0	3	3
16	Acton, Keith	F	7	2	0	2
17	Hannan, Dave	F	12	1	1	2
18	Lowe, Kevin	D	19	0	2	2
19	MacTavish, Craig	F	19	0	1	1
20	Wiemer, Jim	D	2	0	0	0
21	Beukeboom, Jeff	D	7	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L
1	Fuhr, Grant	19	1136	2.90	0.883	16-2

Playoff result:  Won Stanley Cup				
Round 1: vs Winnipeg, won 4 games to 1; 25GF 17GA				
Round 2: vs Calgary, won 4 games to 0; 18GF 11GA				
Round 3: vs Detroit, won 4 games to 1; 23GF 16GA				
Round 4: vs Boston, won 4 games to 0 (1 game suspended); 21GF 12GA				
Summary: Series: 4-0; Games 16-2; 87GF 56GA




Transactions

June 13, 1987
• 1987 NHL entry draft—Oilers selected Brad Werenka (42), Geoff Smith (63), Peter Eriksson (64), Shaun Van Allen (105), Tomas Srsen (147), and Igor Vyazmikin (252).

July 31, 1987
• Jim Playfair signed as free agent by Chicago.

October 5, 1987
• Reijo Ruotsalainen claimed on waivers by New Jersey.
• Claimed Mark Lamb on waivers from Detroit.

October 8, 1987
• Signed Warren Skorodenski (formerly with Chicago) as free agent.

October 19, 1987
• Cash traded to Chicago for Dave Donnelly.

November 24, 1987
• Paul Coffey, Dave Hunter, and Wayne Van Dorp traded to Pittsburgh for Dave Hannan, Chris Joseph, Moe Mantha, and Craig Simpson.

January 22, 1988
• Moe Mantha traded to Minnesota for Keith Acton.

February 11, 1988
• Scott Metcalfe and 9th round pick in 1989 (Donald Audette) traded to Buffalo for Steve Dykstra and 7th round pick in 1989 (Davis Payne*).

March 2, 1988
• Ken Berry signed as free agent by Vancouver.

March 8, 1988
• Andy Moog traded to Boston for Geoff Courtnall, Bill Ranford, and 2nd round pick in 1988 (Petro Koivunen*).
• Moe Lemay traded to Boston for Alan May.



The 87-88 saw the first signs of discontent among the core players on the team. When training camp rolled around in September, there were two notable absences. Andy Moog was tired of being second banana to Fuhr in the playoffs and decided to go play for the Olympic team (a long time dream of his). The Oilers would eventually trade him to Boston at the deadline. More significantly, Paul Coffey got into a bit of a feud with Sather and Pocklington over his contract, feeling he was underpaid for what he contributed. A war of words would break out between the sides and it would eventually mark the departure of Coffey from the team when he was dealt to the Penguins in November. In addition to Coffey and Moog the Oilers also lost Nilsson and Ruotsalainen, their two rentals from the previous year. Both players chose to go play in Europe and coincidentally both would return to play for the team in future seasons.

So with Moog gone, Fuhr took over the net with a vengeance. He would have his best season as an Oiler playing in 75 out of the 80 games. This performance earned Fuhr the Vezina trophy as top goalie. Daryl Reaugh (a recent draft pick) and Warren Skorodenski (a free agent signing) handled what little backing up was needed for the first two-thirds of the season. When the Oilers finally pulled the trigger on Moog, they got back Bill Ranford, who took over the role as Fuhr’s backup for the rest of the season and playoffs.

Obviously the loss of Coffey was devastating to the Oilers’ blueline. They did get two d-men back from the Penguins in Chris Joseph and Moe Mantha. Joesph was a prospect, but Mantha was a veteran offensive d-man who the Oilers hoped would make up at least in part for the loss of Coffey. Unfortunately Mantha never seemed to get comfortable in Edmonton, playing just 25 games and getting only 6 points (he had had 67 for Pittsburgh in 85-86) before they shipped him off to Minnesota for Keith Acton. The Oilers best d-man this season was probably Steve Smith who had 55 points. Huddy showed he was still useful without his longtime partner, putting up 41 points. Lowe and Muni put up good seasons defensively, and Beukeboom put up his first full season with the team. Gregg had joined Moog on the Canadian Olympic team, but would return for the end of the season and playoffs.

The Oilers were an embarrassment of riches at forward with two lines that racked up points at will. The top line saw Gretzky flanked by Kurri and Tikkanen, while Messier centred a second line with Anderson and young scoring dynamo Craig Simpson, who had come over from Pittsburgh in the Coffey trade. All six players topped 70 points. Gretzky had his lowest totals since his first year in the league, he would miss 16 games with an injury and got 149 points and only 40 goals. Lemieux took the scoring title and Hart away from Gretzky (he’d have to settle for the 2nd team all star). Messier was the only other player with over 100 points, amassing 111 as he continued to improve. The bottom six consisted of returnees MacTavish, Kurshelnyski, McSorley, and McClelland as well as some newcomers in Dave Hannan (Coffey trade), Geoff Courtnall (Moog trade), Normand Lacombe, and Keith Acton. Longtime Oiler Dave Hunter had gone to Pittsburgh with Coffey.

As a team the Oilers had to deal with another first—for the first time since the Smythe division was formed in 1981, the Oilers did not finish atop it (this of course begin a streak that continues to today of the Oilers never winning their division). Calgary had finally emerged as an elite team, winning the division (and president’s trophy) with 105 points. The Oilers had to settle for 99 points—good for 2nd in the division and 3rd in the league. A 2nd round clash between the two teams seemed inevidible. The Oilers would face the Jets in the first round, and extended their playoff winning streak over the Jets to 16 games when they took the first two games. The Jets would finally end this embarrassing streak by winning game 3, but the Oilers easily took the series in 5 games.

Thus the anticipated series with Calgary would happen, with the Flames being the favourite for the first time, but the Oilers desperate to make ammends for the 1986 debacle. Game 1 was a tight checking 3-1 victory for the Oilers. In game 2, the Flames jumped out to a 2 goal lead, before the Oilers were able to tie it late and send it to OT. Then in one of the most famous goals in Oiler history, Gretzky broke down the left wing while the Oilers were on the penalty kill and blasted a seeing eye shot by Vernon to give the Oilers the 2-0 lead going home to Edmonton. Game 3 was a nasty affair with the Oilers scoring a goal after McSorely viciously speared the Flames’ Mike Bullard—McSorley got a major, but the goal stood and the Oilers would hang on for the victory and a stranglehold on the series. Game 4 proved an easy victory and the Oilers had swept their hated rivals when they were at the top of their game.

After the Calgary series, the conference finals seemed almost anti-climatic as the Oilers easily disposed of Detroit in 5 games to reach the Stanley Cup Finals for the fifth time in six years. Their opponents would be Boston (with old buddy Andy Moog in net), but the Oilers were on a mission and seemed unstoppable, as they won the first three games of the series. Game 4 is infamous as the heat in Boston caused incredible fog on the ice forcing the refs to constantly stop the game and have the players skate around to try and lift the fog. Then with the score tied 3-3 the lights went out and the league was forced to call the game and replay game 4 back in Edmonton. The Oilers were undaunted and after a 6-3 win would get their 4th cup in five years. Their 2 losses were the fewest ever for a cup winner in the “16 games to win” era. Wayne Gretzky made up for his modest regular season, getting 43 points in 19 games and winning the Conn Smythe trophy. He also spontaneously gathered the entire team together at centre ice for a photo with the cup which started a tradition that continues to this day.

This of course would be Gretzky’s last act as an Oiler….

[Updated on: Tue, 08 August 2023 23:37]

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 Re: Season 16 (NHL 9), 1987-88: The first cracks [message #824969 is a reply to message #824967 ]
Fri, 07 July 2023 10:34 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Adam is currently offline Adam
Messages: 7177
Registered: August 2005
Location: Edmonton, AB
6 Cups
benv wrote on Thu, 06 July 2023 22:44

Game 4 is infamous as the heat in Boston caused incredible fog on the ice forcing the refs to constantly stop the game and have the players skate around to try and lift the fog. Then with the score tied 3-3 the lights went out and the league was forced to call the game and replay game 4 back in Edmonton. T



Out of interest, did the points from the aborted Game 4 count in official scoring records?

"Thinking that a bad team's best players are the reason the team is bad is the "Tambellini re-signing Lennart Petrell" of sports opinions." @Woodguy55
#FireBobbyNicks

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 Re: Season 16 (NHL 9), 1987-88: The first cracks [message #824970 is a reply to message #824969 ]
Fri, 07 July 2023 11:34 Go to previous messageGo to next message
benv is currently offline benv
Messages: 604
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Adam wrote on Fri, 07 July 2023 10:34

benv wrote on Thu, 06 July 2023 22:44

Game 4 is infamous as the heat in Boston caused incredible fog on the ice forcing the refs to constantly stop the game and have the players skate around to try and lift the fog. Then with the score tied 3-3 the lights went out and the league was forced to call the game and replay game 4 back in Edmonton. T



Out of interest, did the points from the aborted Game 4 count in official scoring records?


Yes. For the players, the game was considered a "gp" and the goals and assists etc. from the game were counted for the players. The game was just considered unresolved. Thus the Oilers are considered to have won the series 4-0, even though the players were credited with playing 5 games. You can see in the stats most of the Oilers were credited with 19 games in the playoffs, even thought the records show the Oilers with a 16-2 record.

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 Re: Season 16 (NHL 9), 1987-88: The first cracks [message #824971 is a reply to message #824969 ]
Fri, 07 July 2023 11:37 Go to previous messageGo to next message
oilfan94 is currently offline oilfan94
Messages: 410
Registered: June 2006
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Adam wrote on Fri, 07 July 2023 12:34

benv wrote on Thu, 06 July 2023 22:44

Game 4 is infamous as the heat in Boston caused incredible fog on the ice forcing the refs to constantly stop the game and have the players skate around to try and lift the fog. Then with the score tied 3-3 the lights went out and the league was forced to call the game and replay game 4 back in Edmonton. T



Out of interest, did the points from the aborted Game 4 count in official scoring records?


I was just looking at this the other day and yes, they are recorded. The Oilers are the only team to get a 5 game sweep. The only weird thing is that there is no win or loss from it, even though it counts as a game played (so Grant Fuhr went 16-2 playing 19 games in the playoffs, even though he was never pulled from a game).

Kind of fortunate the game was tied in a one sided series when the lights went out. Imagine if the series was 3-3 and score 3-0 instead of the other way around.

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 Season 17 (NHL10) 1988-89: Whiskey.Tango.Foxtrot. [message #824986 is a reply to message #824021 ]
Wed, 12 July 2023 21:48 Go to previous messageGo to next message
benv is currently offline benv
Messages: 604
Registered: May 2006
Location: Edmonton
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	Coach: Glen Sather					
	GM: Glen Sather					
						
	Regular Season Record: 38W-34L-8T (.525)--84 points					
	325GF 306GA  Finish: 3rd Smythe Division (7th overall)					
						
				Regular Season		
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Kurri, Jari	F	76	44	58	102
2	Carson, Jimmy	F	80	49	51	100
3	Messier, Mark	F	72	33	61	94
4	Tikkanen, Esa	F	67	31	47	78
5	Simpson, Craig	F	66	35	41	76
6	Anderson, Glenn	F	79	16	48	64
7	MacTavish, Craig	F	80	21	31	52
8	Huddy, Charlie	D	76	11	33	44
9	Lacombe, Normand	F	64	17	11	28
10	Acton, Keith	F	46	11	15	26
11	Lowe, Kevin	D	76	7	18	25
12	Smith, Steve	D	35	3	19	22
13	McClelland, Kevin	F	79	6	14	20
14	Gregg, Randy	D	57	3	15	18
15	Muni, Craig	D	69	5	13	18
16	Buchberger, Kelly	F	66	5	9	14
17	Redmond, Craig	D	21	3	10	13
18	Jonsson, Tomas	D	20	1	10	11
19	Frycer, Miroslav	F	14	5	5	10
20	Lamb, Mark	F	20	2	8	10
21	Larson, Reed	D	10	2	7	9
22	Joseph, Chris	D	44	4	5	9
23	Adams, Greg	F	49	4	5	9
24	Hunter, Dave	F	32	3	5	8
25	Halward, Doug	D	24	0	7	7
26	Beukeboom, Jeff	D	36	0	5	5
27	Gelinas, Martin	F	6	1	2	3
28	Smith, Doug	F	19	1	1	2
29	Brown, Dave	F	22	0	2	2
30	Leblanc, John	F	2	1	0	1
31	Ware, Michael	F	2	0	1	1
32	May, Alan	F	3	1	0	1
33	Hammond, Ken	D	5	0	1	1
34	Fotiu, Nick	F	1	0	0	0
35	Leroux, François	D	2	0	0	0
36	Odelein, Selmar	D	2	0	0	0
37	Issel, Kim	F	4	0	0	0
38	Cochrane, Glen	F	12	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L-T
1	Fuhr, Grant	59	3341	3.83	0.876	23-26-6
2	Ranford, Bill	29	1509	3.50	0.877	15-8-2


			Playoffs			
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Messier, Mark	F	7	1	11	12
2	Kurri, Jari	F	7	3	5	8
3	Smith, Steve	D	7	2	2	4
4	Tikkanen, Esa	F	7	1	3	4
5	Lowe, Kevin	D	7	1	2	3
6	Muni, Craig	D	7	0	3	3
7	Carson, Jimmy	F	7	2	1	3
8	Lacombe, Normand	F	7	2	1	3
9	Anderson, Glenn	F	7	1	2	3
10	Jonsson, Tomas	D	4	2	0	2
11	Lamb, Mark	F	6	0	2	2
12	Huddy, Charlie	D	7	2	0	2
13	Simpson, Craig	F	7	2	0	2
14	McClelland, Kevin	F	7	0	2	2
15	Gregg, Randy	D	7	1	0	1
16	MacTavish, Craig	F	7	0	1	1
17	Beukeboom, Jeff	D	1	0	0	0
18	LeBlanc, John	F	1	0	0	0
19	Halward, Doug	D	2	0	0	0
20	Hunter, Dave	F	6	0	0	0
21	Brown, Dave	F	7	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L
1	Fuhr, Grant	7	417	3.45	0.894	3-4


Playoff result:  Eliminated in Smythe Division semi-final						
Round 1: vs Los Angeles, lost 3 games to 4; 20GF 25GA



Transactions

June 11, 1988
• 1988 NHL entry draft—Oilers selected François Leroux (19), Trevor Sim (53), Cam Brauer* (82), and Shjon Podein (166).
July 22, 1988
• Geoff Courtnall traded to Washington for Greg Adams.

July 30, 1988
• Dean Hopkins signed as free agent by Quebec.

August 9, 1988
• Wayne Gretzky, Mike Krushelnyski, and Marty McSorley traded to Los Angeles for Jimmy Carson, Martin Gelinas, 1st round pick in 1989 (Jason Miller (New Jersey)), 1st round pick in 1991 (Martin Rucinsky), 1st round pick in 1993 (Nick Stajduhar), and cash.

August 10, 1988
• John Miner traded to Los Angeles for Craig Redmond*.

September 30, 1988
• Signed Reed Larson (formerly with Boston) as free agent.

October 3, 1988
• Steve Dykstra claimed on waivers by Pittsburgh.
• Claimed Ken Hammond on waivers from Los Angeles.
• Dave Hannan claimed on waivers by Pittsburgh.
• Claimed Doug Smith on waivers from Buffalo.
• Craig Redmond* claimed on waivers by NY Rangers.

October 27, 1988
• Ron Shudra traded to NY Rangers for Jeff Crossman*.

November 1, 1988
• Ken Hammond claimed on waivers by NY Rangers.
• Claimed Craig Redmond on waivers from NY Rangers.

November 7, 1988
• Claimed Glen Cochrane on waivers from Chicago.

December 5, 1988
• Reed Larson signed as free agent by NY Islanders.

January 3, 1989
• 10th round pick in 1989 (Rick Judson) traded to Detroit for Miroslav Frycer.

January 14, 1989
• Claimed Dave Hunter on waivers from Winnipeg.


January 23, 1989
• 12th round pick in 1989 (Jason Glickman) traded to Detroit for Doug Halward.

February 7, 1989
• Keith Acton and 6th round pick in 1991 (Dmitri Yushkevich) traded to Philadelphia for Dave Brown.

February 15, 1989
• 5th round pick in 1989 (Kevin O’Sullivan) traded to NY Islanders for Tomas Jonsson.

March 1, 1989
• Signed Nick Fotiu (formerly with Philadelphia) as free agent.

March 7, 1989
• Greg Adams and Doug Smith traded to Vancouver for John LeBlanc and 5th round pick in 1989 (Peter White).
• Alan May and Jim Wiemer traded to Los Angeles for John English* and Brian Wilks*.



So life was good in Oilerville during the summer of 1988. The Oilers had just won their fourth cup in five years and were treated to their own version of a “Royal Wedding” with the nuptials of Wayne Gretzky and Janet Jones right in the city getting country wide coverage. Heck even the Eskimos were the defending Grey Cup Champions. The butting in on all this domestic bliss came August 9 and THE TRADE. If you were like me, the news came as such a shock it just couldn’t be believed: Wayne Gretzky had been traded to Los Angeles. Books and television shows have been dedicated to this trade, so I won’t rehash it here, but suffice it to say it put fans in a place they hadn’t experienced for the entire existence of the franchise in the NHL: what would life be without Gretzky? It seemed unthinkable. A backslide seemed inevitable, but how bad would it be.

Fortunately the team still had Grant Fuhr. With Ranford now backing him Fuhr’s workload was reduced from the previous season. The pair managed to split thing 67%-33% and gave the Oilers solid enough goaltending to remain competitive.

Their defence was a bit of a mess as many struggled to stay healthy and the team tried bringing in numerous veterans to settle things down. Of the mainstays from the previous season only Huddy and Lowe managed full and valuable seasons. Muni missed 11 games, Gregg missed 23 while Smith and Beukeboom missed 45 and 44 games respectively. The Oilers brought several veteran defenseman throughout the season to try to bolster things; Reed Larson, Doug Halward, Craig Redmond, and Tomas Jonsson were all near the ends of their careers and would spend some time with the team (all were gone by the start of 89-90). Finally Chris Joseph (a top prospect acquired in the Coffey trade) was finally starting to ripen and would play 44 games with the team.

What would the Oilers do at forward without Gretzky? Well they did of course acquire Jimmy Carson in the trade, so they did what seemed natural and slotted him in Gretzky’s spot between Kurri and Tikkanen. While Carson is never remembered fondly by Oiler fans, his one full season with the team has to be called a success as he lead the team in goals with 49 and also amassed 100 points. Kurri had an amazing season (hands up if you thought Kurri would improve on his point total from the previous season after losing Gretzky as a center) leading the team with 102 points (and earning a 2nd team all-star nod), while Tikkanen rounded out an effective line with 78. The Messier/Anderson/Simpson trio was kept together and still managed to be effective. Messier had been named the new team captain after Gretzky’s departure and was third on the team with 94 points, while Simpson and Anderson tallied 76 and 64 respectively. The bottom six was also a bit of a work, as the team had lost Geoff Courtnall and both Krushelnyski and McSorley in THE TRADE. MacTavish settled in as the obvious leader of the bottom two lines, having his best season with 52 points, while the remainder of the bottom six included the returning Buchberger, McClelland, Lacombe, and Acton (traded at the deadline for tough guy Dave Brown) and some newcomers in Greg Adams and a returning Dave Hunter (who the Oilers graciously re-acquired mid-season to allow him to retire an Oiler at the end of it).

So how did the team do. Well there were definitely some struggles as it was obvious the team was almost as shell shocked as the fans by 99’s departure. One highlight of the season was Gretzky’s first visit to Edmonton as an opponent—a game the Oilers won going away. Edmonton also hosted the All-Star game this season, allowing the fans to see Gretzky one last time playing for their team. But as might be expected, the team dropped 15 points from the previous season to finish 3rd in the Smythe division, and 7th overall in the league.

Of course this set up a first round match-up between Edmonton and the Gretzky lead Kings, who had finished 2nd in the division, 7 points ahead of the Oilers. The Oilers had to start off on the road and they managed to go into the Forum and squeak out a close 4-3 win in game 1. After losing game 2, the series came back to Edmonton where the Oilers had an easy time in game 3 and then scored a 1-goal victory in game 4 on a last minute goal by Smith that I remember screaming in joy over. With a 3-1 series lead, surely the Oilers couldn't blow it, right? Game 5 saw the Kings win 4-2 making game 6 the pivotal moment which I will always remember. Late in the third, in a tight 1-1 tie, Kings' defenseman Jim Wiemer (who the Oilers had dealt to the Kings during the season) flicked a puck towards the Oilers net from outside the blue-line and it somehow eluded Fuhr. The Kings would take the game and then win game 7 (which I remember as a game in which the officiating seemed awfully one-sided, but I am of course biased) to complete the series comeback win.

I could be wrong, but I get the impression that this loss is not talked about much in Oiler history, but I remember it hitting me really hard. After Gretzky's departure I NEEDED the Oilers to do well and I think I wanted to win this series more than any previous one. To lose in this way was really devastating. It made me feel that now that Gretzky was gone, the Oilers would sink into perpetual mediocrity. I needn't have worried (at least not yet)….

[Updated on: Thu, 10 August 2023 16:50]

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 Re: Season 17 (NHL10): Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot. [message #824988 is a reply to message #824986 ]
Wed, 12 July 2023 23:53 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Adam is currently offline Adam
Messages: 7177
Registered: August 2005
Location: Edmonton, AB
6 Cups
That one is certainly one I remember. Stupid Chris Kontos and his one great shining moment. If I recall correctly, he had 14 points in that series. Just ridiculous. The Oilers remembered it too - they talked about how they saw Gretzky celebrating at the end of that series and it helped to break the bond a little. They played him a lot harder after that, and the next couple years the Kings/Oilers games were crazy.

Also, I imagine it is one of those hockey stories that can't possibly be true, but I've heard that the Oilers thought they were getting the other Greg Adams in the Geoff Courtnall deal:

This guy (https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=6237) rather than this one (https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=6236). Suffice it to say, it wasn't a great trade for the Oilers. This Greg Adams sucked a lot and they eventually traded him to Vancouver where for a short time both Greg Adams played on the same team.

"Thinking that a bad team's best players are the reason the team is bad is the "Tambellini re-signing Lennart Petrell" of sports opinions." @Woodguy55
#FireBobbyNicks

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 Season 18 (NHL 11); 1989-90: Return to Glory [message #825006 is a reply to message #824021 ]
Sat, 15 July 2023 16:34 Go to previous messageGo to next message
benv is currently offline benv
Messages: 604
Registered: May 2006
Location: Edmonton
No Cups
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	Coach: John Muckler					
	GM: Glen Sather					
						
	Regular Season Record: 38W-28L-14T (.563)--90 points					
	315GF 283GA  Finish: 2nd Smythe Division (5th overall)					
						
				Regular Season		
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Messier, Mark	F	79	45	84	129
2	Kurri, Jari	F	78	33	60	93
3	Anderson, Glenn	F	73	34	38	72
4	Tikkanen, Esa	F	79	30	33	63
5	Simpson, Craig	F	80	29	32	61
6	Klima, Petr	F	63	25	28	53
7	MacTavish, Craig	F	80	21	22	43
8	Smith, Steve	D	75	7	34	41
9	Lowe, Kevin	D	78	7	26	33
10	Lamb, Mark	F	58	12	16	28
11	Gelinas, Martin	F	46	17	8	25
12	Murphy, Joe	F	62	7	18	25
13	Gregg, Randy	D	48	4	20	24
14	Huddy, Charlie	D	70	1	23	24
15	Graves, Adam	F	63	9	12	21
16	Ruzicka, Vladimir	F	25	11	6	17
17	Muni, Craig	D	71	5	12	17
18	Smith, Geoff	D	74	4	11	15
19	Beukeboom, Jeff	D	46	1	12	13
20	Ruotsalainen, Reijo 	D	10	1	7	8
21	Buchberger, Kelly	F	55	2	6	8
22	Lacombe, Normand	F	15	5	2	7
23	Eriksson, Peter	F	20	3	3	6
24	Brown, Dave	F	60	0	6	6
25	Carson, Jimmy	F	4	1	2	3
26	Joseph, Chris	D	4	0	2	2
27	McClelland, Kevin	F	10	1	1	2
28	Leroux, François	D	3	0	1	1
29	Sim, Trevor	F	3	0	1	1
30	Bell, Bruce	D	1	0	0	0
31	MacIver, Norm	D	1	0	0	0
32	Lehmann, Tommy	F	1	0	0	0
33	Ware, Michael	F	3	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L-T
1	Ranford, Bill	56	3107	3.19	0.887	24-16-9
2	Fuhr, Grant	21	1081	3.89	0.868	9-7-3
3	Reddick, Eldon	11	604	3.08	0.890	5-4-2
4	Exelby, Randy	1	60	5.00	0.833	0-1-0
5	Greenlay, Mike	2	20	12.00	0.765	0-0-0


			Playoffs			
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Simpson, Craig	F	22	16	15	31
2	Messier, Mark	F	22	9	22	31
3	Kurri, Jari	F	22	10	15	25
4	Tikkanen, Esa	F	22	13	11	24
5	Anderson, Glenn	F	22	10	12	22
6	Lamb, Mark	F	22	6	11	17
7	Smith, Steve	D	22	5	10	15
8	Murphy, Joe	F	22	6	8	14
9	Ruotsalainen, Reijo 	D	22	2	11	13
10	Graves, Adam	F	22	5	6	11
11	Gregg, Randy	D	20	2	6	8
12	MacTavish, Craig	F	22	2	6	8
13	Huddy, Charlie	D	22	0	6	6
14	Buchberger, Kelly	F	19	0	5	5
15	Gelinas, Martin	F	20	2	3	5
16	Klima, Petr	F	21	5	0	5
17	Muni, Craig	D	22	0	3	3
18	Lowe, Kevin	D	20	0	2	2
19	Beukeboom, Jeff	D	2	0	0	0
20	Semenov, Anatoli	F	2	0	0	0
21	Smith, Geoff	D	3	0	0	0
22	Brown, Dave	F	3	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L
1	Ranford, Bill	22	1401	2.53	0.912	16-6
2	Reddick, Eldon	1	2	0.00	1.000	0-0


Playoff result:  Won Stanley Cup				
Round 1: vs Winnipeg, won 4 games to 3; 24GF 22GA				
Round 2: vs Los Angeles, won 4 games to 0; 24GF 10GA				
Round 3: vs Chicago, won 4 games to 2; 25GF 20GA				
Round 4: vs Boston, won 4 games to 1; 20GF 8GA				
Summary: Series: 4-0; Games: 16-6; 93GF 60GA



Transactions

June 17, 1989
• 3rd round pick in 1989 (Wes Walz) traded to Boston for Tommy Lehman.
• 1st round pick in 1989 (Jason Miller) traded to New Jersey for Corey Foster*.
• 1989 NHL entry draft—Oilers selected Josef Beranek (78), Peter White (92), Anatoli Semenov (120), and Darcy Martini (162).

September 28, 1989
• Future considerations traded to Winnipeg for Eldon Reddick.

October 2, 1989
• Cash traded to Montreal for Randy Exelby.
• Kent Nilsson claimed on waivers by New Jersey.

October 9, 1989
• Darryl Reaugh signed as free agent by Hartford.

October 10, 1989
• Jim Ennis traded to Hartford for Norm MacIver.

November 2, 1989
• Jimmy Carson, Kevin McClelland, and 5th round pick in 1991 (Brad Layzell (Montreal)) traded to Detroit for Adam Graves, Petr Klima, Joe Murphy, and Jeff Sharples*.

December 21, 1989
• 4th round pick in 1990 (Greg Walters) traded to Toronto for Vladimir Ruzicka.

January 5, 1990
• Normand Lacombe traded to Philadelphia for 4th round pick in 1990 (Joel Blain*).

February 1, 1990
• Signed Bruce Bell (formerly with Detroit) as free agent.

March 6, 1990
• Cam Brauer* traded to Hartford for Marc LaForge.
• Jeff Sharples* traded to New Jersey for Reijo Ruotsalainen.


For the first time in eight years the Oilers would start a season without Glen Sather as their head coach. After a dozen years in the role, Sather opted to step down as Oilers coach and concentrate on his GM duties. He had originally planned to do this after the 87-88 season, but after the chaos of Gretzky’s departure he opted to stay on to ease the transition.

That transition was to John Muckler, who had been Sather’s right man behind the bench since 82-83 and was more than ready for the head job. This was actually not Muckler’s first NHL head coaching gig, as way back in the 68-69 season he had spent a half season as head coach of the Minnesota North Stars. His 21 years between head coaching gigs remains an NHL record.

Muckler’s team to start the season would be similar to the previous season, but there was a big change early on. Just four games into the season Jimmy Carson requested a trade saying that he couldn’t take the pressure of playing in Edmonton and being compared to Gretzky (rumours say this was triggered by Messier asserting himself as Oiler captain behind the scenes and scolding Carson for some lazy play). Sather would turn this lemon into lemonade when he dealt Carson (along with McClelland) to Detroit (who greatly coveted Carson after passing on him for first overall a few years earlier) for four players that would all contribute (directly or indirectly) to the team’s success—more on that later.

In goal the Oilers once again had Fuhr backed by Ranford to start things out, but things hit a snag half way through the season. Fuhr suffered a shoulder injury that would limit him to just 21 games and force him to miss the rest of the season and playoffs. Ranford was thrust into the starting role for the first time in his career and did well, posting a 24-16-9 record.

On defense, the team was a lot healthier than they had been the previous season. The top 5 for most of the season were Lowe, Steve Smith, Huddy, Muni, and a new guy in Geoff Smith another rare successful Oiler draft pick. Beukeboom and Gregg each played about half the season, with various other young guys filling in. They had acquired Jeff Sharples in the Carson deal, but he never joined the team—the Oilers eventually flipped him to the Devils to re-acquire Reijo Ruotsalainen who would once again act as a useful late season and playoff addition for the team.

The core forwards were also back. Messier went into beast mode this season, accumulating 129 points and leading the team in goals, assists and points with 129 (second in the league only to Gretzky). This earned him his first Hart Trophy and first team all star selection at center. Word is he fully embraced his role as team captain this year and was determined to get the team back to the promised land. His linemates for most of the season were again Anderson and Simpson—their totals were down a bit at 72 and 61 respectively but they did their part. Kurri had a good season with 93 points; he again played with countryman Tikkanen who had in addition to his offensive production (63 points) was developing into one of the leagues top agitators. Three new forwards had been acquired in the Carson deal and all contributed greatly. Petr Klima, a veteran Czech forward with scoring touch contributed 53 points in just 63 games. Meanwhile Joe Murphy (the 1986 1st overall pick, ahead of Carson) and Adam Graves were put on a “kid line” with Martin Gelinas (from the Gretzky trade—meaning all three linemates came directly or indirectly from the Gretzky trade). This trio would be a great third line for the team going into the playoffs. The remainder of the forwards were rounded out by MacTavish, Mark Lamb (sometimes put between Kurri and Tikkanen), Dave Brown, and Buchberger.

The Oilers improved on their 88-89 performance getting 90 points in the tough Smythe division, finishing second behind Calgary. There was some trepidation about going into the playoffs with the playoff untested Ranford, and those fears seemed to materialize early. Their first round opponent was once again Winnipeg who the Oilers had beat for fun in five straight series. Not this time. In game 1, the Oilers took the lead, but Ranford struggled and allowed the Jets to storm back and take the game 7-5. Game 2 was more of a defensive struggle where the Oilers were able to prevail in overtime on a clutch goal by Mark Lamb. The series switched to Winnipeg where the Oilers dropped game 3 by 2-1 then went to double OT in game 4, and lost 4-3. The Jets took an early 2-0 in game 5 and it looked like a quick exit for the Oilers, when suddenly they stormed back to take the game 4-3. The Jets were determined to finish things off back in Winnipeg, but the Oilers would tie the series with another 4-3 win, as Ranford really started to find his game. Game 7 would be a much easier 4-1 win for the Oilers as they completed the comeback to move on (breaking Winnipeg’s hearts yet again).

The Kings had had a disappointing season, but were able to upset the defending champion Flames in the first round to face the Oilers in round 2. The Kings must have spent all they had against Calgary as this one was a laugher. The Oilers destroyed Los Angeles in the first two games by scores of 7-0 and 6-1 before finishing them off in LA with two close games. The Oilers really put the stamp on things that they were over Gretzky (doing it right in front of the Wayne’s face). Chicago was next and after winning game 1, the Oilers dropped game 2, and then fell 5-1 in game 3. Messier took charge at this point, guaranteeing a win in game 4—which he dominated to make come true. Messier would continue to dominate as the Oilers took both games 5 and 6 to move to their sixth SCF.

It would be the Bruins again (with Moog in net) and the Oilers were the underdogs. Game 1 is another legendary one in Oiler history. The Oilers took an early lead, the Bruins came back to tie the game. After nearly three OTs, Petr Klima hadn’t seen the ice as Muckler had benched him for poor defensive play. On his first shift in OT Klima took a nice pass from Kurri and potted the winner. The Oilers won going away 7-2 in game 2 to return home with a 2-0 lead. They dropped a close 2-1 game in game 3, but rebounded nicely with a 5-1 thrashing in game 4. They returned to Boston to wrap things up with a tidy 4-1 win and capture their 5th cup. Ranford was brilliant, particularly in the final which earned him the Conn Smythe. Special props should also go to both Messier and Simpson who co-lead the team in playoff scoring.

This was an important win for the team who showed they could do it without Gretzky (beating Gretzky’s Kings along the way couldn’t have hurt either).




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 Season 19 (NHL 12); 1990-91: A noble attempt [message #825015 is a reply to message #824021 ]
Fri, 21 July 2023 23:09 Go to previous messageGo to next message
benv is currently offline benv
Messages: 604
Registered: May 2006
Location: Edmonton
No Cups
https://scontent.fyxd3-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.18169-9/406694_10151290319747128_2060663958_n.jpg?_nc_cat=107&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=cdbe9c&_nc_ohc=kmFIdq5RqIUAX-otSys&_nc_ht=scontent.fyxd3-1.fna&oh=00_AfDfpzQZVhVl92y7KbqY1JHLFUQ348wjLrzoU0uCnGGvQw&oe=64E2C50A


	Coach: John Muckler					
	GM: Glen Sather					
						
	Regular Season Record: 37W-37L-6T (.500)--80 points					
	272GF 272GA   Finish: 3rd Smythe Division (11th overall)					
						
				Regular Season		
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Tikkanen, Esa	F	79	27	42	69
2	Klima, Petr	F	70	40	28	68
3	Messier, Mark	F	53	12	52	64
4	Murphy, Joe	F	80	27	35	62
5	Simpson, Craig	F	75	30	27	57
6	Anderson, Glenn	F	74	24	31	55
7	Smith, Steve	D	77	13	41	54
8	Gelinas, Martin	F	73	20	20	40
9	Linseman, Ken	F	56	7	29	36
10	MacTavish, Craig	F	80	17	15	32
11	Semenov, Anatoli	F	57	15	16	31
12	Huddy, Charlie	D	53	5	22	27
13	Graves, Adam	F	76	7	18	25
14	Joseph, Chris	D	49	5	17	22
15	Lowe, Kevin	D	73	3	13	16
16	Smith, Geoff	D	59	1	12	13
17	Lamb, Mark	F	37	4	8	12
18	Beukeboom, Jeff	D	67	3	7	10
19	Muni, Craig	D	76	1	9	10
20	MacIver, Norm	D	21	2	5	7
21	Brown, Dave	F	58	3	4	7
22	Buchberger, Kelly	F	64	3	1	4
23	Leroux, François	D	1	0	2	2
24	Middendorf, Max	F	3	1	0	1
25	Aitken, Brad	F	3	0	1	1
26	Vyazmikin, Igor	F	4	1	0	1
27	Haas, David	F	5	1	0	1
28	Hawgood, Greg	D	6	0	1	1
29	Srsen, Tomas	F	2	0	0	0
30	Van Allen, Shaun	F	2	0	0	0
31	Currie, Dan	F	5	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L-T
1	Ranford, Bill	60	3415	3.20	0.893	27-27-3
2	Fuhr, Grant	13	778	3.01	0.897	6-4-3
3	Takko, Kari	11	529	4.20	0.867	4-4-0
4	Reddick, Eldon	2	120	4.50	0.847	0-2-0


			Playoffs			
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Tikkanen, Esa	F	18	12	8	20
2	Simpson, Craig	F	18	5	11	16
3	Messier, Mark	F	18	4	11	15
4	Klima, Petr	F	18	7	6	13
5	Anderson, Glenn	F	18	6	7	13
6	Semenov, Anatoli	F	12	5	5	10
7	Huddy, Charlie	D	18	3	7	10
8	Gelinas, Martin	F	18	3	6	9
9	Murphy, Joe	F	15	2	5	7
10	MacTavish, Craig	F	18	3	3	6
11	Graves, Adam	F	18	2	4	6
12	Lamb, Mark	F	15	0	5	5
13	Beukeboom, Jeff	D	18	1	3	4
14	MacIver, Norm	D	18	0	4	4
15	Buchberger, Kelly	F	12	2	1	3
16	Smith, Steve	D	18	1	2	3
17	Muni, Craig	D	18	0	3	3
18	Lowe, Kevin	D	14	1	1	2
19	Linseman, Ken	F	2	0	1	1
20	Brown, Dave	F	16	0	1	1
21	Smith, Geoff	D	4	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L
1	Fuhr, Grant	17	1019	3.00	0.895	8-7
2	Ranford, Bill	3	135	3.56	0.897	1-2

Playoff result: Eliminated in Campbell Conference final						
Round 1: vs Calgary, won 4 games to 3; 22GF 20GA						
Round 2: vs Los Angeles, won 4 games to 2; 21GF 20GA						
Round 3: vs Minnesota, lost 1 game to 4; 14GF 20GA						
Summary: Series: 2-1; Games: 9-9; 57GF 60GA



Transactions

July 16, 1990
• Steve Graves signed as free agent by Los Angeles.

August 31, 1990
• Signed Ken Linseman (formerly with Philadelphia) as free agent.

October 1, 1990
• Randy Gregg claimed on waivers by Vancouver.

October 22, 1990
• Vladimir Ruzicka traded to Boston for Greg Hawgood.

November 10, 1990
• 9th round pick in 1991 (Brent Brekke) traded to Quebec for Max Middendorf.

November 22, 1990
• Bruce Bell traded to Minnesota for Kari Takko.

March 5, 1991
• Kim Issel traded to Pittsburgh for Brad Aitken.




The Oilers were all prepared to defend their Stanley Cup but got some rough news in the fall of 1990. Firstly, Grant Fuhr was suspended indefinitely, as it seemed he had a bit of a fondness for the white powder. Since they had managed quite well without Fuhr for the latter part of the 89-90 season, they could deal with his loss. Perhaps bigger issues were contract disputes with both Kurri and Anderson. The Oilers would eventually settle with Anderson just after the start of the season, but Kurri was given a lucrative offer by a team in Italy and he would spend the entire 90-91 season playing there, never to return to the Oilers.

With Fuhr out it was Ranford’s net and he took it with a vengeance. He would play 60 games and continued to grow his confidence posting an .893 save percentage (not bad for the time). Newcomer Kari Takko backed up Ranford until the league finally lifted Fuhr’s suspension in late February. Fuhr and Ranford would then tag-team down the stretch. Giving the team a formidable one-two punch in goal.

On defence, Lowe, Huddy, Muni, Beukeboom, and the two Smiths (Steve and Geoff) were all back to give the team a solid rotation (Ramdy Gregg had left for Vancouver). Chris Joseph and newcomer Norm MacIver also got some time as both Huddy and Geoff Smith had injuries during the season. The one who stood out the most this year was probably Beukeboom who was really developing into a great defensive d-man who was becoming known for his thundering body-checks.

At forward, their top line of Messier-Anderson-Simpson was back for another go-round. Messier missed a good chunk of the year with injury, but managed 64 points in 53 games. Anderson and Simpson both had down years by their standards (55 and 57 points respectively), but of course the team was no longer the fierce juggernaut it used to be. Esa Tikkanen and Petr Klima were the top two scorers on the team with 69 and 68 points, while Joe Murphy contributed his best season to date getting 62. Murphy’s kid-linemates, Graves and Gelinas, were also back, as were MacTavish, Buchberger, Lamb, and Brown. A few new forwards were added to the mix, including the first Russian Oiler in Anatoli Semenov, and a blast from the past as the Oilers re-acquired Ken Linseman for a second go round.

The Oilers were the definition of average over the course of the season. They finished with 37 wins and 37 losses; scored 272 goals and allowed 272 against. Their 80 points were their lowest total in a decade. They actually started the season terribly going 2-15-2 to start putting them dead-last in the league—this corresponded with Messier’s injury and was completely new territory for most Oilers fans. The team would obviously recover and coasted near the end of the season as by early March they already knew they would finish 3rd in the Smythe division (they were 20 points back of Calgary and Los Angeles and 15 ahead of Vancouver).

For the first (and only to this date) time in history the battle of Alberta would occur in the first round. Despite being the defending champs, the Oilers had finished 20 points back of the Flames and were underdogs going into the series. The Oilers had to make a decision about their starting goalie—they had the Vezina winner from three years ago and the Conn Smythe winner from the previous season. They opted for Fuhr and it seemed like the right decision as Fuhr was great in game 1, leading the team to a 3-1 win. After the Flames took game 2, the Oilers came back with a 4-3 victory in game 3 on a last second goal by Joe Murphy. A tidy 5-2 victory in game 4 gave the Oilers the 3-1 stranglehold going back to Calgary. The Flames took game 5, and then game 6 was a nail biter as both goalies were fantastic and the game was tied 1-1 after regulation. Early in OT Messier made a terrible pass up the middle that was intercepted by Theoren Fleury and he skated in alone on Fuhr and tied the series at 3-3, with his sliding celebration being one of the hardest things to watch as an Oiler fan. Things could not have started worse in game 7 as the Flames took a quick 3-0 lead in the first period and the Oilers seemed destined to blow their 2nd 3-1 series lead in three years. But then something funny happened. Tikkanen rallied his teammates scoring a quick and fluky goal before the end of the frame. The Oilers took over the game in the 2nd and 3rd getting 3 more to take the lead, before the Flames tied it late. Then in OT, Tikkanen beat Vernon on a seeing eye shot to send the Oilers into the 2nd round. The image of the team leaping off the bench to celebrate the winner, while Messier walked gingerly to the gate will always stick with me—obviously the captain was playing with some discomfort.

For the 2nd round it would be another series against Gretzky and the Kings. The Kings had had a terrific year getting 102 points and winning the division and were eager to avenge the Oilers’ sweep of them the previous year. This would be a close series with four out of six games going to OT. The Oilers would start Ranford in game 1 (to give Fuhr a rest after the taxing Calgary series) and the Kings took it 4-3 in OT. Game 2 would see Fuhr back in net and the Oilers prevail in double OT with a 4-3 win on Klima’s goal. Game 3 would be the Oilers’ fifth consecutive OT game, again going to double OT and again Tikkanen would prove the hero, giving the Oilers the 2-1 series lead. Game 4 would see the Oilers win 4-2, before the Kings took game 5. Game 6 was a wild one, again going to OT. The Oilers thought they had won when Gelinas put the puck in but the goal was called back. Seconds later MacTavish got one that did count and the Oilers were on their way to the Conference Finals.

Here, their opponent would be the upstart North Stars, who had just squeaked into the playoffs, but had upset the top two teams in the league in Chicago and St. Louis, lead mostly by the out of this world play of their goalie, Jon Casey. The Oilers dropped the first game 3-1, before crushing the Stars 7-2 in game 2. The Oilers had nothing going back to Minnesota as they were routed in both games 7-3 and 5-1. Minnesota took a 2-0 lead in game 5, but the Oilers were able to get goals from Tikkanen and Messier to tie the game and keep some hope alive. I will always remember after Messier tied it his enthusiastic celebration told me the rumours that he would leave Edmonton had to be false (I was of course dead wrong). The hope was quickly snuffed out when Minnesota scored shortly thereafter and held on for a 3-2 win, eliminating the Oilers hopes.

A trip to the conference finals for a 0.500 team was a pretty good result, but of course it didn’t seem this way with the success the city was used to. This would of course be the last hurrah for many of the long term Oilers.

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 Season 20 (NHL 13) 1991-92; Year of transistion [message #825019 is a reply to message #824021 ]
Sun, 23 July 2023 17:24 Go to previous messageGo to next message
benv is currently offline benv
Messages: 604
Registered: May 2006
Location: Edmonton
No Cups
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	Coach: Ted Green					
	GM: Glen Sather					
						
	Regular Season Record: 36W-34L-10T (.513)--82 points					
	295GF 297GA  Finish: 3rd Smythe Division (12th overall)					
						
				Regular Season		
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Damphousse, Vincent	F	80	38	51	89
2	Murphy, Joe	F	80	35	47	82
3	Simpson, Craig	F	79	24	37	61
4	Mellanby, Scott	F	80	23	27	50
5	Nicholls, Bernie	F	49	20	29	49
6	Manson, Dave	D	79	15	32	47
7	Buchberger, Kelly	F	79	20	24	44
8	Semenov, Anatoli	F	59	20	22	42
9	MacIver, Norm	D	57	6	34	40
10	Klima, Petr	F	57	21	13	34
11	MacTavish, Craig	F	80	12	18	30
12	Gelinas, Martin	F	68	11	18	29
13	Tikkanen, Esa	F	40	12	16	28
14	Beranek, Josef	F	58	12	16	28
15	Lamb, Mark	F	59	6	22	28
16	Richardson, Luke	D	75	2	19	21
17	Smith, Geoff	D	74	2	16	18
18	Hawgood, Greg	D	20	2	11	13
19	Lowe, Kevin	D	55	2	8	10
20	Maley, Dave	F	23	3	6	9
21	Glynn, Brian	D	25	2	6	8
22	Muni, Craig	D	54	2	5	7
23	Beukeboom, Jeff	D	18	0	5	5
24	Mallette, Troy	F	15	1	3	4
25	Debrusk, Louie	F	25	2	1	3
26	Shaw, David	D	12	1	1	2
27	Currie, Dan	F	7	1	0	1
28	Thornton, Scott	F	15	0	1	1
29	Rucinsky, Martin	F	2	0	0	0
30	Rice, Steven	F	3	0	0	0
31	Leroux, François	D	4	0	0	0
32	Joseph, Chris	D	7	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L-T
1	Ranford, Bill	67	3822	3.58	0.884	27-26-10
2	Ing, Peter	12	463	4.28	0.869	3-4-0
3	Foster, Norm	10	439	2.73	0.891	5-3-0
4	Tugnutt, Ron	3	124	4.84	0.863	1-1-0


			Playoffs			
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Murphy, Joe	F	16	8	16	24
2	Nicholls, Bernie	F	16	8	11	19
3	Damphousse, Vincent	F	16	6	8	14
4	Manson, Dave	D	16	3	9	12
5	Tikkanen, Esa	F	16	5	3	8
6	Klima, Petr	F	15	1	4	5
7	Glynn, Brian	D	16	4	1	5
8	Richardson, Luke	D	16	0	5	5
9	Buchberger, Kelly	F	16	1	4	5
10	Joseph, Chris	D	5	1	3	4
11	Gelinas, Martin	F	15	1	3	4
12	Lowe, Kevin	D	11	0	3	3
13	Beranek, Josef	F	12	2	1	3
14	MacIver, Norm	D	13	1	2	3
15	Hawgood, Greg	D	13	0	3	3
16	MacTavish, Craig	F	16	3	0	3
17	Mellanby, Scott	F	16	2	1	3
18	Semenov, Anatoli	F	8	1	1	2
19	Maley, Dave	F	10	1	1	2
20	Lamb, Mark	F	16	1	1	2
21	Smith, Geoff	D	5	0	1	1
22	Simpson, Craig	F	1	0	0	0
23	Thornton, Scott	F	1	0	0	0
24	Muni, Craig	D	3	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L
1	Ranford, Bill	16	909	3.37	0.895	8-8
2	Tugnutt, Ron	2	60	3.00	0.912	0-0



			Playoffs			
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Murphy, Joe	F	16	8	16	24
2	Nicholls, Bernie	F	16	8	11	19
3	Damphousse, Vincent	F	16	6	8	14
4	Manson, Dave	D	16	3	9	12
5	Tikkanen, Esa	F	16	5	3	8
6	Klima, Petr	F	15	1	4	5
7	Glynn, Brian	D	16	4	1	5
8	Richardson, Luke	D	16	0	5	5
9	Buchberger, Kelly	F	16	1	4	5
10	Joseph, Chris	D	5	1	3	4
11	Gelinas, Martin	F	15	1	3	4
12	Lowe, Kevin	D	11	0	3	3
13	Beranek, Josef	F	12	2	1	3
14	MacIver, Norm	D	13	1	2	3
15	Hawgood, Greg	D	13	0	3	3
16	MacTavish, Craig	F	16	3	0	3
17	Mellanby, Scott	F	16	2	1	3
18	Semenov, Anatoli	F	8	1	1	2
19	Maley, Dave	F	10	1	1	2
20	Lamb, Mark	F	16	1	1	2
21	Smith, Geoff	D	5	0	1	1
22	Simpson, Craig	F	1	0	0	0
23	Thornton, Scott	F	1	0	0	0
24	Muni, Craig	D	3	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L
1	Ranford, Bill	16	909	3.37	0.895	8-8
2	Tugnutt, Ron	2	60	3.00	0.912	0-0


Playoff result: Eliminated in Campbell Conference final						
Round 1: vs Los Angeles, won 4 games to 2; 23GF 18GA						
Round 2: vs Vancouver, won 4 games to 2; 18GF 15GA						
Round 3: vs Chicago, lost 0 games to 4; 8GF 21GA						
Summary: Series: 2-1; Games: 8-8; 49GF 54GA



Transactions

May 30, 1991
• Charlie Huddy claimed by Minnesota in expansion draft.
• Dave Brown, Corey Foster*, and Jari Kurri traded to Philadelphia for Craig Berube*, Craig Fisher*, and Scott Mellanby.

June 12, 1991
• John LeBlanc and 10th round pick in 1992 (Teemu Numminen) traded to Winnipeg for 5th round pick in 1991 (Ryan Haggerty*).
June 22, 1991
• 1991 NHL entry draft—Oilers selected Tyler Wright (12), Martin Rucinsky (20), and David Oliver (144).

July 30, 1991
• Brad Aitken signed as free agent by Toronto.

September 3, 1991
• Adam Graves signed as free agent by NY Rangers—Oilers receive Troy Mallette as compensation.

September 11, 1991
• 6th round pick in 1992 (Jiri Dopita) traded to Boston for Norm Foster.

September 19, 1991
• Glenn Anderson, Craig Berube*, and Grant Fuhr traded to Toronto for Vincent Damphousse, Peter Ing, Luke Richardson, Scott Thornton, future considerations, and cash.

October 2, 1991
• Steve Smith traded to Chicago for Dave Manson and 3rd round pick in 1992 (Kirk Maltby).

October 4, 1991
• Mark Messier and future considerations (Jeff Beukeboom for David Shaw, Nov. 12, 1991) traded to NY Rangers for Louie DeBrusk, Bernie Nicholls, and Steven Rice.

October 7, 1991
• Ken Linseman traded to Toronto for cash.

November 12, 1991
• Jeff Beukeboom traded to NY Rangers for David Shaw to complete trade of October 4, 1991.

January 12, 1992
• Troy Mallette traded to New Jersey for Dave Maley.

January 21, 1992
• David Shaw traded to Minnesota for Brian Glynn.

February 22, 1992
• Max Middendorf traded to Detroit for Bill McDougall

March 10, 1992
• Martin Rucinsky traded to Quebec for Ron Tugnutt and Brad Zavisha.




There were a lot of changes to the Oilers to start the 91-92 season, but let’s get to some NHL housekeeping first. After a decade of stability through most of the 80s, the 90s would see the league add nine teams and see another four relocate. That would start this season with the first new team since the WHA expansion—the San Jose Sharks. San Jose would join the Oilers in the Smythe division, giving the league 22 teams.

Now let’s get to all the changes to the Oilers, starting behind the bench. Muckler was offered the GM job of the Sabres and jumped ship to take it. Sather again promoted from within, making long time assistant coach Ted Green the new head man Green had been with the organization since 1982.

Now for the players. First, in May the Oilers accepted that Jari Kurri was not coming back and dealt him to the Flyers for Scott Mellanby (Kurri would be immediately flipped to the Kings and reunited with Gretzky). Soon after Charlie Huddy would be lost in the expansion draft and Adam Graves was signed as an RFA by the Rangers, losing the Oilers their 3rd line center. More seriously, both Messier, Anderson didn’t come to training camp, both asking for a trade, while Steve Smith was holding out in a contract dispute. All three would be summarily dealt. Anderson was packaged with Fuhr (who was actually happy to stay, but the Oilers wanted to go with the younger Ranford) off to Toronto for a quartet of players (we’ll get to them later). Then Smith was shipped to Chicago for the younger and skilled Dave Manson. Finally, just as the season started, Sather reluctantly traded his captain to the Rangers for three more players. Jeff Beukeboom would also be shipped later on as part of this trade. Obviously this would be a very different team going forward.

In goal, it would be Ranford’s net basically unchallenged. He would have a good season playing in 67 games and always giving the Oilers a chance to win. He would be backed up by Peter Ing (from Anderson/Fuhr trade) for a while, but the Oilers would eventually get a more seasoned backup in Ron Tugnutt (sacrificing prospect Martin Rucinsky).

For the defence, Kevin Lowe was back for his 13th season with the team. With Messier’s departure he would be named team captain, but missed a good chunk of the season, playing only 55 games. The Oilers top D-man by far was Dave Manson who had 47 points and was tough bruising presence. A surprise contributor was Norm MacIver who contributed 40 points from the backend in just 57 games. Another newcomer was veteran Luke Richardson, who played the full season and was a valuable defensive guy and PKer. Geoff Smith and Craig Muni were back to round out the backend, with David Shaw, Greg Hawgood, and Brian Glynn also making some contributions.

The forward group had been completely remade of course with the losses of Messier and Anderson. Tikkanen and Klima were both back, but both missed significant time and did not have great seasons. The Oilers were lead by a brand new top line (dubbed the “Pipe Line”) that consisted of holdover Joe Murphy, plus newcomers Vincent Damphousse (from Anderson/Fuhr trade) and Bernie Nicholls (from Messier deal). Damphousse had a terrific season, leading the team with 89 points, while Murphy was second with 82. Nicholls (who joined the team late while waiting for his twins to be born) contributed 49 points in 49 games. Despite the loss of his longtime linemates, Simpson actually had improved totals, getting 62 points on the year, while Mellanby rounded out the top five with a 50 point campaign. Kelly Buchberger, who had been a fourth liner his entire tenure with team, also found some scoring touch getting 44 points. Other returning forwards included Gelinas, MacTavish, Semenov (who missed most of the year) and Lamb; while some other new faces that made some contributions were Josef Beranek (a 1989 draft pick) Louie Debrusk (Messier trade) and Scott Thronton (Anderson/Fuhr trade).

With the loss of most of their legacy players, it would be easy to think that this would be the year the Oilers would truly tumble, but they somewhat surprisingly improved slightly on their 90-91 getting 82 points and once again finishing 3rd in the division. They would once again face off in the first round with the Kings. This would be a very interesting series with the Kings now featuring a bunch of the old legacy Oilers including Gretzky, Kurri, Coffey, Huddy, and McSorley. Gretzky made clear that he felt after the previous two losses the Kings had suffered against the Oilers, they finally had a team to beat the Oilers. The teams would split the first two games in LA and then return to Edmonton and split those games as well. With the series tied 2-2, game 5 would be pivotal, and the Oilers took control with a 5-2 win. They would then polish things off with a tidy 3-0 shutout and send Gretzky and company home sad once again (to my great satisfaction at the time).

For round 2, the Oilers would face the Canucks, who after being long time doormats, had managed to win the division. Game 1 went to OT and it was the Oilers who prevailed on a goal by Murphy. After a 4-0 loss in game 2, the Oilers returned home to take both and a 3-1 stranglehold on things. After dropping a close one in game 5, they returned home and wrapped the series up with a 3-0 victory. I was at this game, and remember being able to walk up to the arena a couple of hours before the game and buy relatively cheap tickets. There were a lot of empty seats, and most of the fans in my section were Canucks fans. Very surreal to think back.

So the Oilers were on to the Conference finals yet again and would be facing Chicago. Any hopes that this rag-tag group could maybe bring us back to the promised land were soon dashed. The Oilers were completely outclassed by the Hawks in this series, and never seemed to be in it as the Hawks swept them.

I feel this season is often overlooked in Oiler history. A ragtag group that over-achieved by making in to the conference finals, was probably not appreciated as much as it should have been based on Oiler fans of the time taking success for granted. The next twenty years would cure them of that ailment.

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 Re: Season 20 (NHL 13) 1991-92; Year of transistion [message #825022 is a reply to message #825019 ]
Sun, 23 July 2023 23:03 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Adam is currently offline Adam
Messages: 7177
Registered: August 2005
Location: Edmonton, AB
6 Cups
This was such an interesting season. I was in Grade 10 and I remember it just putting me through the ringer. It was incredible how fast everything that remained of the dynasty team was just swept aside. There'd been some naive hope that maybe Kurri would come back and the team would re-capture the magic from 1990...and then in a few months so many of the legends were gone. It's kind of incredible that we dealt four Hall of Fame players in under 5 months.

But as much as Pocklington was getting cash in every one of these deals, likely at the expense of having more actual talent included, Sather was getting as much as he could back. Damphousse and Nicholls were great that season. Richardson was pretty solid pretty quickly, and the Oilers flat out won the Smith/Manson trade, as Smith's ability to stay healthy was already starting to decline.

It didn't help us that the arbitrator just flat up screwed us over on the return for Adam Graves. When the St Louis Blues signed Shanahan away from the New Jersey Devils, just 3 months earlier, the arbitrator awarded Scott Freakin' Stevens to the Devils as recompense. For Graves we got Troy Mallette, who was all-in-all pretty useless and only lasted a few months as an Oiler. David Maley was even worse - I remember him being hilariously slow in NHL '92 - I think that might have been the last version to only have the player numbers and no names.

That playoff run felt really hopeful and you had to think that maybe, just maybe, the Oilers had managed to pivot well...

Also Bill McDougall was a super interesting pickup, despite barely ever playing for the Oilers. His 1993 AHL playoffs is still record-setting I believe...

"Thinking that a bad team's best players are the reason the team is bad is the "Tambellini re-signing Lennart Petrell" of sports opinions." @Woodguy55
#FireBobbyNicks

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 Season 21 (NHL 14); 1992-93: The bottom falls out [message #825049 is a reply to message #824021 ]
Wed, 26 July 2023 15:35 Go to previous messageGo to next message
benv is currently offline benv
Messages: 604
Registered: May 2006
Location: Edmonton
No Cups
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	Coach: Ted Green					
	GM: Glen Sather					
						
	Regular Season Record: 26W-50L-8T (.357)--60 points					
242GF 337GA      Finish: 5th Smythe Division (20th overall)--out of playoffs						
						
				Regular Season		
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Klima, Petr	F	68	32	16	48
2	Corson, Shayne	F	80	16	31	47
3	Simpson, Craig	F	60	24	22	46
4	Manson, Dave	D	83	15	30	45
5	Nicholls, Bernie	F	46	8	32	40
6	Tikkanen, Esa	F	66	14	19	33
7	Mellanby, Scott	F	69	15	17	32
8	MacTavish, Craig	F	82	10	20	30
9	Buchberger, Kelly	F	83	12	18	30
10	Ciger, Zdeno	F	37	9	15	24
11	Gelinas, Martin	F	65	11	12	23
12	Gilchrist, Brent	F	60	10	10	20
13	Podein, Shjon	F	40	13	6	19
14	Hawgood, Greg	D	29	5	13	18
15	Smith, Geoff	D	78	4	14	18
16	Glynn, Brian	D	64	4	12	16
17	Todd, Kevin	F	25	4	9	13
18	Richardson, Luke	D	82	3	10	13
19	Kravchuk, Igor	D	17	4	8	12
20	Joseph, Chris	D	33	2	10	12
21	Vujtek, Vladimir	F	30	1	10	11
22	Muni, Craig	D	72	0	11	11
23	Elik, Todd	F	14	1	9	10
24	Debrusk, Louie	F	51	8	2	10
25	Werenka, Brad	D	27	5	4	9
26	Weight, Doug	F	13	2	6	8
27	Benning, Brian	D	18	1	7	8
28	Beranek, Josef	F	26	2	6	8
29	Rice, Steven	F	28	2	5	7
30	Van Allen, Shaun	F	21	1	4	5
31	McDougall, Bill	F	4	2	1	3
32	Wright, Tyler	F	7	1	1	2
33	Maley, Dave	F	13	1	1	2
34	Hudson, Mike	F	5	0	1	1
35	Thornton, Scott	F	9	0	1	1
36	Leroux, François	D	1	0	0	0
37	Currie, Dan	F	5	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L-T
1	Ranford, Bill	67	3753	3.84	0.884	17-38-6
2	Tugnutt, Ron	26	1338	4.17	0.879	9-12-2



Transactions

June 18, 1992
• Mark Lamb claimed by Ottawa in expansion draft.
• Anatoli Semenov claimed by Tampa Bay in expansion draft.

June 20, 1992
• 4th round pick in 1992 (Chris Ferraro) traded to NY Rangers for 4th (Ralph Intranuovo) and 8th (Colin Schmidt*) round picks in 1992.
• 1992 NHL entry draft—Oilers selected Joe Hulbig (13), Kirk Maltby (65), Ralph Intranuovo (96), Joaquin Gage (109), and Marko Tuomainen (205).

July 29, 1992
• Mike Greenlay signed as free agent by Tampa Bay.

August 27, 1992
• Vincent Damphousse and 4th round pick in 1993 (Adam Wiesel) traded to Montreal for Shayne Corson, Brent Gilchrist, and Vladimir Vujtek.

September 9, 1992
• Signed Ian Herbers (formerly with Buffalo) as free agent.

October 4, 1992
• Norm MacIver claimed on waivers by Ottawa.

December 11, 1992
• Kevin Lowe traded to NY Rangers for Roman Oksiuta and 3rd round pick in 1993 (Alexander Kerch).

January 1, 1993
• Dave Maley claimed on waivers by San Jose.

January 13, 1993
• Bernie Nicholls traded to New Jersey for Zdeno Ciger and Kevin Todd.

January 16, 1993
• Josef Beranek and Greg Hawgood traded to Philadelphia for Brian Benning.

February 24, 1993
• Joe Murphy traded to Chicago for Igor Kravchuk and Dean McAmmond.

March 5, 1993
• Brent Gilchrist traded to Minnesota for Todd Elik.

March 17, 1993
• Esa Tikkanen traded to NY Rangers for Doug Weight.

March 22, 1993
• Craig Muni traded to Chicago for Mike Hudson.


Two more teams were added to the league bringing the total to 24. The Ottawa Senators were placed in the Adams Division, while the Tampa Bay Lightning were put in the Norris. So every division now had 6 teams. The league also decided to increase the total games played by 4 with each team now playing an 84 game schedule.

Once again the Oilers would go through a lot of changes prior to the start of the season. They immediately lost forwards Lamb and Semenov in the expansion draft. Then prior to training camp, the big blow came when two thirds of their top line made trade requests with both Damphousse and Murphy refusing to report. Their captain and longest serving member Kevin Lowe also wanted out and Sather had to get busy finding landing spots for all these players. Damphousse would be moved to Montreal for three players in September but the other two would have to wait and both would hold out until they were traded. Lowe was sent to the Rangers in December (Craig MacTavish would be named the new team captain), while Murphy would have to wait until February before getting his ticket to Chicago. One other loss (which has always puzzled me) was they let Norm MacIver go to Ottawa on waivers just prior to the start of the season. He had been their 2nd highest scoring defenseman the year prior and would have a terrific offensive season with the lowly Senators, getting 63 points and leading the team (this 63 points was 15 more than any Oiler—forward or defenseman—would get that season). He probably had his defensive shortcomings, but that kind of offensive production should make up for a lot. I digress…..

The Oilers may have had ambitions for success at the start of the season, but it soon became apparent that this team was going nowhere, and Sather fully committed to the rebuild as the season went on continuing to jettison disgruntled veterans for youth.

One area of stability for the team was in goal. Both Ranford and Tugnutt would return and both stuck it out to the end of the season. Ranford was once again the guy with Tugnutt getting every third or fourth game to back him up. While their numbers don’t look great, it’s important to keep in mind that this was the highest scoring season in NHL history, so all goalie numbers were down. In general Ranford and Tugnutt were fine and were hardly the main problems with this team.

So with Lowe and MacIver gone, the team relied heavily on Manson and Richardson for defensive play. Both played full seasons and were the best the team had (Manson also contributed offensively getting 45 points). Craig Muni and Geoff Smith were also back playing full time, although Muni would be dealt at the deadline. There were a myriad of others the Oilers tried throughout the season, most prominently returnees Brian Glynn, Brad Werenka, and Chris Joseph (still coulnd’t quite crack the lineup full time) as well as some mid-season acquisitions Igor Kravchuk (Murphy trade) and Brian Benning (traded for Beranek and Hawgood). Kravchuk was the main prize they got for Murphy and he would play an important role in seasons to come.

As mentioned, this was the highest scoring NHL season in history, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the Oilers' scoring chart. Their top scorer was Klima with a "whopping" 48 points (that put him tied for 142nd in the league so on average other teams had 4 or 5 guys with more points. Heck a few years ago, 48 would have been a good month for Gretzky). He was followed closely by veteran Shayne Corson (from the Damphousse trade) with 47 (not quite replacing Damphousse, but not too shabby) and 46 from Craig Simpson (who was on his last legs as an NHLer). Nicholls was probably their top forward for the first half of the season (40 points in 49 games), but he was never a happy camper in Edmonton, and was even less so now that his "pipe-line" linemates were both gone. He would be traded in January for a couple of younger forwards in Zdeno Ciger and Kevin Todd who made their own contributions in the 2nd half of the season. Esa Tikkanen was also still around, but he seemed to be going through the motions and unhappy for much of the season, and he too would be dealt in February. The return for Edmonton was a young center long coveted by Sather named Doug Weight. Weight would show a bit of touch this season with Edmonton, but his true value would start to emerge over the next several years (this is probably the best trade Sather made during this period). MacTavish and Buchberger remained and put up decent 30 point seasons as the veteran leadership of the team. Also still around were Mellanby and Gelinas who both had mediocre seasons and tough guy DeBrusk was there to punch faces. Some other newcomers of note were Shjon Podein, Brent Gilchrist (acquired in Damphousse trade and then dealt himself late in the season for Todd Elik) and rookie Vladimir Vujtek (also acquired in Damphousse trade).

Ugh, was this season ever a big mess. As you have probably surmised the team did not do very well. Their 60 points, a full 24 games under 0.500, was the fifth worst in the league ahead only of Hartford and the three expansion teams. For the first time in their NHL history they missed the playoffs finishing fifth in the Smythe divsion (a full 27 points behind fourth place Winnipeg but amazingly 36 ahead of sixth place San Jose—man were the Senators and Sharks ever bad that year as they tanked for Alexandre Daigle).

Sather would have his hands full as the Oilers would have to be rebuilt again from the ground up.

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 Season 22 (NHL 15); 1993-94: Full on rebuild [message #825094 is a reply to message #824021 ]
Fri, 28 July 2023 20:31 Go to previous messageGo to next message
benv is currently offline benv
Messages: 604
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			EDMONTON OILERS 1993-1994 Season			
	Coach: Ted Green (3-18-3) and Glen Sather (22-27-11)					
	GM: Glen Sather					
						
Regular Season Record: 25W-45L-14T (.381)--64 points						
261GF 305GA   Finish: 11th Western Conference (23rd overall)--out of playoffs						
						
				Regular Season		
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Weight, Doug	F	84	24	50	74
2	Arnott, Jason	F	78	33	35	68
3	Ciger, Zdeno	F	84	22	35	57
4	Corson, Shayne	F	64	25	29	54
5	Kravchuk, Igor	D	81	12	38	50
6	Beers, Bob	D	66	10	27	37
7	Pearson, Scott	F	72	19	18	37
8	Rice, Steven	F	63	17	15	32
9	Byakin, Ilya	D	44	8	20	28
10	Olausson, Fredrik	D	55	9	19	28
11	McAmmond, Dean	F	45	6	21	27
12	MacTavish, Craig	F	66	16	10	26
13	Buchberger, Kelly	F	84	3	18	21
14	Vujtek, Vladimir	F	40	4	15	19
15	Maltby, Kirk	F	68	11	8	19
16	Grieve, Brent	F	24	13	5	18
17	Manson, Dave	D	57	3	13	16
18	Stapleton, Mike	F	23	5	9	14
19	Thornton, Scott	F	61	4	7	11
20	Debrusk, Louie	F	48	4	6	10
21	Bennett, Adam	D	48	3	6	9
22	White, Peter	F	26	3	5	8
23	Podein, Shjon	F	28	3	5	8
24	Richardson, Luke	D	69	2	6	8
25	Werenka, Brad	D	15	0	4	4
26	Oksiuta, Roman	F	10	1	2	3
27	Smith, Geoff	D	21	0	3	3
28	Joseph, Chris	D	10	1	1	2
29	Mironov, Boris	D	14	0	2	2
30	Herbers, Ian	D	22	0	2	2
31	Marchant, Todd	F	3	0	1	1
32	Mark, Gord	D	12	0	1	1
33	Cierny, Jozef	F	1	0	0	0
34	Chychrun, Jeff	D	2	0	0	0
35	Martini, Darcy	D	2	0	0	0
36	Zavisha, Brad	F	2	0	0	0
37	Elik, Todd	F	4	0	0	0
38	Kerch, Alexander	F	5	0	0	0
39	Laforge, Marc	F	5	0	0	0
40	Wright, Tyler	F	5	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L-T
1	Ranford, Bill	71	4070	3.48	0.898	22-34-11
2	Brathwaite, Fred	19	982	3.54	0.889	3-10-3
3	Cowley, Wayne	1	57	3.16	0.914	0-1-0



Transactions

June 16, 1993
• Petr Klima traded to Tampa Bay for 3rd round pick in 1994 (Brad Symes*).

June 20, 1993
• Martin Gelinas and 6th round pick in 1993 (Nicholas Checco) traded to Quebec for Scott Pearson.

June 24, 1993
• Scott Mellanby claimed by Florida in expansion draft.
• Ron Tugnutt claimed by Anaheim in expansion draft.

June 26, 1993
• 1993 NHL entry draft—Oilers selected Jason Arnott (7), Nick Stajduhar (16), Alexander Kerch (60), Miroslav Satan (111), and Ilya Byakin (267).

July 12, 1993
• Eldon Reddick signed as free agent by Florida.

July 13, 1993
• Brian Benning signed as free agent by Florida.

July 16, 1993
• Dan Currie signed as free agent by Los Angeles.

July 22, 1993
• Shaun Van Allen signed as free agent by Anaheim.

August 4, 1993
• Norm Foster signed as free agent by Philadelphia.

August 10, 1993
• David Haas signed as free agent by Calgary.

August 13, 1993
• Bill McDougall signed as free agent by Tampa Bay.


August 30, 1993
• Peter Ing traded to Detroit for 7th round pick 1994 (Chris Wickenheiser*) and future consideration.

September 1, 1993
• Craig Simpson traded to Buffalo for Jozef Cierny and 4th round pick in 1994 (Jussi Tarvainen*).

September 13, 1993
• Signed Wayne Cowley (formerly with Calgary) as free agent.

September 15, 1993
• Brian Glynn traded to Ottawa for 8th round pick in 1994 (Rob Guinn*).

October 3, 1993
• Mike Hudson claimed on waivers by NY Rangers.

October 6, 1993
• Signed Fred Brathwaite as free agent.
• François Leroux claimed on waivers by Ottawa.

October 7, 1993
• Kevin Todd traded to Chicago for Adam Bennett.

October 26, 1993
• Todd Elik claimed on waivers by San Jose.

November 2, 1993
• Future considerations traded to Los Angeles for Jeff Chychrun.

November 11, 1993
• Chris Joseph traded to Tampa Bay for Bob Beers.

December 6, 1993
• 3rd round pick in 1994 (Tavis Hansen) traded to Winnipeg for Fredrik Olausson and 7th round pick in 1994 (Curtis Sheptak*).
• Geoff Smith and 4th round pick in 1994 (David Nemirovsky) traded to Florida for 3rd (Corey Neilson*) and 6th (Chris Kibermanis (Winnipeg)) round picks in 1994.

December 15, 1993
• Marc LaForge traded to NY Islanders for Brent Grieve.

February 1, 1994
• Signed Gord Mark (formerly with New Jersey) as free agent.


February 19, 1994
• Claimed Mike Stapleton on waivers from Pittsburgh.

March 15, 1994
• Dave Manson and 6th round pick in 1994 (Chris Kibermanis) traded to Winnipeg for Mats Lindgren, Boris Mironov, and 1st (Jason Bonsignore) and 4th (Adam Copeland*) round picks in 1994.

March 20, 1994
• Signed Greg DeVries as free agent.

March 21, 1994
• Craig MacTavish traded to NY Rangers for Todd Marchant.
• Brad Werenka traded to Quebec for Steve Passmore.



Some league changes before we get to the Oilers. For the third consecutive year there was an expansion with the additions of the Florida Panthers and Anaheim Mighty Ducks. For the first time in 11 years a franchise relocated with the North Stars leaving Minneapolis for that hockey hotbed of Dallas, Texas and becoming simply the “Stars”. The league abandoned the Smythe, Norris, Adams, Patrick, Campbell, and Wales names for their divisions and conferences and went with geographical names. There was also some re-alignment with the new Eastern Conference now having 14 teams and the West only 12. There were still 8 teams per conference in the playoffs, which gave the West a distinct advantage. The Oilers were now in the Pacific Division with Calgary, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Anaheim, and San Jose (the Jets had been moved to the Central). Finally, instead of a divisional format for the playoffs, it was a conference format, with the top two teams in each division getting the top two spots, and then the next six slotted in regardless of division.

Ok so what about the Oilers. Off the ice this when things started to get a bit dicey with respect to the financial stability of the team and Pocklington began to actively shop the team around. For die hard Oiler fans it was really stressful to think we could possibly lose the team. This financial instability of course also affected the on ice product as the Oilers couldn’t pay as well as most teams and the next ten years would see players leaving when the Oilers could no longer afford to pay them.

But that’s for later. For now, Sather had to get to work on his rebuild. One helpful thing about being bad the previous year was getting their first top ten pick since Fuhr in 1981. They used it wisely, drafting hulking and skilled center Jason Arnott who would slot right into the Oilers lineup and start contributing. On the other end there were again many players who finished 92-93 with the team who would be gone before the start of the season. Mellanby and Tugnutt were lost in the expansion draft, and two of their top three scorers (Klima and Simpson) were shipped out for scraps. Also gone were Gelinas, Benning (we hardly knew ya), Todd (hardly knew you either) and Glynn. It seems like Sather was fiddling with the lineup weekly this season, but we’ll just get to the important changes.

The loss of Tugnutt meant Ranford would be relied on even more. Ranford would play 71 of the 84 games for the team posting a respectable .898 save percentage and keeping the team in as many games as possible. When he needed backup, it would be provided by Fred Brathwaite, a free agent signing who was still finding his way.

Manson and Richardson were back to anchor the D, but they would see almost all new faces around them this year (Geoff Smith spent about a quarter of the season with the team before being traded). Igor Kravchuk and new man Bob Beers (he was acquired early in the season from the Lightning for “never could quite get over the hump” Chris Joseph) took over as the Oilers top offensive d-man with 50 and 37 points respectively. Three other newcomers that played most of the games were Adam Bennett (Todd trade), veteran Fredrik Olaussan (acquired for draft picks), and Ilya Byakin (draft pick) all showing something during the season. They showed enough that Sather felt he could part with Dave Manson near the trade deadline when he discovered how much the Jets coveted him. Manson went to the Jets for Boris Mironov, Mats Lindgren, and their 1st round pick. The Jets were as bad as the Oilers, so this would turn out to be the 4th overall—it’s amazing that they were willing to give up so much for Manson.

So what about at forward? Well Doug Weight played his first full year with the team and immediately established himself as an incredible play maker and leader potting 74 points to the lead the team. Young Arnott jumped right into the show and put up a terrific 68 points making him the Calder trophy runner-up to Martin Brodeur. Ciger also put in his first full year with the team and his 57 points was good for third in scoring. Finally Shayne Corson had a bit of better season putting up 54 points. The bad news was that after these four, there wasn’t really anybody else on the team who could score. Steven Rice (a top prospect acquired back in the Messier deal) finally was starting to show some promise, but the rest of the team was really a bunch of plumbers. Buchberger, Debrusk, and MacTavish were back, although the latter would be dealt in at the deadline. Other names that made some contributions were Scott Pearson (Gelinas trade), Dean McAmmond (Murphy trade), Vujtek, and Kirk Maltby (draft pick).

The Oilers got off to an absolute brutal start out of the gate going, a putrid 3-18-3. This dismal record forced Sather to fire his good friend Ted Green and go behind the bench himself to finish the season (as if Sather didn’t have enough to do). They would improve slightly under Sather, but in the end they weren’t any better than the previous year. Their 64 points were 2nd worst in the west, ahead of only the Jets—even the expansion Mighty Ducks and third year Sharks (who made the playoffs!) were better.

There was of course some reason for optimism for the future as the Oilers had some great young talent in Weight and Arnott to build around, and would go into the next season with two top ten picks in the draft. That has to be good right?....

[Updated on: Thu, 08 February 2024 17:46]

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 Season 23 (NHL 16), 1994-95: At least it was short [message #825097 is a reply to message #824021 ]
Sun, 30 July 2023 17:31 Go to previous messageGo to next message
benv is currently offline benv
Messages: 604
Registered: May 2006
Location: Edmonton
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	Coach: George Burnett (12-20-3) and Ron Low (5-7-1)					
	GM: Glen Sather					
						
	Regular Season Record: 17W-27L-4T (.396)--38 points					
136 GF 183GA  Finish: 11th Western Conference (22nd overall)--out of playoffs						
						
				Regular Season		
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Weight, Doug	F	48	7	33	40
2	Arnott, Jason	F	42	15	22	37
3	Corson, Shayne	F	48	12	24	36
4	Oliver, David	F	44	16	14	30
5	Marchant, Todd	F	45	13	14	27
6	Buchberger, Kelly	F	48	7	17	24
7	Thornton, Scott	F	47	10	12	22
8	Kravchuk, Igor	D	36	7	11	18
9	Stapleton, Mike	F	46	6	11	17
10	Oksiuta, Roman	F	26	11	2	13
11	Richardson, Luke	D	46	3	10	13
12	Maltby, Kirk	F	47	8	3	11
13	Olausson, Fredrik	D	33	0	10	10
14	Kennedy, Dean	D	40	2	8	10
15	Mironov, Boris	D	29	1	7	8
16	White, Peter	F	9	2	4	6
17	Slegr, Jiri	D	12	1	5	6
18	Esau, Len	D	14	0	6	6
19	Marchment, Bryan	D	40	1	5	6
20	Pearson, Scott	F	28	1	4	5
21	Ciger, Zdeno	F	5	2	2	4
22	Sutton, Ken	D	12	3	1	4
23	Fraser, Iain	F	9	3	0	3
24	Mark, Gord	D	18	0	2	2
25	Debrusk, Louie	F	34	2	0	2
26	Bonsignore, Jason	F	1	1	0	1
27	Intranuovo, Ralph	F	1	0	1	1
28	Nilsson, Kent	F	6	1	0	1
29	Wright, Tyler	F	6	1	0	1
30	Aivazoff, Micah	F	21	0	1	1
31	Bonvie, Dennis	F	2	0	0	0
32	Smyth, Ryan	F	3	0	0	0
33	Tuomainen, Marko	F	4	0	0	0
34	McAmmond, Dean	F	6	0	0	0
35	McGill, Ryan	D	8	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L-T
1	Ranford, Bill	40	2203	3.62	0.883	15-20-3
2	Brathwaite, Fred	14	601	3.99	0.863	2-5-1
3	Gage, Joaquin	2	99	4.24	0.825	0-2-0



Transactions

May 27, 1994
• Jeff Chychrun signed as free agent by Hartford.

June 2, 1994
• Signed Scott Ferguson as free agent.

June 28, 1994
• 1994 NHL entry draft—Oilers selected Jason Bonsignore (4), Ryan Smyth (6), Mike Watt (32), and Ladislav Benysek (266).

July 7, 1994
• Brent Grieve signed as free agent by Chicago.

July 27, 1994
• Shjon Podein signed as free agent by Philadelphia.

August 2, 1994
• Michael Ware signed as free agent by Toronto.

August 25, 1994
• Signed Dennis Bonvie as free agent.

August 29, 1994
• Bob Beers signed as free agent by NY Islanders.

August 30, 1994
• Steven Rice signed as free agent by Hartford—Oilers get Bryan Marchment as compensation.

September 18, 1994
• Ilya Byakin signed as free agent by San Jose.


NHL lockout September 19, 1994 to January 11, 1995. No transactions.


January 18, 1995
• Claimed Micah Aivazoff on waivers from Pittsburgh.
• Claimed Len Esau on waivers from Calgary.
• Claimed Dean Kennedy on waivers from Winnipeg.

January 26, 1995
• Signed Kent Nilsson (formerly with New Jersey) as free agent.

March 3, 1995
• Claimed Iain Fraser on waivers from Dallas.

March 7, 1995
• Len Esau claimed on waivers by Calgary.

March 13, 1995
• Brad Zavisha and 6th round pick in 1995 (Jamie Sokolsky) traded to Philadelphia for Ryan McGill.

April 7, 1995
• Roman Oksiuta traded to Vancouver for Jiri Slegr.
• Scott Pearson traded to Buffalo for Ken Sutton.


The 94-95 season would not get started until January 1995 when the league locked out the players in a drawn out process that took the entire fall of 1994 to settle. As a result, the season would be only 48 games, with teams playing only within their own conferences.

The Oilers started the season needing a new coach (Sather was only doing it on an interim basis) and a new captain (they never bothered naming a new one after the trade of MacTavish). The new coach would be George Burnett who had spent the last couple of seasons coaching the AHL Cape Breton Oilers, leading them to the Calder Cup in 1993. The new captain would be Shayne Corson and unfortunately this would not prove a match made in heaven.

The team would lose a few more players to free agency—most prominently Grieve, Podein, Beers, and Rice. The last was an RFA signing and would yield the team a veteran tough guy blueliner in Bryan Marchment. The great news going into the season was that the Oilers had two top 10 picks—the bad news in hindsight was that 1994 was one of the weakest drafts in history. With this in mind, the team did pretty well getting one player in Ryan Smyth who would be a longtime stellar contributor and fan favourite. They used their first pick on Jason Bonisgnore who (like many in the first round that year) would never pan out.

The goaltending situation did not change. Ranford played 40 of the 48 games with Brathwaite backing him up as needed. Ranford’s numbers were not great, but he did what he could behind the Oilers defence as it was.

So what about that defence. Kravchuk and Richardson were back to lead the group. Olausson was also back, while Mironov played his first full (well shortened but still full) season with the team. The previously mentioned Marchment was a contributor and they got veteran Dean Kennedy on waivers to eat up some minutes as well and round up their top six. Others who saw some time were Gord Mark and two guys in Ken Sutton and Jiri Slegr acquired at the trade deadline. Obviously this was not an elite d-corps as the 183 goals allowed by the team was the most in the league (remember—just 48 games).

As to the forwards it was Weight and Arnott once again leading the charge and the team with 40 and 37 points respectively. New captain Corson did his part with 36 points, but Ciger was limited to just 5 games. Buchberger, Debrusk, and Maltby were back for full seasons, but most other forwards were new. David Oliver, a late round pick from 1991, was a pleasant surprise, particularly on the power play as he would lead the team in goals with 16. Todd Marchant also had his first full NHL season and showed off his combination of speed, defensive awareness, and decent offensive acumen. Mike Stapleton (waiver acquisition) and Scott Pearson (Gelinas trade) also made some contributions.

All things considered, the 12-13-3 record that Burnett had the Oilers at after 29 games had to be considered at least a modest success (they were actually in a playoff position). But then the wheels came off. The team lost its next seven games, as Burnett had a public feud with his captain and stripped Corson of the captaincy. One game later, Sather fired Burnett and replaced him with assistant coach and ex-Oiler Ron Low for the remainder of the season. The Oilers would finish the season at 17-27-4, just 4 points out of a playoff spot (but 2nd last in the conference). It was perhaps a slight improvement, but the team still had a ways to go.

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 Re: Season 23 (NHL 16), 1994-95: At least it was short [message #825146 is a reply to message #825097 ]
Thu, 03 August 2023 10:20 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Steve is currently offline Steve
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Thanks Benv. Just want to say I'm enjoying this series.

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."

- Calvin

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 Re: Season 23 (NHL 16), 1994-95: At least it was short [message #825154 is a reply to message #825097 ]
Thu, 03 August 2023 13:47 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Adam is currently offline Adam
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benv wrote on Sun, 30 July 2023 17:31


All things considered, the 12-13-3 record that Burnett had the Oilers at after 29 games had to be considered at least a modest success (they were actually in a playoff position). But then the wheels came off. The team lost its next seven games, as Burnett had a public feud with his captain and stripped Corson of the captaincy. One game later, Sather fired Burnett and replaced him with assistant coach and ex-Oiler Ron Low for the remainder of the season. The Oilers would finish the season at 17-27-4, just 4 points out of a playoff spot (but 2nd last in the conference). It was perhaps a slight improvement, but the team still had a ways to go.



https://www.coppernblue.com/2010/9/28/1700540/the-worst-capt ain-in-oiler-history

Shayne Corson was a complete train wreck here. Sather had hoped that he could build him up, first by pushing the narrative that he was the veteran to mentor the Oilers young up-and-coming stars, especially Arnott. That was followed by the awarding of the Captain's C. The hope was that you show a whole bunch of confidence in his ability to lead and presto - he becomes a leader.

That isn't what happened though. The details of what exactly happened leading to losing his letter haven't ever been fully told (that article suggests he was trying to get an official scorer to change an assist from Arnott to him to help him towards a bonus), but he definitely got in some sort of row with Arnott and Weight, then with the coach after that.

He wasn't a good person, wasn't a good teammate and certainly wasn't a good captain. Only good that came from his tenure in Edmonton was the trade return - just getting Mike Grier would have been great, but to also get Curtis Joseph? Amazing.

"Thinking that a bad team's best players are the reason the team is bad is the "Tambellini re-signing Lennart Petrell" of sports opinions." @Woodguy55
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 Re: Season 23 (NHL 16), 1994-95: At least it was short [message #825157 is a reply to message #825154 ]
Thu, 03 August 2023 15:52 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Teammate Avry is currently offline Teammate Avry
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Adam wrote on Thu, 03 August 2023 13:47

benv wrote on Sun, 30 July 2023 17:31


All things considered, the 12-13-3 record that Burnett had the Oilers at after 29 games had to be considered at least a modest success (they were actually in a playoff position). But then the wheels came off. The team lost its next seven games, as Burnett had a public feud with his captain and stripped Corson of the captaincy. One game later, Sather fired Burnett and replaced him with assistant coach and ex-Oiler Ron Low for the remainder of the season. The Oilers would finish the season at 17-27-4, just 4 points out of a playoff spot (but 2nd last in the conference). It was perhaps a slight improvement, but the team still had a ways to go.



https://www.coppernblue.com/2010/9/28/1700540/the-worst-capt ain-in-oiler-history

Shayne Corson was a complete train wreck here. Sather had hoped that he could build him up, first by pushing the narrative that he was the veteran to mentor the Oilers young up-and-coming stars, especially Arnott. That was followed by the awarding of the Captain's C. The hope was that you show a whole bunch of confidence in his ability to lead and presto - he becomes a leader.

That isn't what happened though. The details of what exactly happened leading to losing his letter haven't ever been fully told (that article suggests he was trying to get an official scorer to change an assist from Arnott to him to help him towards a bonus), but he definitely got in some sort of row with Arnott and Weight, then with the coach after that.

He wasn't a good person, wasn't a good teammate and certainly wasn't a good captain. Only good that came from his tenure in Edmonton was the trade return - just getting Mike Grier would have been great, but to also get Curtis Joseph? Amazing.


Interesting how over 25 seasons later we still are in the dark on a bit of it. Appeared to be a level of Corson and the team moving past things since he was at the final night of Rexall in 2016.


A guy who if you turned into a gumbo is a wild mix of sports podcaster/TV reporter and sports writer.

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 Re: Season 23 (NHL 16), 1994-95: At least it was short [message #825158 is a reply to message #825157 ]
Thu, 03 August 2023 16:00 Go to previous messageGo to next message
CrusaderPi is currently online CrusaderPi
Messages: 7804
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Teammate Avry wrote on Thu, 03 August 2023 15:52

Adam wrote on Thu, 03 August 2023 13:47

benv wrote on Sun, 30 July 2023 17:31


All things considered, the 12-13-3 record that Burnett had the Oilers at after 29 games had to be considered at least a modest success (they were actually in a playoff position). But then the wheels came off. The team lost its next seven games, as Burnett had a public feud with his captain and stripped Corson of the captaincy. One game later, Sather fired Burnett and replaced him with assistant coach and ex-Oiler Ron Low for the remainder of the season. The Oilers would finish the season at 17-27-4, just 4 points out of a playoff spot (but 2nd last in the conference). It was perhaps a slight improvement, but the team still had a ways to go.



https://www.coppernblue.com/2010/9/28/1700540/the-worst-capt ain-in-oiler-history

Shayne Corson was a complete train wreck here. Sather had hoped that he could build him up, first by pushing the narrative that he was the veteran to mentor the Oilers young up-and-coming stars, especially Arnott. That was followed by the awarding of the Captain's C. The hope was that you show a whole bunch of confidence in his ability to lead and presto - he becomes a leader.

That isn't what happened though. The details of what exactly happened leading to losing his letter haven't ever been fully told (that article suggests he was trying to get an official scorer to change an assist from Arnott to him to help him towards a bonus), but he definitely got in some sort of row with Arnott and Weight, then with the coach after that.

He wasn't a good person, wasn't a good teammate and certainly wasn't a good captain. Only good that came from his tenure in Edmonton was the trade return - just getting Mike Grier would have been great, but to also get Curtis Joseph? Amazing.


Interesting how over 25 seasons later we still are in the dark on a bit of it. Appeared to be a level of Corson and the team moving past things since he was at the final night of Rexall in 2016.


The people in Edmonton who one would normal expect to find and share this sort of information have a pretty long history of not sharing the details unless it's beneficial to their sources. Personally, it makes me wonder how much of the 'Corson is bad' story is a story.

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 Re: Season 23 (NHL 16), 1994-95: At least it was short [message #825159 is a reply to message #825158 ]
Thu, 03 August 2023 16:31 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Adam is currently offline Adam
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CrusaderPi wrote on Thu, 03 August 2023 16:00

Teammate Avry wrote on Thu, 03 August 2023 15:52

Adam wrote on Thu, 03 August 2023 13:47

benv wrote on Sun, 30 July 2023 17:31


All things considered, the 12-13-3 record that Burnett had the Oilers at after 29 games had to be considered at least a modest success (they were actually in a playoff position). But then the wheels came off. The team lost its next seven games, as Burnett had a public feud with his captain and stripped Corson of the captaincy. One game later, Sather fired Burnett and replaced him with assistant coach and ex-Oiler Ron Low for the remainder of the season. The Oilers would finish the season at 17-27-4, just 4 points out of a playoff spot (but 2nd last in the conference). It was perhaps a slight improvement, but the team still had a ways to go.



https://www.coppernblue.com/2010/9/28/1700540/the-worst-capt ain-in-oiler-history

Shayne Corson was a complete train wreck here. Sather had hoped that he could build him up, first by pushing the narrative that he was the veteran to mentor the Oilers young up-and-coming stars, especially Arnott. That was followed by the awarding of the Captain's C. The hope was that you show a whole bunch of confidence in his ability to lead and presto - he becomes a leader.

That isn't what happened though. The details of what exactly happened leading to losing his letter haven't ever been fully told (that article suggests he was trying to get an official scorer to change an assist from Arnott to him to help him towards a bonus), but he definitely got in some sort of row with Arnott and Weight, then with the coach after that.

He wasn't a good person, wasn't a good teammate and certainly wasn't a good captain. Only good that came from his tenure in Edmonton was the trade return - just getting Mike Grier would have been great, but to also get Curtis Joseph? Amazing.


Interesting how over 25 seasons later we still are in the dark on a bit of it. Appeared to be a level of Corson and the team moving past things since he was at the final night of Rexall in 2016.


The people in Edmonton who one would normal expect to find and share this sort of information have a pretty long history of not sharing the details unless it's beneficial to their sources. Personally, it makes me wonder how much of the 'Corson is bad' story is a story.


There's a ton of history of Edmonton writers burying stories for some and exposing others. Mark Spector has flat out said as much on the radio - saying if he saw a guy out after curfew and he was a guy who gave him good material, good quotes, then he'd probably just give the guy a nod and a wink and leave the story untold. He's also the guy who was super-happy to expose Mironov & Kovalenko's night on the town and report on Jason Arnott having a baby out of wedlock (something that wasn't at all unique to Arnott's situation, given that Lowe, Anderson and Messier all had kids who's moms they never wed in Edmonton). With Arnott, he said that it was newsworthy because Arnott was having a bad season - so he was explaining to the fans one factor of that. No idea why that's the only Oilers baby he felt the need to cover with an exclusive scoop.

I do wonder if it's coincidence that it was Fuhr - a famously bad interviewee - who was the focus of the Journal's cocaine scoop. I think it's probably safe to say he wasn't the only Oiler of that era to partake in drugs either.

For whatever reason, the Corson story didn't get fully reported, other than the fact he had fallen out with first Weight and Arnott and then Burnett.

Interestingly, Burnett was still coaching in the OHL until 2021-22. That Oilers season ended his NHL dreams though.

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 Re: Season 23 (NHL 16), 1994-95: At least it was short [message #825160 is a reply to message #825159 ]
Thu, 03 August 2023 16:49 Go to previous messageGo to next message
CrusaderPi is currently online CrusaderPi
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Adam wrote on Thu, 03 August 2023 16:31

CrusaderPi wrote on Thu, 03 August 2023 16:00

Teammate Avry wrote on Thu, 03 August 2023 15:52

Adam wrote on Thu, 03 August 2023 13:47

benv wrote on Sun, 30 July 2023 17:31


All things considered, the 12-13-3 record that Burnett had the Oilers at after 29 games had to be considered at least a modest success (they were actually in a playoff position). But then the wheels came off. The team lost its next seven games, as Burnett had a public feud with his captain and stripped Corson of the captaincy. One game later, Sather fired Burnett and replaced him with assistant coach and ex-Oiler Ron Low for the remainder of the season. The Oilers would finish the season at 17-27-4, just 4 points out of a playoff spot (but 2nd last in the conference). It was perhaps a slight improvement, but the team still had a ways to go.



https://www.coppernblue.com/2010/9/28/1700540/the-worst-capt ain-in-oiler-history

Shayne Corson was a complete train wreck here. Sather had hoped that he could build him up, first by pushing the narrative that he was the veteran to mentor the Oilers young up-and-coming stars, especially Arnott. That was followed by the awarding of the Captain's C. The hope was that you show a whole bunch of confidence in his ability to lead and presto - he becomes a leader.

That isn't what happened though. The details of what exactly happened leading to losing his letter haven't ever been fully told (that article suggests he was trying to get an official scorer to change an assist from Arnott to him to help him towards a bonus), but he definitely got in some sort of row with Arnott and Weight, then with the coach after that.

He wasn't a good person, wasn't a good teammate and certainly wasn't a good captain. Only good that came from his tenure in Edmonton was the trade return - just getting Mike Grier would have been great, but to also get Curtis Joseph? Amazing.


Interesting how over 25 seasons later we still are in the dark on a bit of it. Appeared to be a level of Corson and the team moving past things since he was at the final night of Rexall in 2016.


The people in Edmonton who one would normal expect to find and share this sort of information have a pretty long history of not sharing the details unless it's beneficial to their sources. Personally, it makes me wonder how much of the 'Corson is bad' story is a story.


There's a ton of history of Edmonton writers burying stories for some and exposing others. Mark Spector has flat out said as much on the radio - saying if he saw a guy out after curfew and he was a guy who gave him good material, good quotes, then he'd probably just give the guy a nod and a wink and leave the story untold. He's also the guy who was super-happy to expose Mironov & Kovalenko's night on the town and report on Jason Arnott having a baby out of wedlock (something that wasn't at all unique to Arnott's situation, given that Lowe, Anderson and Messier all had kids who's moms they never wed in Edmonton). With Arnott, he said that it was newsworthy because Arnott was having a bad season - so he was explaining to the fans one factor of that. No idea why that's the only Oilers baby he felt the need to cover with an exclusive scoop.

I do wonder if it's coincidence that it was Fuhr - a famously bad interviewee - who was the focus of the Journal's cocaine scoop. I think it's probably safe to say he wasn't the only Oiler of that era to partake in drugs either.

For whatever reason, the Corson story didn't get fully reported, other than the fact he had fallen out with first Weight and Arnott and then Burnett.

Interestingly, Burnett was still coaching in the OHL until 2021-22. That Oilers season ended his NHL dreams though.

A manager like Kevin Lowe wasn't built in a vacuum. For whatever little he learned, he did learn under Sather. It has been obvious to almost everyone that things are not always what they seem in Oilerville in the 24 mostly miserable since year since Lowe took over from Slats (Comrie, Souray, Pronger, Hall, Puljujarvi, Reider, and many many more) but I think it's unlikely this started with Lowe. If I were to bet on a question that could never be answered I bet whatever happened with Carson was a two way street where everyone looked bad. Fortunately for the Oilers, Corson going away made everything go away. A quick cover story about bad guy Corson stealing an assist from Arnott keeps the Oilers' good guy image.

I don't really mind this fairytale approach to customer manipulation so long as I'm not forced to pretend it's real.

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 Re: Season 23 (NHL 16), 1994-95: At least it was short [message #825162 is a reply to message #825160 ]
Thu, 03 August 2023 17:53 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Adam is currently offline Adam
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CrusaderPi wrote on Thu, 03 August 2023 16:49

Adam wrote on Thu, 03 August 2023 16:31

CrusaderPi wrote on Thu, 03 August 2023 16:00

Teammate Avry wrote on Thu, 03 August 2023 15:52

Adam wrote on Thu, 03 August 2023 13:47

benv wrote on Sun, 30 July 2023 17:31


All things considered, the 12-13-3 record that Burnett had the Oilers at after 29 games had to be considered at least a modest success (they were actually in a playoff position). But then the wheels came off. The team lost its next seven games, as Burnett had a public feud with his captain and stripped Corson of the captaincy. One game later, Sather fired Burnett and replaced him with assistant coach and ex-Oiler Ron Low for the remainder of the season. The Oilers would finish the season at 17-27-4, just 4 points out of a playoff spot (but 2nd last in the conference). It was perhaps a slight improvement, but the team still had a ways to go.



https://www.coppernblue.com/2010/9/28/1700540/the-worst-capt ain-in-oiler-history

Shayne Corson was a complete train wreck here. Sather had hoped that he could build him up, first by pushing the narrative that he was the veteran to mentor the Oilers young up-and-coming stars, especially Arnott. That was followed by the awarding of the Captain's C. The hope was that you show a whole bunch of confidence in his ability to lead and presto - he becomes a leader.

That isn't what happened though. The details of what exactly happened leading to losing his letter haven't ever been fully told (that article suggests he was trying to get an official scorer to change an assist from Arnott to him to help him towards a bonus), but he definitely got in some sort of row with Arnott and Weight, then with the coach after that.

He wasn't a good person, wasn't a good teammate and certainly wasn't a good captain. Only good that came from his tenure in Edmonton was the trade return - just getting Mike Grier would have been great, but to also get Curtis Joseph? Amazing.


Interesting how over 25 seasons later we still are in the dark on a bit of it. Appeared to be a level of Corson and the team moving past things since he was at the final night of Rexall in 2016.


The people in Edmonton who one would normal expect to find and share this sort of information have a pretty long history of not sharing the details unless it's beneficial to their sources. Personally, it makes me wonder how much of the 'Corson is bad' story is a story.


There's a ton of history of Edmonton writers burying stories for some and exposing others. Mark Spector has flat out said as much on the radio - saying if he saw a guy out after curfew and he was a guy who gave him good material, good quotes, then he'd probably just give the guy a nod and a wink and leave the story untold. He's also the guy who was super-happy to expose Mironov & Kovalenko's night on the town and report on Jason Arnott having a baby out of wedlock (something that wasn't at all unique to Arnott's situation, given that Lowe, Anderson and Messier all had kids who's moms they never wed in Edmonton). With Arnott, he said that it was newsworthy because Arnott was having a bad season - so he was explaining to the fans one factor of that. No idea why that's the only Oilers baby he felt the need to cover with an exclusive scoop.

I do wonder if it's coincidence that it was Fuhr - a famously bad interviewee - who was the focus of the Journal's cocaine scoop. I think it's probably safe to say he wasn't the only Oiler of that era to partake in drugs either.

For whatever reason, the Corson story didn't get fully reported, other than the fact he had fallen out with first Weight and Arnott and then Burnett.

Interestingly, Burnett was still coaching in the OHL until 2021-22. That Oilers season ended his NHL dreams though.

A manager like Kevin Lowe wasn't built in a vacuum. For whatever little he learned, he did learn under Sather. It has been obvious to almost everyone that things are not always what they seem in Oilerville in the 24 mostly miserable since year since Lowe took over from Slats (Comrie, Souray, Pronger, Hall, Puljujarvi, Reider, and many many more) but I think it's unlikely this started with Lowe. If I were to bet on a question that could never be answered I bet whatever happened with Carson was a two way street where everyone looked bad. Fortunately for the Oilers, Corson going away made everything go away. A quick cover story about bad guy Corson stealing an assist from Arnott keeps the Oilers' good guy image.

I don't really mind this fairytale approach to customer manipulation so long as I'm not forced to pretend it's real.


I guess the counter-point to that is just how miserable a person Corson was everywhere else. He was a total wild child with the Habs, and then a big part of a very public dressing room split in Toronto towards the end of his career.

I totally agree that the Oilers have a tendency to spin things. Sather was a pretty savvy customer and he might have pushed a narrative if he thought it best for the team, but thinking back I don't think that was really his M.O.

He wasn't one to vilify players as they left generally - and he sure was here for a lot of departures. He went out of his way to excuse the exits for Damphousse and Nicholls - both of whom had a lot going on in their lives when they asked for trades out, even though that decimated our top line. You look at guys like Bonsignore, who with what they've said in more recent years, he could have just savaged - but he didn't. There really wasn't' much said about him. The media felt he was a bust, but I mean, it was something so obvious that even they could see it without being told.

Sather had a much different relationship with the media than Lowe. I think he encouraged his players to be friendly, but he was standoffish and never gave them much. I mean, there's a reason that Matheson wasn't writing a puff piece about Steve Kelly in 1995. If it was the Lowe era, that's not a mistake he'd have had to worry about making.

Sather threatened to run Spector out of town over the Arnott story, and you can see in Spec's book that he still kind of despises Slats. Similarly, he was apoplectic with David Staples and John McKinnon over the Fuhr story. He always had a level of misdirection with them too - the most famous is probably the Brad Werenka trade, where he blows off reporters asking if he's on the block by saying he's got a long history ahead of him in this town...but he happened to be in Quebec City when he gave that quote, and traded him to the Nords a day or two later.

The only guy I can remember really getting completely knifed during the Sather era was Jimmy Carson - although that guy couldn't keep his mouth shut and talked about Edmonton as a place where there's just a lot of cows or something like that just after he got traded. I think he pissed off everyone before he went, so they were a little more happy to throw him under the bus.

I think that Lowe just stayed buddies and fell for their argument that they were his connection to the fans, so he owed them some kind of info conduit. He played with the Oilers a long time - but how much GM mentoring did Sather ever give him? He was only two years with the team outside of as a player before Slats left for NYC. (Given how much we all laughed about Garth Snow a few years later, it's actually pretty crazy that we just all accepted that a year coaching and a year as an assistant coach made Kevin Lowe the natural replacement as general manager).

Maybe you're right though...if you want to keep Weight and Arnott shiny for the fanbase, then better to make it black and white that Corson was a bad guy. It's a definite possibility that I can't fully rule out.

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 Season 24 (NHL 17),1995-96: Enough with the losing [message #825149 is a reply to message #824021 ]
Thu, 03 August 2023 12:26 Go to previous messageGo to next message
benv is currently offline benv
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https://scontent.fyxd3-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.18169-9/735038_10151351157247128_781798466_n.jpg?_nc_cat=107&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=cdbe9c&_nc_ohc=_pt1D1qH2M4AX9Jqtmi&_nc_ht=scontent.fyxd3-1.fna&oh=00_AfCEZlYyNTry2GFBJF8ztca58GoKPli53jMLVFA4HK6mbg&oe=64F376D6



	Coach: Ron Low					
	GM: Glen Sather					
						
	Regular Season Record: 30W-44L-8T (.415)--68 points					
240GF 304GA   Finish: 10th Western Conference (21st overall)--out of playoffs						
						
				Regular Season		
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Weight, Doug	F	82	25	79	104
2	Ciger, Zdeno	F	78	31	39	70
3	Arnott, Jason	F	64	28	31	59
4	Oliver, David	F	80	20	19	39
5	Marchant, Todd	F	81	19	19	38
6	Satan, Miroslav	F	62	18	17	35
7	Mironov, Boris	D	78	8	24	32
8	McAmmond, Dean	F	53	15	15	30
9	Czerkawski, Mariusz	F	37	12	17	29
10	Buchberger, Kelly	F	82	11	14	25
11	Norton, Jeff	D	30	4	16	20
12	Thornton, Scott	F	77	9	9	18
13	Marchment, Bryan	D	78	3	15	18
14	Slegr, Jiri	D	57	4	13	17
15	Smyth, Ryan	F	48	2	9	11
16	Richardson, Luke	D	82	2	9	11
17	Anderson, Glenn	F	17	4	6	10
18	Kravchuk, Igor	D	26	4	4	8
19	White, Peter	F	26	5	3	8
20	Sutton, Ken	D	32	0	8	8
21	Manderville, Kent	F	37	3	5	8
22	Maltby, Kirk	F	49	2	6	8
23	Dufresne, Donald	D	42	1	6	7
24	Roberts, David	F	6	2	4	6
25	Olausson, Fredrik	D	20	0	6	6
26	Hauer, Brett	D	29	4	2	6
27	Debrusk, Louie	F	38	1	3	4
28	Intranuovo, Ralph	F	13	1	2	3
29	DeVries, Greg	D	13	1	1	2
30	Bonsignore, Jason	F	20	0	2	2
31	Wright, Tyler	F	23	1	0	1
32	Stajduhar, Nick	D	2	0	0	0
33	Muir, Bryan	D	5	0	0	0
34	Bonvie, Dennis	F	8	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L-T
1	Ranford, Bill	37	2015	3.81	0.875	13-18-5
2	Joseph, Curtis	34	1936	3.44	0.886	15-16-2
3	Gage, Joaquin	16	717	3.77	0.871	2-8-1
4	Brathwaite, Fred	7	293	2.46	0.914	0-2-0



Transactions

July 8, 1995
• 1995 NHL entry draft—Oilers selected Steve Kelly (6), Georges Laraque (31), and Mike Minard (83).

July 28, 1995
• Shayne Corson signed as free agent by St. Louis—Oilers received 1st round pick in 1996 (Marty Reasoner (St. Louis)) and 1st round pick in 1997 (Matt Zultek (Los Angeles)) as compensation.

August 4, 1995
• 1st round pick in 1996 (Marty Reasoner) and 1st round pick in 1997 (Matt Zultek (Los Angeles)) traded to St. Louis for Mike Grier and Curtis Joseph.


August 18, 1995
• Mike Stapleton signed as free agent by Winnipeg.

August 23, 1995
• Micah Aivazoff signed as free agent by NY Islanders.

August 24, 1995
• 6th round pick in 1997 (Larry Shapley) traded to Vancouver for Brett Hauer.

September 19, 1995
• Signed Rem Murray (formerly with Los Angeles) as free agent.

October 11, 1995
• Iain Fraser signed as free agent by Winnipeg.

December 4, 1995
• Peter White and 4th round pick in 1996 (Jason Sessa) traded to Toronto for Kent Manderville.

January 4, 1996
• Igor Kravchuk and Ken Sutton traded to St. Louis for Donald Dufresne and Jeff Norton.

January 11, 1996
• Bill Ranford traded to Boston for Sean Brown, Mariusz Czerkawski, and 1st round pick in 1996 (Matthieu Descoteaux*).

January 16, 1996
• Fredrik Olausson claimed on waivers by Anaheim.

January 25, 1996
• Claimed Glenn Anderson on waivers from Vancouver.

March 12, 1996
• Glenn Anderson claimed on waivers by St. Louis.
• Signed David Roberts (formerly with St. Louis) as free agent.

March 20, 1996
• Kirk Maltby traded to Detroit for Dan McGillis.



Again a bit of league housekeeping before we get to Edmonton. The first of Edmonton’s three expansion cousins relocated with the Nordiques (who were finally an elite team after an endless rebuild) moved to Denver (and the Western Conference—balancing the two conferences with 13 teams each) and became the Colorado Avalanche,. The Avalanche of course won the cup in their first year in Denver—god it must have sucked to be a Nordiques fan in 1996. The league also went to an 82 games schedule which it maintains to this day. Also, for the first and only time (so far) the Oilers actually got to host the entry draft. They also had the sixth overall pick and with all the fans in the building chanting for them to draft local boy Shane Doan, Sather went instead with Steve Kelly who would never live up to his status.

Sather removed the “interim” tag from Ron Low’s title and made him the official head coach. Low would actually last longer in the position than all his predecessors since Sather himself. Disgruntled former captain Shayne Corson was an RFA and chose to sign a deal with St. Louis in July. If the Oilers declined to match the offer, they would receive two first rounders from St. Louis. Sather shrewdly took advantage of the situation and negotiated with the Blues, basically agreeing not to match their offer if they agreed to take the two first rounders back in exchange for RFA goalie Curtis Joseph and prospect Mike Grier. Both these players would prove important in the coming years. Kelly Buchberger was named the new captain, and he would hold the title longer than anyone since Gretzky.

In goal, the Oilers had hoped for a Ranford/Joseph combo, but Joseph didn’t want to share the net and refused to sign with the team as long as Ranford was there (he ended up signing an IHL deal with an NHL escape clause). So the Oilers began the season with Ranford as their guy once again, with farmhands Fred Brathwaite and Joaquin Gage backing him up. Ranford was aging and did not have a good start to the season going 13-18-5 with an .875 save percentage. The Oilers chose to make the switch in early January, simultaneously trading Ranford to Boston and signing Joseph to a three-year deal. Joseph was an improvement, going 15-16-2 in the second half, but the defense was still a bit leaky.

So about that defense. Well Mironov was rounding into a decent blueliner, and Richardson was as solid a defensive guy as ever. Marchment put in his best season as an Oiler and newcomer Jiri Slegr was passable. Both Kravchuk and Sutton started the year with the team, but were swapped midway for two different blueliners in Jeff Norton and Donald Dufresne. Dan McGillis would also be acquired late in the season for Kirk Maltby. This was again not an elite back-end and the Oilers were again among the worst in goals against.

They had a bit more skill upfront. Weight was turning into an elite center and had his best season pointwise in the NHL getting 104—this would be the only 100 point campaign an Oiler would get between Messier in 1990 and McDavid in 2017. Ciger recovered from his 1995 season playing the full campaign and putting up 70 points to finish second on the team. Arnott’s totals were down a bit at 59, but it was still good enough for third place on the team. Oliver chipped in with 20 goals and Marchant was rounding into form as pretty good third line center. New on the scene were Miroslav Satan, a late round 1993 pick, Dean McAmmond (from the Murphy trade), and Mariusz Czerkawski (from the Ranford trade) who all showed some offensive potential. Other contributors included returnees Thornton, Buchberger, and Maltby (until he was traded) and a brief re-apperarance from legacy player Glenn Anderson who played 17 games with team when they swiped him from the Canucks for a while (Anderson didn’t really want to be back here, and he would be shipped off at the deadline to the Blues to be reunited with Gretzky). Also keep an eye on young Ryan Smyth who was brought up to the big club for 48 games—only 11 points but bigger things were of course to come.

The Oilers struggled early getting off to 14-23-6 record under Ranford—one of the main catalysts for the switch to Joseph. Once Cujo arrived they were better but it wasn’t enough to get them to the playoffs. They ended the season with a 30-44-8 record—good for only 68 points and tenth place in the west—a full 10 points out of a playoff spot. With four consecutive seasons of no playoffs, Oiler fans were definitely over their entitlement and needed to see this team back to some level of respectability.

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 Re: Season 24 (NHL 17),1995-96: Enough with the losing [message #825155 is a reply to message #825149 ]
Thu, 03 August 2023 13:53 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Adam is currently offline Adam
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benv wrote on Thu, 03 August 2023 12:26

Also, for the first and only time (so far) the Oilers actually got to host the entry draft. They also had the sixth overall pick and with all the fans in the building chanting for them to draft local boy Shane Doan, Sather went instead with Steve Kelly who would never live up to his status.



While Doan would certainly have been the better pick in hindsight, I do think it's worth noting that Steve Kelly wasn't a big reach like a couple of other Oilers draft busts. He was considered the best skater in the draft, and Sather was a big believer that you couldn't teach speed, so all else being equal, he tended to pick the better skater.

It's worth noting that the Oilers faithful in the building didn't really know anything either...it was just that Matheson wrote an article that week speculating that Doan would be the pick. If everyone HAD been prescient, they would have been chanting another local kid's name...Jarome Iginla went at #11 and would have made a phenomenal Oiler...

To Sather's credit, he made up for a couple draft mistakes a couple years later with his swap of Kelly, Bonsignore and Marchment for Hamrlik.

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 Season 25 (NHL 18), 1996-97: Playoffs again! [message #825174 is a reply to message #824021 ]
Sat, 05 August 2023 00:26 Go to previous messageGo to next message
benv is currently offline benv
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Location: Edmonton
No Cups
https://scontent.fyxd3-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.18169-9/424025_10151363539102128_308524306_n.jpg?_nc_cat=103&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=cdbe9c&_nc_ohc=9Me-Qr80D9EAX8NU-Py&_nc_ht=scontent.fyxd3-1.fna&oh=00_AfAD77DRy8QWX_dUWCieHc2N7qGg1SSABwOMAh4Qni2o0Q&oe=64F56576



	Coach: Ron Low					
	GM: Glen Sather					
						
	Regular Season Record: 36W-37L-9T (.494)--81 points					
252GF 247GA   Finish: 7th Western Conference (14th overall)						
						
				Regular Season		
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Weight, Doug	F	80	21	61	82
2	Smyth, Ryan	F	82	39	22	61
3	Kovalenko, Andrei	F	74	32	27	59
4	Arnott, Jason	F	67	19	38	57
5	Czerkawski, Mariusz	F	76	26	21	47
6	Buchberger, Kelly	F	81	8	30	38
7	Marchant, Todd	F	79	14	19	33
8	Mironov, Boris	D	55	6	26	32
9	Grier, Mike	F	79	15	17	32
10	Murray, Rem	F	82	11	20	31
11	McAmmond, Dean	F	57	12	17	29
12	Satan, Miroslav	F	64	17	11	28
13	Lindgren, Mats	F	69	11	14	25
14	McGillis, Dan	D	73	6	16	22
15	Marchment, Bryan	D	71	3	13	16
16	Lowe, Kevin	D	64	1	13	14
17	Norton, Jeff	D	62	2	11	13
18	Richardson, Luke	D	82	1	11	12
19	Klima, Petr	F	16	1	5	6
20	Petit, Michel	D	18	2	4	6
21	DeVries, Greg	D	37	0	4	4
22	Oliver, David	F	17	1	2	3
23	Debrusk, Louie	F	32	2	0	2
24	Bannister, Drew	D	1	0	1	1
25	Intranuovo, Ralph	F	5	1	0	1
26	Kelly, Steve	F	8	1	0	1
27	Dufresne, Donald	D	22	0	1	1
28	Millar, Craig	D	1	0	0	0
29	Moore, Barrie	F	4	0	0	0
30	Brown, Sean	D	5	0	0	0
31	Belanger, Jesse	F	6	0	0	0
32	Hulbig, Joe	F	6	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L-T
1	Joseph, Curtis	72	4100	2.93	0.907	32-29-9
2	Essensa, Bob	19	868	2.83	0.899	4-8-0


			Playoffs			
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Weight, Doug	F	12	3	8	11
2	Mironov, Boris	D	12	2	8	10
3	Smyth, Ryan	F	12	5	5	10
4	Arnott, Jason	F	12	3	6	9
5	Buchberger, Kelly	F	12	5	2	7
6	Kovalenko, Andrei	F	12	4	3	7
7	Marchant, Todd	F	12	4	2	6
8	McGillis, Dan	D	12	0	5	5
9	Grier, Mike	F	12	3	1	4
10	Lindgren, Mats	F	12	0	4	4
11	Czerkawski, Mariusz	F	12	2	1	3
12	Murray, Rem	F	12	1	2	3
13	Richardson, Luke	D	12	0	2	2
14	Hulbig, Joe	F	6	0	1	1
15	DeVries, Greg	D	12	0	1	1
16	Lowe, Kevin	D	1	0	0	0
17	Dufresne, Donald	D	3	0	0	0
18	Marchment, Bryan	D	3	0	0	0
19	Muir, Bryan	D	5	0	0	0
20	Debrusk, Louie	F	6	0	0	0
21	Kelly, Steve	F	6	0	0	0
22	Klima, Petr	F	6	0	0	0
23	Bannister, Drew	D	12	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L
1	Joseph, Curtis	12	767	2.82	0.911	5-7


Playoff result: Eliminated in Western Conference semi-final						
Round 1: vs Dallas, won 4 games to 3; 21GF 18GA						
Round 2: vs Colorado, lost 1 game to 4; 11GF 19GA						
Summary: Series: 1-1; Games: 5-7; 32GF 37GA



Transactions

April 30, 1996
• Signed Bryan Muir as free agent.

June 14, 1996
• Future considerations traded to Detroit for Bob Essensa.

June 22, 1996
• Tyler Wright traded to Pittsburgh for 7th round pick in 1996 (Brandon Lafrance*).
• 1996 NHL entry draft—Oilers selected Boyd Devereaux (6), Matthieu Descoteaux* (19), Chris Hajt (32), Tom Poti (59), and Fernando Pisani (195).

July 31, 1996
• David Roberts signed as free agent by Vancouver.

September 6, 1996
• Scott Thornton traded to Montreal for Andrei Kovalenko.

September 16, 1996
• Signed Jesse Belanger (formerly with Vancouver) as free agent.

September 28, 1996
• Signed Kevin Lowe (formerly with NY Rangers) as free agent.

September 30, 1996
• Ralph Intranuovo claimed on waivers by Toronto.

October 2, 1996
• Kent Manderville signed as free agent by Hartford.

October 24, 1996
• Signed Michel Petit (formerly with Tampa Bay) as free agent.

October 25, 1996
• Claimed Ralph Intranuovo on waivers from Toronto.

January 17, 1997
• Michel Petit claimed on waivers by Philadelphia.

February 21, 1997
• David Oliver claimed on waivers by NY Rangers.

February 26, 1997
• Signed Petr Klima (formerly with Pittsburgh) as free agent.

March 18, 1997
• Jeff Norton traded to Tampa Bay for Drew Bannister and 6th round pick in 1997 (Peter Sarno).
• Miroslav Satan traded to Buffalo for Craig Millar and Barrie Moore.



For the second year in a row one of the Oilers WHA cousins was relocated—this time it was the Winnipeg Jets travelling to the desert to become the Phoenix Coyotes.

From the above image you can see the Oilers went away from their traditional orange and blue look this season and adopted the copper and blue uniforms that they would sport for the next ten seasons (not my favourite, but I’m not the fashion police). The Oilers had yet another top 10 pick in the draft, this time picking up Boyd Devereaux at 6th overall. While he had an NHL career it was not what the Oilers would have hoped. They were not super active in the offseason, the biggest moves being the acquisition of hulking offensive winger Andrei Kovalenko from Montreal (for Scott Thronton) and the re-acquisition of former captain Kevin Lowe from the Rangers. This was the prime period of the Oilers being a small market Canadian team who could never afford to acquire the big names, or even keep their own players once they got too expensive.

Curtis Joseph was now the man in net, playing 72 out of the 82 games. His .907 save percentage was the best ever Oiler total for a starter, although to be fair to his predecessors, this was the beginning of the dead puck era, when scoring was way down. When Joseph needed backup, it was performed by newcomer Bob Essensa who had been acquired for this purpose in the offseason.

On defense the Oilers had a serviceable top 6 that consisted of Mironov, Richardson, Norton, McGillis, Lowe, and Marchment. Greg DeVries and newcomeer Michel Petit would fill in as needed. Petit was dealt late, while Norton was dealt at the trade deadline for Drew Bannister, who would only play one game during the season, but would become a regular during the playoffs.

Doug Weight was again the driving force at forward for the team, getting 82 points on the season. Ryan Smyth made an enormous leap forward, playing all 82 games, leading the team in goals with 39 and finishing second in points with 61. Kovalenko proved a welcome addition to the team as he potted 32 goals and was third in points with 59. Rounding out the top 5, were Arnott who regressed a tad to 57 points and Czerkawski who contributed 47. Mike Grier made his Oiler debut, playing the entire season with Marchant and the two would prove a valuable third line pairing. Also making contributions were holdovers Buchberger, McAmmond and Satan (who was traded at the deadline in one of Sather’s worst trades), and newcomers Rem Murray (a free agent signing) and Mats Lindgren. David Oliver’s two year hot streak came to an end as he was dealt mid-season and in addition to Lowe, the Oilers added a second blast from the past when Petr Klima made a return appearance for the stretch drive.

The overall improvement in the team this season was plainly evident. While they were hardly world beaters, they had a "never quit" feel about them that allowed them to be competitive throughout this season. They finished the season a game under 0.500 at 36-37-9—good enough for 7th place in the conference and their first playoff appearance in 5 years.

Their opponent would be the 2nd place Dallas Stars, who had owned the Oilers in the regular season and had an elite campaign after many years of mediocrity for the team—most pundits were predicting an easy win for Dallas. The series is legendary and contains possibly two of the most well known games in Oiler playoff history. The Stars took game 1, before the Oilers rebounded and shutout Dallas 4-0 in game 2. Then in game 3 the Stars dominated play for most of the game and took a 3-0 lead late into the 3rd period. As fans were exiting Northlands to beat the traffic, a miracle occurred as the Oilers somehow got three goals in two minutes against the stingy Dallas defense to tie the game. The comeback would be completed in OT when Buchberger got the winning snipe and sent the fans into a frenzy. The Stars took a close game 4, and the series shifted back to Dallas tied. Game 5 would be a goaltenders duel with Joseph and ex-Oiler Andy Moog refusing to surrender anything until Smyth got a rare long distance goal in double OT. Dallas would take game 6, and the series would shift back to Dallas for game 7. The teams traded many goals early before things tightened up and the game would go to OT. Midway through the OT period, Nieuwendyk shot a point blank attempt at a wide open net, only to see Joseph leap across the crease to snag it and save the game. Moments later Weight fed Marchant who went around the falling Stars’ defenseman to pot the series winner in what is perhaps the most memorable moment for this era of Oilers hockey.

The Oilers would face the defending cup champion Avalanche in the 2nd round and unfortunately didn’t have another gear. They got blown out in the first two games, but took game 3 in a close one. They had an opportunity to tie the series when game 4 went to OT, but it wasn’t to be, as the Avs prevailed. A one goal loss in game 5 and the Oilers season was done.

While a second round exit shouldn’t be that exciting, this team really seemed to capture the imagination of the Oiler fan base that had to sweat threats of the team relocation (in the midst of all their WHA expansion cousins doing just that). There was a lot of anticipation of what might come next.

And with that, we're half-way there with 25 seasons done, 25 to go.

[Updated on: Sat, 05 August 2023 10:22]

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 Re: Season 25 (NHL 18), 1996-97: Playoffs again! [message #825193 is a reply to message #825174 ]
Tue, 08 August 2023 09:51 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Adam is currently offline Adam
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6 Cups
benv wrote on Sat, 05 August 2023 00:26

The Oilers had yet another top 10 pick in the draft, this time picking up Boyd Devereaux at 6th overall. While he had an NHL career it was not what the Oilers would have hoped.



To be fair, 1996 was a super-lean NHL draft.

https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/nhl1996e.html

Devereaux at #6 was the second best pick between #4-#12, with only Ruslan Salei making more of an impact. Danny Briere at #24 is debatably the best player out of that whole first round. Chara was the best player in the draft, but he went #56 overall and was a shadow of what he'd become. Not a single player in the draft who scored 1000 points in the NHL, and only a handful of guys who played 1000 games. Matt Cullen (#35) is the highest scorer from the draft class with 731 points.

"Thinking that a bad team's best players are the reason the team is bad is the "Tambellini re-signing Lennart Petrell" of sports opinions." @Woodguy55
#FireBobbyNicks

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 Season 26 (NHL 19), 1997-98: Bye bye Peter Puck [message #825183 is a reply to message #824021 ]
Sun, 06 August 2023 19:20 Go to previous messageGo to next message
benv is currently offline benv
Messages: 604
Registered: May 2006
Location: Edmonton
No Cups
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	Coach: Ron Low					
	GM: Glen Sather					
						
	Regular Season Record: 35W-37L-10T (.488)--80 points					
215GF 224GA   Finish: 7th Western Conference (15th overall)						
						
				Regular Season		
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Weight, Doug	F	79	26	44	70
2	McAmmond, Dean	F	77	19	31	50
3	Mironov, Boris	D	81	16	30	46
4	Marchant, Todd	F	76	14	21	35
5	Smyth, Ryan	F	65	20	13	33
6	Guerin, Bill	F	40	13	16	29
7	Hamrlik, Roman	D	41	6	20	26
8	Lindgren, Mats	F	82	13	13	26
9	McGillis, Dan	D	67	10	15	25
10	Fraser, Scott	F	29	12	11	23
11	Kovalenko, Andrei	F	59	6	17	23
12	Buchberger, Kelly	F	82	6	17	23
13	Hrkac, Tony	F	36	8	11	19
14	Arnott, Jason	F	35	5	13	18
15	Murray, Rem	F	61	9	9	18
16	Grier, Mike	F	66	9	6	15
17	Zelepukin, Valeri	F	33	2	10	12
18	DeVries, Greg	D	65	7	4	11
19	Niinimaa, Janne	D	11	1	8	9
20	Dollas, Bobby	D	30	2	5	7
21	Berehowsky, Drake	D	67	1	6	7
22	Devereaux, Boyd	F	38	1	4	5
23	Whitney, Ray	F	9	1	3	4
24	Millar, Craig	D	11	4	0	4
25	Hulbig, Joe	F	17	2	2	4
26	Marchment, Bryan	D	27	0	4	4
27	Watt, Mike	F	14	1	2	3
28	Musil, Frantisek	D	17	1	2	3
29	Kelly, Steve	F	19	0	2	2
30	Bannister, Drew	D	34	0	2	2
31	Brown, Sean	D	18	0	1	1
32	Huard, Bill	F	30	0	1	1
33	Ferguson, Scott	D	1	0	0	0
34	Benysek, Ladislav	D	2	0	0	0
35	Bonvie, Dennis	F	4	0	0	0
36	Bowen, Jason	F	4	0	0	0
37	Lowe, Kevin	D	7	0	0	0
38	Muir, Bryan	D	7	0	0	0
39	Sandwith, Terran	D	8	0	0	0
40	Laraque, Georges	F	11	0	0	0
41	Friedman, Doug	F	16	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L-T
1	Joseph, Curtis	71	4132	2.63	0.905	29-31-9
2	Essensa, Bob	16	825	2.55	0.913	6-6-1



			Playoffs			
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Weight, Doug	F	12	2	7	9
2	Guerin, Bill	F	12	7	1	8
3	Mironov, Boris	D	12	3	3	6
4	Hamrlik, Roman	D	12	0	6	6
5	Murray, Rem	F	11	1	4	5
6	McAmmond, Dean	F	12	1	4	5
7	Grier, Mike	F	12	2	2	4
8	Smyth, Ryan	F	12	1	3	4
9	Zelepukin, Valeri	F	8	1	2	3
10	Berehowsky, Drake	D	12	1	2	3
11	Buchberger, Kelly	F	12	1	2	3
12	Hrkac, Tony	F	12	0	3	3
13	Niinimaa, Janne	D	11	1	1	2
14	Fraser, Scott	F	11	1	1	2
15	Lindgren, Mats	F	12	1	1	2
16	Marchant, Todd	F	12	1	1	2
17	Lowe, Kevin	D	1	0	0	0
18	Kovalenko, Andrei	F	1	0	0	0
19	Huard, Bill	F	4	0	0	0
20	DeVries, Greg	D	7	0	0	0
21	Musil, Frantisek	D	7	0	0	0
22	Dollas, Bobby	D	11	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L-T
1	Joseph, Curtis	12	716	1.93	0.928	5-7
2	Essensa, Bob	1	27	2.22	0.909	0-0

Playoff result: Eliminated in Western Conference semi-final						
Round 1: vs Colorado, won 4 games to 3; 19GF 16GA						
Round 2: vs Dallas, lost 1 game to 4; 5GF 9GA						
Summary: Series: 1-1; Games: 5-7; 24GF 25GA



Transactions

April 10, 1997
• Signed Terran Sandwith (formerly with Philadelphia) as free agent.

June 21, 1997
• 1997 NHL entry draft—Oilers selected Michel Riesen (14), Jonas Elofsson* (94), Jason Chimera (121), and Peter Sarno (141).

July 14, 1997
• Signed Doug Friedman (formerly with Colorado) as free agent.

July 16, 1997
• Vladimir Vujtek and 3rd round pick in 1998 (Dmitry Afanesenkov) traded to Tampa Bay for Brantt Myhres* and 3rd round pick in 1998 (Alex Henry).

July 22, 1997
• Signed Bill Huard (formerly with Dallas) as free agent.

July 23, 1997
• Luke Richardson signed as free agent by Philadelphia.

July 28, 1997
• Signed Scott Fraser (formerly with Calgary) as free agent.

August 12, 1997
• Jiri Slegr traded to Pittsburgh for 3rd round pick in 1998 (Brian Gionta (New Jersey)).

August 25, 1997
• Mariusz Czerkawski traded to NY Islanders for Dan Lacouture.

September 23, 1997
• Louie DeBrusk signed as free agent by Tampa Bay.

September 30, 1997
• Signed Drake Berehowsky (formerly with Pittsburgh) as free agent.

October 1, 1997
• Signed Ray Whitney (formerly with San Jose) as free agent.

October 15, 1997
• Brant Myhres* traded to Philadelphia for Jason Bowen.

November 6, 1997
• Ray Whitney claimed on waivers by Florida.

December 30, 1997
• Jason Bonsignore, Steve Kelly, and Bryan Marchment traded to Tampa Bay for Paul Comrie and Roman Hamrlik.

January 4, 1998
• Jason Arnott and Bryan Muir traded to New Jersey for Bill Guerin and Valeri Zelepukin.

January 6, 1998
• Claimed Tony Hrkac on waivers from Dallas.

January 9, 1998
• Drew Bannister traded to Anaheim for Bobby Dollas.

March 9, 1998
• Scott Ferguson traded to Ottawa for Frantisek Musil.

March 24, 1998
• Dan McGillis and 2nd round pick in 1998 (Jason Beckett) traded to Philadelphia for Janne Niinimaa.



The last of the Oilers’ WHA cousins was no more this year as the Hartford Whalers relocated to Raleigh to become the Carolina Hurricanes. The Oilers would of course avoid this fate, but those of us around at that time were very worried about losing the team, as Pocklington threatened to sell the team on many occasions. Both Houston and Hamilton were close to landing the team at various points, but the 1997-98 would finally stabilize things In January 1998 the team was purchased by a group that would be known as the Edmonton Investors’ Group (EIG) and lead by Cal Nicholls. They basically pooled their money together to ensure the Oilers would remain in Edmonton. This had the advantage of making sure the Oilers would stay put (the most important thing), but it would keep the Oilers as a definite “have not” team as they would be one of the lowest spending teams over the next decade. Pocklington would have no more association with the team (although I notice he still somehow wormed his way into the team picture).

Ok now to the hockey side. After 5 years in Edmonton, Luke Richardson chose to sign as a UFA with the Flyers, while Czerkawski was dealt to the Islanders. Drake Berehowsky was signed prior to the season to replace Richardson, but Sather would make his biggest splashes during the season. In a one week span in late December/early January he made two of the biggest Oiler trades in recent memory. First he packaged Marchment along with two of the Oilers failed first rounders (Bonsignore and Kelly) to the Lightning for former first overall pick Roman Hamrlik. While perhaps not quite living up to his first overall status, Hamrlik was a great defender on both the offensive and defensive sides, and this trade was a big steal for the Oilers. A week later he dealt Arnott to the Devils for forward Bill Guerin. Arnott had lost favour in Edmonton due to both on and off ice issues and this trade could be said to have turned out well for both teams. Arnott did well in New Jersey, while Bill Gurein would prove a perfect winger for his countryman Doug Weight. Two more swaps of d-men were made later in the season as Bannister went to Anaheim for Bobby Dollas and (at the deadline) McGillis went to Philadelphia for Janne Niinimaa. This last was another great deal as Niinimaa would be a rock on the Oilers’ blueline for many years.

There was no change in net for the team as Joesph played 71 games and Essensa just 16. The numbers for both look great, but again scoring was way down league wide as only teams in the entire league averaged more than 3 goals a game.

As already hinted at, there were a lot of changes on defense. Mironov played the full year and was third in team scoring (with just 46 points!). DeVries and Berehowsky also played the full year with the team, Sean Brown and Frank Musil were part-timers, but other were traded out mid-year as already documented. Marchment played just 27 games before being uprgraded to Hamrlik who was great in his 41 games, getting 26 points. Bannister played 34 before Dollas took over and played 30. Finally McGillis played 67, but Niinima replaced him playing 11 games and getting 9 points. So the team went into the playoffs with a solid core of Hamrlik, Niinimaa, Hamrlik, DeVries, Dollas, and Berehowsky. It should be noted that Lowe was still on the team but played only 7 games all season, and would retire at the end of the campaign and be hired by Sather as an assistant coach.

For the fifth consecutive year, Weight lead the team in scoring with 70 points—a full 20 more than the surprising Dean McAmmond who was second with 50. Arnott got only 18 points in 35 games before Guerin took his place and got 29 in 40. Marchant, Smyth, Kovalenko, Buchberger, Murray, and Grier were all back and contriubting, but all regressed from their 96-97 totals. Newcomer Scott Fraser had an incredible run near the end of the season getting 23 points in 29 games. Other forwards that made their Oiler debuts included 96 1st rounder Boyd Devereaux, 95 2nd rounder (and future fan favourite) Georges Laraques, and Valeri Zelepukin who came over from the Devils with Guerin.

So with all the off-ice distractions and player movement, the Oilers managed to finish the year with almost an identical total to the previous year going 35-37-10 for 80 points and seventh place in the conference again. This set up a first round series with the 2nd place Avalanche, the team that had easily dispatched them in the 2nd round the previous year. The Avs took a 2-0 lead into the last 10 minutes of game 1, before Edmonton managed three goals in a four minute span to take a 3-2 lead that they held onto for the victory. After losing badly in game 2, the Oilers again managed to erase a 2 goal deficit in game 3 to push it to OT. This time however, Joe Sakic broke their hearts with the OT winner. After a 3-1 loss in game 4 and the series headed back to Denver, the Oilers hopes looked bleak. But then CuJo took things into his own hands. The Avs would take a 1-0 lead into the 3rd in game 5, but the Oilers struck three times (including two by Mike Grier) to send the series back to Edmonton. Game 6 was all Joseph as he blanked the Avs in a game that saw the coaches Crawford and Lowe screaming at each other through the glass. This would set up an exciting and tense game 7 in Denver. Amazingly the game was all Oilers as they outshot the Avs almost two to one in an easy 4-0 victory and their second consecutive huge first round upset.

For round two it would be the top regular season team in the Dallas Stars. This would be a very low scoring series. The Oilers managed to come out of the first two games in Dallas with a split. Game 3 was then a goaltending dual between Joseph and Belfour as it was 0-0 going to OT. Unfortunately it was Dallas that would score the important winner. The Stars continued to stifle the Oilers offense as they would score only 6 goals in the entire series as they lost game 4 3-1 and game 5 2-1 and for the 2nd year in a row the Oilers again could not continue their upsetting ways.

But there was some reason for optimism going into the offseason.

[Updated on: Wed, 09 August 2023 17:39]

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 Season 27 (NHL 20); 1998-99: Bye Cujo; Hi Salo [message #825216 is a reply to message #824021 ]
Wed, 09 August 2023 17:39 Go to previous messageGo to next message
benv is currently offline benv
Messages: 604
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	Coach: Ron Low					
	GM: Glen Sather					
						
	Regular Season Record: 33W-37L-12T (.476)--78 points					
230GF 226GA    Finish: 8th Western Conference (16th overall)						
						
				Regular Season		
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Guerin, Bill	F	80	30	34	64
2	Beranek, Josef	F	66	19	30	49
3	Grier, Mike	F	82	20	24	44
4	Mironov, Boris	D	63	11	29	40
5	Falloon, Pat	F	82	17	23	40
6	Murray, Rem	F	78	21	18	39
7	Weight, Doug	F	43	6	31	37
8	Marchant, Todd	F	82	14	22	36
9	Hamrlik, Roman	D	75	8	24	32
10	Smyth, Ryan	F	71	13	18	31
11	Niinimaa, Janne	D	81	4	24	28
12	Kovalenko, Andrei	F	43	13	14	27
13	McAmmond, Dean	F	65	9	16	25
14	Poti, Tom	D	73	5	16	21
15	Lindgren, Mats	F	48	5	12	17
16	Selivanov, Alexander	F	29	8	6	14
17	Devereaux, Boyd	F	61	6	8	14
18	Buchberger, Kelly	F	52	4	4	8
19	Brown, Sean	D	51	0	7	7
20	Brown, Kevin	F	12	4	2	6
21	Moreau, Ethan	F	14	1	5	6
22	Reirden, Todd	D	17	2	3	5
23	Laraque, Georges	F	39	3	2	5
24	McSorley, Marty	D	46	2	3	5
25	Musil, Frantisek	D	39	0	3	3
26	Vorobiev, Vladimir	F	2	2	0	2
27	Smith, Jason	D	12	1	1	2
28	Kilger, Chad	F	13	1	1	2
29	Millar, Craig	D	24	0	2	2
30	Ferraro, Chris	F	2	1	0	1
31	Laflamme, Christian	D	11	0	1	1
32	Dowd, Jim	F	1	0	0	0
33	Hulbig, Joe	F	1	0	0	0
34	Huard, Bill	F	3	0	0	0
35	Lacouture, Dan	F	3	0	0	0
36	Lacroix, Daniel	F	4	0	0	0
37	Lindquist, Fredrik	F	8	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L-T
1	Essensa, Bob	39	2091	2.75	0.901	12-14-6
2	Shtalenkov, Mikhail	34	1819	2.67	0.896	12-17-3
3	Salo, Tommy	13	700	2.31	0.903	8-2-2
4	Passmore, Steve	6	362	2.82	0.907	1-4-1


			Playoffs			
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Smyth, Ryan	F	3	3	0	3
2	Moreau, Ethan	F	4	0	3	3
3	Guerin, Bill	F	3	0	2	2
4	Grier, Mike	F	4	1	1	2
5	Marchant, Todd	F	4	1	1	2
6	Murray, Rem	F	4	1	1	2
7	Weight, Doug	F	4	1	1	2
8	Selivanov, Alexander	F	2	0	1	1
9	Laflamme, Christian	D	4	0	1	1
10	Poti, Tom	D	4	0	1	1
11	Smith, Jason	D	4	0	1	1
12	Falloon, Pat	F	4	0	1	1
13	Brown, Sean	D	1	0	0	0
14	Musil, Frantisek	D	1	0	0	0
15	Devereaux, Boyd	F	1	0	0	0
16	Vorobiev, Vladimir	F	1	0	0	0
17	Beranek, Josef	F	2	0	0	0
18	Hamrlik, Roman	D	3	0	0	0
19	McSorley, Marty	D	3	0	0	0
20	Niinimaa, Janne	D	4	0	0	0
21	Buchberger, Kelly	F	4	0	0	0
22	Kilger, Chad	F	4	0	0	0
23	Laraque, Georges	F	4	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L
1	Salo, Tommy	4	296	2.23	0.926	0-4


Playoff result: Eliminated in Western Conference quarter-final						
Round 1: vs Dallas, lost 0 games to 4; 7GF 11GA




Transactions

June 16, 1998
• Bobby Dollas and Tony Hrkac traded to Pittsburgh for Josef Beranek.

June 18, 1998
• Mike Watt traded to NY Islanders for Eric Fichaud*.

June 26, 1998
• Doug Friedman claimed by Nashville in expansion draft.

June 27, 1998
• 3rd round pick in 1998 (Brian Gionta) traded to New Jersey for Fredrik Lindquist, and 4th (Kristian Antila*) and 5th (Oleg Smirnov*) round picks in 1998.
• 1998 NHL entry draft—Oilers selected Alex Henry (67), Shawn Horcoff (99), and Mike Morrison (186).


July 2, 1998
• Scott Fraser signed as free agent by NY Rangers.

July 14, 1998
• Terran Sandwith signed as free agent by Anaheim.

July 15, 1998
• Curtis Joseph signed as free agent by Toronto—Oilers receive compensatory 2nd round pick from league in 1999 (Tony Salmelainen).

August 13, 1998
• Signed Chris Ferraro (formerly with Pittsburgh) as free agent.

August 14, 1998
• Signed Kevin Brown (formerly with Carolina) as free agent.

August 18, 1998
• Jesse Belanger signed as free agent by Tampa Bay.

August 21, 1998
• Signed Pat Falloon (formerly with Ottawa) as free agent.

September 17, 1998
• Signed Todd Reirden (formerly with New Jersey) as free agent.

October 1, 1998
• Drake Berehowsky, Greg DeVries, and Eric Fichaud* traded to Nashville for Jim Dowd and Mikhail Shtalenkov.
• Signed Marty McSorley (formerly with San Jose) as free agent.

October 5, 1998
• Zdeno Ciger claimed on waivers by Nashville.
• Dennis Bonvie claimed on waivers by Chicago.
• Valeri Zelepukin traded to Philadelphia for Daniel Lacroix.

January 6, 1999
• Fred Brathwaite signed as free agent by Calgary.

January 11, 1999
• Petr Klima signed as free agent by Detroit.

January 29, 1999
• Andrei Kovalenko traded to Philadelphia for Alexandre Daigle*.
• Alexandre Daigle* traded to Tampa Bay for Alexander Selivanov.

February 3, 1999
• Barrie Moore traded to Washington for Brad Church*.

March 11, 1999
• Mikhail Shtalenkov traded to Phoenix for 5th round pick in 2000 (Matt Koalska (Nashville)).

March 20, 1999
• Mats Lindgren and 8th round pick in 1999 (Radek Martinek) traded to NY Islanders for Tommy Salo.
• Jonas Elofsson*, Dean McAmmond, Boris Mironov, and 2nd round pick in 1999 (Dmitri Levinsky) traded to Chicago for Daniel Cleary, Chad Kilger, Christian Laflamme, Ethan Moreau, and 2nd round pick in 1999 (Alexei Semenov).

March 23, 1999
• Kevin Brown traded to NY Rangers for Vladimir Vorobiev.
• 4th round pick in 1999 (Jonathan Zion) and 2nd round pick in 2000 (Kris Vernarsky) traded to Toronto for Jason Smith.




More league changes this year. Another expansion would begin with the Nashville Predators entering the league and making it a 27 team league. With 3 more teams scheduled to arrive within the next two years, the league did another complete re-organization going from 4 divisions to 6. For now, three divisions would have 5 teams and three would have only 4. The Southeast, Central and Northwest divisions were left with 4 teams, knowing that by 2000 every division would have 5. Playoffs would still be mostly conference based, with the three division winners in each conference getting the top 3 spots and then the 5 next best teams filling out the playoff brackets. The Oilers were in the newly created Northwest division with Calgary, Vancouver, and Colorado.

It would be a devastating off-season for the Oilers; just as they were hoping to make a jump, they lost arguably their most important player. Joseph was UFA and while he was interested in staying, the Oilers could simply not afford the $6 million per year the Leafs were willing to give him, so he fled to Toronto. They still had Essensa (who had been a number 1 goalie in the past) who badly wanted the number one job in Edmonton, but Sather decided he would need to earn it. He brought in Eric Fichaud from the Islanders to compete for the starting job, but he didn’t even make it out of training camp. They then packaged Fichaud along with two of their regular d-men from the previous year in DeVries and Berehowsky to obtain veteran Russian goalie Mikhail Shtalenkov. Also gone were Scott Fraser (who parlayed his Oiler hot streak into a sweet deal with the Rangers) and d-man Dollas. The latter was traded to the Penguins to reacquire ex-Oiler Josef Beranek for a second go round. Other new faces included former 2nd overall pick Pat Falloon who’s career had sputtered slightly, but coach Low knew him well and requested him, and another new/old face in Marty McSorley who the Oilers signed as a depth defenceman and enforcer.

Sather would save his biggest moves for the trade deadline, making three significant moves to upgrade the team. First he shipped Mats Lindgren to the Islanders for Tommy Salo, instantly giving the Oilers a goaltender who was at least in the same league as Joseph. On the same day he packaged Mironov and McAmmond to Chicago for three forwards and a d-man—this trade is somewhat questionable as only one of the obtained players had a long term future with the team. Finally he made up for the loss of Mironov by getting Jason Smith from Toronto for just a couple of draft picks.

So to start the year Essensa and Shtalenkov split duty with the Russian getting a bit more playing time to start the season, but neither guy could make the fans forget about Cujo (although once again the dead puck era made their stats look pretty good). Once Salo arrived (Shtalenkov had been dealt a week earlier) it was clear that he was a big upgrade. He would lead the Oilers to a hot streak down the stretch which just squeaked them into the playoffs.

The defense this year was a bit of a patch job with DeVries, Dollas, and Berehowsky all gone. Hamrlik, Niinimaa, and Mironov got the bulk of the work for most of the year; even with his departure, Mironov was still easily their leading point getter from the back-end. Newcomer Tom Poti (a 4th round pick from 1996) made his presence felt as he would play his rookie season and was easily their fourth best d-man. The bottom three spots were split among Sean Brown, Marty McSorley, and Frank Musil and once Smith arrived he would take Mironov’s minutes.

For the only time in his Oiler career, Weight did not lead the team in points; he missed half the year with injury and was less effective when he did play, accumulating just 37 points in 43 games. Also having an off year was Smyth who managed just 13 goals and 31 points over his 71 games played. Their leading scorer (both in goals and points) was Guerin who played the full year and got 30 goals and 64 points. Beranek made a triumph return to the city as his 49 points was second on the team. Grier had his best year as an Oiler with 44 points, while new boy Falloon rounded out the top 5 with 40 points. Murray and Marchant made their contributions, as did McAmmond, Lindgren, and Kovalenko before they were traded away. Kovalenko would be swapped in a three way deal for fellow Russian Alexander Selivanov who was smaller, but probably more skilled. Boyd Devereaux and Georges Laraque were regular bottom sixers, and captain Buchberger was starting to show his age as he would play his 12th and last season with the team. The team did a get a boost up front after the Mironov trade with Chad Kilger and Ethan Moreau taking regular shifts.

The team actually got off to a decent 7-4 start and basically hovered around 0.500 before going into a February slump that dropped them to 9th place in the conference. After the acquisitions of Salo, Smith, Moreau et al. they went a bit of a run, going 8-4-2 to squeak into the 8th and final playoff spot in the west (suck it 9th place Calgary!).

It would be Dallas again in the first round, who were easily the top team in the league and very difficult to score on. This would continue into this series. The Oilers battled hard, but just couldn’t seem to put the puck in the net (and when they did it was often called back for the very unpopular “toe nail in the crease” rule that existed at the time). The Stars swept them, with each game being a 1-goal affair and the Oilers only scoring 7 goals in the 4 games. It was a very frustrating series as the Oilers were always in every game, but just couldn’t quite get things done. A strong dislike for the Stars would start to percolate among Oiler fans at this point, especially after the Stars would eventually win the cup on a very controversial Brett Hull OT goal.

But the Oilers would once again have to wait for next year and hope they could keep their team intact.

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 Re: Season 27 (NHL 20); 1998-99: Bye Cujo; Hi Salo [message #825217 is a reply to message #825216 ]
Thu, 10 August 2023 10:57 Go to previous messageGo to next message
CrusaderPi is currently online CrusaderPi
Messages: 7804
Registered: December 2003
Location: AB Highway 100
6 Cups
These last four years of the Sather Oilers is my favorite era of Oilers hockey. I was a little too young to really appreciate the glory years and how special they were and the last 23 years have been something of a miserable slog. But these four years were such a great underdog story. Plucky hardworking teams that overachieved and, in hindsight, were a lot better than they got credit for a were. I think they really close, in terms of money and talent, to being true contenders.

The transition from CuJo to Goalie Bob / Stinky to Salo was amazing.

Please do not feed the bears. Feeding the bears creates a dependent population unable to survive on their own. Bears.

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 Re: Season 27 (NHL 20); 1998-99: Bye Cujo; Hi Salo [message #825218 is a reply to message #825217 ]
Thu, 10 August 2023 12:03 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Adam is currently offline Adam
Messages: 7177
Registered: August 2005
Location: Edmonton, AB
6 Cups
CrusaderPi wrote on Thu, 10 August 2023 10:57

These last four years of the Sather Oilers is my favorite era of Oilers hockey. I was a little too young to really appreciate the glory years and how special they were and the last 23 years have been something of a miserable slog. But these four years were such a great underdog story. Plucky hardworking teams that overachieved and, in hindsight, were a lot better than they got credit for a were. I think they really close, in terms of money and talent, to being true contenders.

The transition from CuJo to Goalie Bob / Stinky to Salo was amazing.


I think this period is probably some of Sather's best work. With limited resources, and poor amateur scouting, we managed to build a pretty good young group of forwards built around Doug Weight. Our defence in the Mironov/Hamrlik/Niinimaa period is really quite good. And other than that brief period between Joseph and Salo, our goaltending was all-star level.

We were unfortunate that the economics at that point were such that there were 5 or 6 teams able to greatly outspend us and all others, and that with where the ownership was at in these years, as well as the low Canadian dollar, we couldn't afford to keep players as they matured. You wonder if the Oilers had been able to keep this core intact for a couple more years if they could have challenged.

"Thinking that a bad team's best players are the reason the team is bad is the "Tambellini re-signing Lennart Petrell" of sports opinions." @Woodguy55
#FireBobbyNicks

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 Season 28 (NHL 21), 1999-2000: More of the Same [message #825224 is a reply to message #824021 ]
Sun, 13 August 2023 22:38 Go to previous messageGo to next message
benv is currently offline benv
Messages: 604
Registered: May 2006
Location: Edmonton
No Cups
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	Coach: Kevin Lowe					
	GM: Glen Sather					
						
Regular Season Record: 32W-26L-16T-8OTL (..537)--88 points						
226GF 207GA    Finish: 7th Western Conference (14th overall)						
						
				Regular Season		
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Weight, Doug	F	77	21	51	72
2	Smyth, Ryan	F	82	28	26	54
3	Selivanov, Alexander	F	67	27	20	47
4	Guerin, Bill	F	70	24	22	46
5	Hamrlik, Roman	D	80	8	37	45
6	Marchant, Todd	F	82	17	23	40
7	Poti, Tom	D	76	9	26	35
8	Niinimaa, Janne	D	81	8	25	33
9	Grier, Mike	F	65	9	22	31
10	Moreau, Ethan	F	73	17	10	27
11	Devereaux, Boyd	F	76	8	19	27
12	Dowd, Jim	F	69	5	18	23
13	Falloon, Pat	F	33	5	13	18
14	Beranek, Josef	F	58	9	8	17
15	Laraque, Georges	F	76	8	8	16
16	Murray, Rem	F	44	9	5	14
17	Smith, Jason	D	80	3	11	14
18	Brown, Sean	D	72	4	8	12
19	Cleary, Daniel	F	17	3	2	5
20	Kilger, Chad	F	40	3	2	5
21	Laflamme, Christian	D	50	0	5	5
22	Titov, German	F	7	0	4	4
23	Robertsson, Bert	D	52	0	4	4
24	Ulanov, Igor	D	14	0	3	3
25	Comrie, Paul	F	15	1	2	3
26	Hauer, Brett	D	5	0	2	2
27	Picard, Michel	F	2	0	0	0
28	Lacouture, Dan	F	5	0	0	0
29	Brown, Kevin	F	7	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L-T
1	Salo, Tommy	70	4164	2.33	0.914	27-28-13
2	Ranford, Bill	16	785	3.59	0.885	4-6-3
3	Minard, Mike	1	60	3.00	0.917	1-0-0


			Playoffs			
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Guerin, Bill	F	5	3	2	5
2	Weight, Doug	F	5	3	2	5
3	Dowd, Jim	F	5	2	1	3
4	Niinimaa, Janne	D	5	0	2	2
5	Titov, German	F	5	1	1	2
6	Marchant, Todd	F	3	1	0	1
7	Cleary, Daniel	F	4	0	1	1
8	Hamrlik, Roman	D	5	0	1	1
9	Poti, Tom	D	5	0	1	1
10	Smith, Jason	D	5	0	1	1
11	Smyth, Ryan	F	5	1	0	1
12	Laraque, Georges	F	5	0	1	1
13	Moreau, Ethan	F	5	0	1	1
14	Murray, Rem	F	5	0	1	1
15	Brown, Kevin	F	1	0	0	0
16	Lacouture, Dan	F	1	0	0	0
17	Brown, Sean	D	3	0	0	0
18	Kilger, Chad	F	3	0	0	0
19	Robertsson, Bert	D	5	0	0	0
20	Ulanov, Igor	D	5	0	0	0
21	Selivanov, Alexander	F	5	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L
1	Salo, Tommy	5	297	2.83	0.895	1-4


Playoff result: Eliminated in Western Conference quarter-final						
Round 1: vs Dallas, lost 1 game to 4; 11GF 14GA



Transactions

June 25, 1999
• Kelly Buchberger claimed by Atlanta in expansion draft.

June 26, 1999
• Craig Millar traded to Nashville for 3rd round pick in 1999 (Mike Comrie).
• Marko Tuomainen signed as free agent by Los Angeles.
• 1999 NHL entry draft—Oilers selected Jani Rita (13), Alexei Semenov (36), Tony Salmelainen (41), and Mike Comrie (91).

July 7, 1999
• Chris Ferraro signed as free agent by NY Islanders.

July 8, 1999
• Steve Passmore signed as free agent by Chicago.

July 19, 1999
• Bill Huard signed as free agent by Los Angeles.

July 23, 1999
• Joe Hulbig signed as free agent by Boston.

August 4, 1999
• Signed Bill Ranford (formerly with Detroit) as free agent.

August 11, 1999
• Daniel Lacroix signed as free agent by NY Islanders.

August 19, 1999
• Signed Bert Robertsson (formerly with Vancouver) as free agent.
• Signed Brian Swanson (formerly with NY Rangers) as free agent.

August 26, 1999
• Jason Bowen signed as free agent by Colorado.

September 1, 1999
• Ian Herbers signed as free agent by Tampa Bay.

September 5, 1999
• Bob Essensa signed as free agent by Phoenix.

September 27, 1999
• Ladislav Benysek claimed on waivers by Anaheim.

September 30, 1999
• Todd Reirden claimed on waivers by St. Louis.

December 2, 1999
• Signed Michel Picard (formerly with St. Louis) as free agent.

December 9, 1999
• Marty McSorley signed as free agent by Boston—Oilers receive compensatory 7th round pick from league in 2000 (Joe Cullen*).

February 4, 2000
• Pat Falloon claimed on waivers by Pittsburgh.

March 7, 2000
• Signed Kevin Brown (formerly with NY Rangers) as free agent.

March 9, 2000
• Matthieu Descoteaux* and Christian Laflamme traded to Montreal for Alain Nasreddine* and Igor Ulanov.

March 14, 2000
• Josef Beranek traded to Pittsburgh for German Titov.



Another expansion team was added this year in the Atlanta Thrasher, making a 28 teams league (15 east and 13 west). This was also the first year the league started giving bonus points for OT losses, creating the much debated “3 point games”.

Ron Low’s contract was up and the Oilers elected not to bring him back. They went to an all new Lowe (pun intended) promoting Kevin to head coach after just one year as an assistant.

In terms of players, this was probably the least eventful offseason for the Oilers since the glory years. They lost Buchberger in the expansion draft and named Doug Weight as the new captain. They let Essensa walk as a free agent and replaced him with a very familiar face in Bill Ranford, who signed with the team in the twilight of his career to be Salo’s backup. Other than that, the team that started the year would very much be the one that finished the previous one.

Salo established himself as an elite guy in net playing 70 games with a good looking .914 save percentage (for comparison, Ranford was .885 in his limited minutes). This had him in the top 10 in the league in both GAA save percentage, so goaltending would not be an issue for the Oilers.

On defence, the Oilers had three guys who could put up points. Hamrlik would be the leader racking up 45 points, closely followed by Poti with 35 and Niinimaa with 33. Jason Smith was a horse as a defensive guy, playing 80 games and klling penalties. The bottom pairings were taken by Sean Brown who played nearly all the games, Christian LaFlamme (acquired in the Mironov trade) who played a regular shift until he was traded for Igor Ulanov (who took his place late in the season) and Bert Robertsson (a free agent signing). This was as good a defence as the team had had in a while.

In a year where there were no 100 point scorers for the first time in 37 years, newly minted captain Weight lead the way again for the Oilers with 72 points, a good 18 points clear of second place Smyth. Third place was a surprising Alexander Selivanov who was on fire out of the gate—he was leading the league in goals with about 17 after 20 games, but obviously this couldn’t be maintained and he finished the season with 27 goals and 47 points. Rounding out the top 5 forwards were Guerin who had a bit of a down season for him with 46 points and Marchant who played in every game and contributed 40 points. This was the season where the Marchant/Grier/Moreau line started to be a fixture as an effective checking line that could contribute some offense—Grier and Moreau were next on the point hierarchy. Rounding out the rest of the forwards were Boyd Devereaux, Jim Dowd, Laraque, and Murray. Chad Kilger and Daniel Cleary (the other two players acquired in the Mironov trade) played sparingly and did not have good seasons. Beranek's totals were way down from 98-99; he played about 2/3 of the season before being flipped for German Titov, a dynamic scorer who was a rental for the team down the stretch. Pat Falloon also played sparingly before being claimed on waivers mid-season.

The season began for the team with the retirement of Grezky’s number 99 in a big ceremony on opening night. The team then proceeded to continue their slight improvement, getting 88 points (keep in mind though that the new “loser point” makes it difficult to compare with previous seasons)—good for 2nd place in the Northwest and 7th in the Western Conference.

This set up a fourth straight series against the Dallas Stars, a team Oiler fans were quickly becoming sick of. Things did not go well as the Oilers dropped the first two games in Dallas, before striking back in game 3, lead by a Weight hat-trick. It was Guerin’s turn to get a hat-trick the next game, but it wasn’t enough, as the Oilers fell 4-3 to go down 3-1 in the series. Game 5 would be another close one, but it was the Stars who pulled out the 3-2 win with a late 3rd period goal by Brett Hull, sending the Oilers home in the first round again.

It would be back to the drawing aboard again to regroup for the next year.

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 Season 29 (NHL 22); 2000-01:New millennium, new GM [message #825241 is a reply to message #824021 ]
Wed, 16 August 2023 15:41 Go to previous messageGo to next message
benv is currently offline benv
Messages: 604
Registered: May 2006
Location: Edmonton
No Cups
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	Coach: Craig MacTavish					
	GM: Kevin Lowe					
						
Regular Season Record: 39W-28L-12T-3OTL (..567)--93 points						
243GF 222GA    Finish: 6th Western Conference (12th overall)						
						
				Regular Season		
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Weight, Doug	F	82	25	65	90
2	Smyth, Ryan	F	82	31	39	70
3	Niinimaa, Janne	D	82	12	34	46
4	Carter, Anson	F	61	16	26	42
5	Marchant, Todd	F	71	13	26	39
6	Grier, Mike	F	74	20	16	36
7	Murray, Rem	F	82	15	21	36
8	Cleary, Daniel	F	81	14	21	35
9	Poti, Tom	D	81	12	20	32
10	Laraque, Georges	F	82	13	16	29
11	Ulanov, Igor	D	67	3	20	23
12	Guerin, Bill	F	21	12	10	22
13	Comrie, Mike	F	41	8	14	22
14	Brewer, Eric	D	77	7	14	21
15	Zholtok, Sergei	F	37	4	16	20
16	Smith, Jason	D	82	5	15	20
17	Moreau, Ethan	F	68	9	10	19
18	Horcoff, Shawn	F	49	9	7	16
19	Pittis, Dominic	F	47	4	5	9
20	Kilger, Chad	F	34	5	2	7
21	Lacouture, Dan	F	37	2	4	6
22	Brown, Sean	D	62	2	3	5
23	Butenschon, Sven	D	7	1	1	2
24	Musil, Frantisek	D	13	0	2	2
25	Swanson, Brian	F	16	1	1	2
26	Riesen, Michael	F	12	0	1	1
27	Ferguson, Scott	D	20	0	1	1
28	Hajt, Chris	D	1	0	0	0
29	Chimera, Jason	F	1	0	0	0
30	Côté, Patrick	F	6	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L-T
1	Salo, Tommy	73	4364	2.46	0.904	36-25-12
2	Roussel, Dominic	8	348	3.62	0.861	1-4-0
3	Gage, Joaquin	5	260	3.46	0.880	2-2-0


			Playoffs			
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Smyth, Ryan	F	6	3	4	7
2	Brewer, Eric	D	6	1	5	6
3	Weight, Doug	F	6	1	5	6
4	Carter, Anson	F	6	3	1	4
5	Comrie, Mike	F	6	1	2	3
6	Niinimaa, Janne	D	6	0	2	2
7	Poti, Tom	D	6	0	2	2
8	Smith, Jason	D	6	0	2	2
9	Murray, Rem	F	6	2	0	2
10	Cleary, Daniel	F	6	1	1	2
11	Laraque, Georges	F	6	1	1	2
12	Green, Josh	F	3	0	0	0
13	Pittis, Dominic	F	3	0	0	0
14	Zholtok, Sergei	F	3	0	0	0
15	Moreau, Ethan	F	4	0	0	0
16	Horcoff, Shawn	F	5	0	0	0
17	Ferguson, Scott	D	6	0	0	0
18	Ulanov, Igor	D	6	0	0	0
19	Grier, Mike	F	6	0	0	0
20	Marchant, Todd	F	6	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L
1	Salo, Tommy	6	406	2.22	0.920	2-4


Playoff result: Eliminated in Western Conference quarter-final						
Round 1: vs Dallas, lost 2 games to 4; 13GF 16GA



Transactions

June 12, 2000
• 5th round pick in 2000 (Matt Koalska) traded to Nashville for Patrick Côté.

June 23, 2000
• Jim Dowd claimed by Minnesota in expansion draft.
• Bert Robertsson claimed by Columbus in expansion draft.

June 24, 2000
• Roman Hamrlik traded to NY Islanders for Eric Brewer, Josh Green, and 2nd round pick in 2000 (Brad Winchester).
• 2000 NHL entry draft (rounds 1-3)—Oilers selected Alexei Mikhnov (17) and Brad Winchester (35).

June 25, 2000
• 9th round pick in 2000 (Andreas Lindstrom) traded to Boston for 9th round pick in 2001 (Ales Pisa).

July 1, 2000
• German Titov signed as free agent by Anaheim—Oilers receive compensatory 5th round pick from league in 2001 (Jussi Markkanen).

July 5, 2000
• Signed Scott Ferguson (formerly with Anaheim) as free agent.

July 15, 2000
• Signed Dominic Pittis (formerly with Buffalo) as free agent.

August 14, 2000
• Michel Picard signed as free agent by Philadelphia.

August 23, 2000
• Boyd Devereaux signed as free agent by Detroit.

November 15, 2000
• Bill Guerin and 1st round pick in 2001 (Shaone Morrisonn) traded to Boston for Anson Carter and 1st (Ales Hemsky) and 2nd (Doug Lynch) round picks in 2001.

November 27, 2000
• Alexander Selivanov signed as free agent by Columbus.

December 18, 2000
• Chad Kilger traded to Montreal for Sergei Zholtok.

January 10, 2001
• Claimed Dominic Roussel on waivers from Anaheim.

March 13, 2001
• Dan Lacouture traded to Pittsburgh for Sven Butenschon.

March 16, 2001
• Mike Minard signed as free agent by Toronto.



So the league would finish off it’s expansion adding the Columbus Blue Jackets and returning to Minnesota with the Wild. This would perfectly balance the divisions and conferences with 5 teams per division and 15 per conference. The Wild would join the Oilers in the Northwest division. The league would remain stable at 30 teams for the next 17 years, with only one franchise movement during that period.

There was big shifts in the Oilers front office. After 24 years in the Oilers organization, Sather decided to leave and take the same job with the New York Rangers. The move was predicated on Sather’s unhappiness with the new EIG ownership group—Sather had had a good relationship with Pocklington and didn’t like having to get all his moves approved by a large group. So everyone moved up in rank. Lowe completed a meteoric rise up the ranks going from retiring player to assistant coach to head coach to GM all in a three year span. Looking back it certainly seems the Oilers could have used more diligence in finding Sather’s replacement, but at the time it certainly seemed natural. To replace Lowe as head coach Craig MacTavish was given the head job after just one year as an assistant with the team (he did spend two years as an assistant with the Rangers prior to that). MacT would keep the job for nearly the entire decade.

Lowe was forced into immediate action as he would trade the Oilers best defenceman at the draft and then one of their top forwards early in the season. Hamrlik was shipped off to the Islanders and the Oilers received the younger and gifted offensive defenceman Eric Brewer. He made his second big move in November when Guerin was traded to Boston for the younger Anson Carter. Both these trades had more to do with the Oilers financial situation then their hockey situation, but Lowe has to be given credit as Brewer and Carter were both nearly replacement level for the guys going out. He also managed to get other prospects and draft picks in the trades. Other off-season developments were the departures of Titov, Selivanov, and Devereaux to free agency, Dowd and Robertsson to the expansion draft, the addition of depth defenseman Scott Ferguson and the return of Joaquin Gage to be the backup goalie after Ranford’s retirement.

MacTavish rode Salo even harder than Lowe did. As mentioned Gage returned to be the back-up and mid-season he would be replaced by Dominic Roussel, but it was basically Salo playing every game—73 out of 82 all told. He was terrific again putting up a 2.46 GAA and 0.904 sv%.

The loss of Hamrlik meant Niinimaa took over as the Oilers top offensive guy on defence (46 points), while Smith was the solid rock defensive guy. Both played all 82 games. Poti, Ulanov, and new guy Brewer all had good seasons to give the Oilers a consistent top 5. Brown, and Ferguson alternated for most of the season in the 6th spot.

Up front Weight had a terrific season (he considered this season his best ever in the NHL) as he racked up 90 points to finish eighth overall in league scoring and easily atop the Oilers. Ryan Smyth improved to 31 goals and 70 points—good for second on the team. Guerin had 22 points in 21 games before he was dealt for Carter, who then took over and managed 42 points the rest of the way. The Marchant/Grier/Moreau trio continued to provide the combination of offense and “gritensity” they’d become known for. Rem Muuray, Daniel Cleary, and George Laraque all had their best seasons as Oilers. Finally a couple of newcomers made their Oiler debuts: Shawn Horcoff was a 1998 fourth rounder who came up from the AHL and cemented a permanent spot as the fourth line center—he would soon cement his career as an Oiler. Meanwhile, Mike Comrie was a 1999 3rd rounder (and son of Edmonton entrepreneur Bill Comrie) who joined the Oilers after tearing up the WHL and would stay with the big club the rest of the way showing his good scoring touch.

Despite the losses of Hamrlik and Guerin, the Oilers were improved over the previous couple of years. They were in danger of missing the playoffs before they went on a team record 9-game winning streak in February that moved them up the standings. They would finish with a 39-28-15 and 93 points—their best total since the cup years. This was good for 6th place in the Western conference and would set up yet another playoff date with the now definitely hated Dallas Stars.

This series was very intense as the Oilers and their fans were hell bent on beating Dallas and getting the monkey off their back. Dallas had faded a bit from their previous teams, while the Oilers had gotten a bit better, so an upset seemed possible. Game 1 was a close affair with the Star prevailing 2-1 in OT. The Oilers had the better play in game 2 that lead to a 4-3 win. After dropping game 3 3-2 in OT, game 4 was the most intense as Weight was ejected early for a head shot; nevertheless the Oilers managed to pull the game out with a goal in OT by Comrie to tie the series. Game 5 saw the Stars take a 2-0 lead into the third, only for the Oilers to score 3 times in the first 6 minutes of period 3 to take the lead. Unfortunately, they could not hold on as the Stars would tie it and then win in OT. The Stars would wrap things up with a 3-1 win in game 6 to send the Oilers home sad for the fourth straight year.

I’m sure I’m biased, but I always thought this was the one series where the Oilers definitely deserved a better fate. The Stars seemed to get all the breaks and the refs seemed to give them a lot more leeway than the Oilers when calling penalties. But alas we would have to wait for next year once again.

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 Season 30 (NHL 23), 2001-02: Weight Loss [message #825245 is a reply to message #824021 ]
Thu, 17 August 2023 15:47 Go to previous messageGo to next message
benv is currently offline benv
Messages: 604
Registered: May 2006
Location: Edmonton
No Cups
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Regular Season Record: 38W-28L-12T-4OTL (.561)--92 points							
205GF 182GA   Finish: 9th Western Conference (15th overall)--out of playoffs							
							
				Regular Season			
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points	
1	Comrie, Mike	F	82	33	27	60	
2	Carter, Anson	F	82	28	32	60	
3	Smyth, Ryan	F	61	15	35	50	
4	Niinimaa, Janne	D	81	5	39	44	
5	Hecht, Jochen	F	82	16	24	40	
6	Marchant, Todd	F	82	12	22	34	
7	Cleary, Daniel	F	65	10	19	29	
8	Brewer, Eric	D	81	7	18	25	
9	Grier, Mike	F	82	8	17	25	
10	Murray, Rem	F	69	7	17	24	
11	Horcoff, Shawn	F	61	8	14	22	
12	Laraque, Georges	F	80	5	14	19	
13	Smith, Jason	D	74	5	13	18	
14	Poti, Tom	D	55	1	16	17	
15	Moreau, Ethan	F	80	11	5	16	
16	Green, Josh	F	61	10	5	15	
17	Reasoner, Marty	F	52	6	5	11	
18	Brown, Sean	D	61	6	4	10	
19	Staios, Steve	D	73	5	5	10	
20	Pittis, Dominic	F	22	0	6	6	
21	Ferguson, Scott	D	50	3	2	5	
22	York, Mike	F	12	2	2	4	
23	Swanson, Brian	F	8	1	1	2	
24	Chimera, Jason	F	3	1	0	1	
25	Rita, Jani	F	1	0	0	0	
26	Pisa, Ales	D	2	0	0	0	
27	Butenschon, Sven	D	14	0	0	0	
							
				Goalies			
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L-T	
1	Salo, Tommy	69	4035	2.22	0.913	30-28-10	
2	Markkanen, Jussi	14	784	1.84	0.929	6-4-2	
3	Conklin, Ty	4	148	1.62	0.939	2-0-0



Transactions

April 16, 2001
• Signed Ty Conklin as free agent.

May 29, 2001
• Signed Marc-Andre Bergeron as free agent.

June 23, 2001
• 2001 NHL entry draft (rounds 1-3)—Oilers selected Ales Hemsky (13) and Doug Lynch (43).

June 24, 2001
• 2001 NHL entry draft (rounds 4-9)—Oilers selected Jussi Markkanen (133), Kari Haakana (248), and Ales Pisa (272).

June 29, 2001
• Sergei Zholtok traded to Minnesota for 7th round pick in 2002 (Jean-Francois Dufort*).

July 1, 2001
• Michel Riesen and Doug Weight traded to St. Louis for Jochen Hecht, Jan Horacek*, and Marty Reasoner.
• Igor Ulanov signed as free agent by NY Rangers—Oilers receive compensatory 4th round pick from league in 2002 (Robin Kovar*).

July 2, 2001
• Brett Hauer signed as free agent by Los Angeles.

July 12, 2001
• Signed Steve Staios (formerly with Atlanta) as free agent.

March 19, 2002
• Sean Brown traded to Boston for Bobby Allen.
• Rem Murray and Tom Poti traded to NY Rangers for Mike York and 4th round pick in 2002 (Ivan Koltsov*).



This season would of course begin in the shadow of 9/11, but since the tragedy happened in the pre-season, the schedule was largely unaffected. The Oilers would introduce a third jersey this year—the famous McFarlane design that some liked (not me particularly).

The biggest event from an Oiler standpoint in the offseason was the loss of their heart and soul leader for the past 8 seasons in Doug Weight. Like Joseph, Guerin, and Hamrlik before, Weight’s contract was up and the Oilers simply couldn’t afford the 6 million he was commanding on the market, so they dealt him to St. Louis for three forwards of much lesser quality. This was obviously a huge loss, as they didn’t have anyone who could come close to replacing his offense, and they would have to adjust accordingly. In other off-season moves, they let Ulanov go as a free agent, and replaced him by signing veteran Steve Staios. They also got a couple of new goalies in Ty Conklin (free agent) and Jussi Markkanen that would both see some time with the team this year.

The Oiler goaltending was fantastic this season. Salo played 69 games and had top ten numbers with a .913 sv% and 2.22 GAA. His backups numbers were even better: Conklin backed up for the about the first six weeks before Markkanen took over the job for the remainder of the season. The 182 goals against was by far the lowest in team history (again maybe asterix this for being in the dead puck era). One noteable thing that happened to Salo had nothing to do with the Oilers--Salo was in net for the Swedes during the Olympics when in the quarter finals he let a shot from center bounce off his mask and into the net, causing the Swedes to lose to lowly Belarus. Some have said that he never fully recovered from this gaffe, but I don't specifically remember his Oiler play faltering in 2002.

The core group on defense was back, with Niinimaa again being the offensive catalyst with 44 points, followed by Brewer with 25. Tom Poti would play 55 games with the team before being dealt at the deadline for offensive forward Mike York. Smith (the newly minted captain after Weight’s departure) and new-boy Staios were solid in the shutdown department, while Brown (also dealt at the deadline) and Ferguson rounded out the top 7.

Without Weight, the remaining forwards would have to try to pick up the offensive slack. Mike Comrie made a huge leap in this department as he played the year as the number one centre and co-lead the team with 60 points. Carter matched that number, and Smyth was 10 behind with 50—he likely would have been up there with Comrie and Carter if he hadn’t missed 21 games with a broken leg. Jochen Hecht and Marty Reasoner had been acquired in the Weight deal—Hecht would play all 82 games and chip in with 40 points. Reasoner played 52 and would be a decent bottom half center for the team. The Marchant/Grier/Moreau trio was also back as an effective line (these three always inseparable to me during this period). The team hoped to get a bit of a boost on offense at the trade deadline with the acquisition of Mike York, but he managed only 4 points in his 12 games with the team. Rounding out the forwards we again had Cleary (having his best year with the team), Murray, Horcoff, and Laraque all returning and making contributions. Finally Josh Green, who had been the second player acquired for Hamrlik in 2000 finally made his debut (after missing the entire previous year with injury) and played 61 games in a fourth line role.

The Oilers came out of the gate well, and found themselves in first place in the Northwest division as late as mid-December. Then things started to go sour after an injury to Smyth and the team slumped to drop them out of a playoff spot. A late season surge helped get things back on track a bit and the team would finish the season with a record of 38-28-16—good for 92 points, just one less than the previous year. This was even two more than the hated Stars who had fallen from grace! The bad news—it put them in ninth place in the conference and out of the playoffs, just two back of the Canucks. This was the most points a non-playoff team had ever gotten in NHL history. It was bad luck for the Oilers that the Western Conference was relatively strong (their 92 points would have easily had them in the playoffs in the east).

But the team had whetherd the storm without Weight and hoped for better things the following year.

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 Season 31 (NHL 24), 2002-03: Rebuild and Reload [message #825257 is a reply to message #824021 ]
Mon, 21 August 2023 20:04 Go to previous messageGo to next message
benv is currently offline benv
Messages: 604
Registered: May 2006
Location: Edmonton
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	Coach: Craig MacTavish					
	GM: Kevin Lowe					
						
Regular Season Record: 36W-26L-11T-9OTL (.561)--92 points						
231GF 230GA    Finish: 8th Western Conference (14th overall)						
						
				Regular Season		
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Smyth, Ryan	F	66	27	34	61
2	Marchant, Todd	F	77	20	40	60
3	Carter, Anson	F	68	25	30	55
4	Comrie, Mike	F	69	20	31	51
5	York, Mike	F	71	22	29	51
6	Horcoff, Shawn	F	78	12	21	33
7	Reasoner, Marty	F	70	11	20	31
8	Moreau, Ethan	F	78	14	17	31
9	Hemsky, Ales	F	59	6	24	30
10	Brewer, Eric	D	80	8	21	29
11	Niinimaa, Janne	F	63	4	24	28
12	Staios, Steve	D	76	5	21	26
13	Chimera, Jason	F	66	14	9	23
14	Cleary, Daniel	F	57	4	13	17
15	Pisani, Fernando	F	35	8	5	13
16	Laraque, Georges	F	64	6	7	13
17	Swanson, Brian	F	44	2	10	12
18	Smith, Jason	D	68	4	8	12
19	Dvorak, Radek	F	12	4	4	8
20	Ferguson, Scott	D	78	3	5	8
21	Semenov, Alexei	D	46	1	6	7
22	Dopita, Jiri	F	21	1	5	6
23	Cross, Cory	D	11	2	3	5
24	Isbister, Brad	F	13	3	2	5
25	Rita, Jani	F	12	3	1	4
26	Pisa, Ales	D	48	1	3	4
27	Bergeron, Marc-Andre	D	5	1	1	2
28	Green, Josh	F	20	0	2	2
29	Stoll, Jarret	F	4	0	1	1
30	Allen, Bobby	D	1	0	0	0
31	Henry, Alex	D	3	0	0	0
32	Haakana, Kari	D	13	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L-T
1	Salo, Tommy	65	3814	2.71	0.899	29-27-8
2	Markkanen, Jussi	22	1180	2.59	0.904	7-8-3

			Playoffs			
	Player	Position	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
1	Brewer, Eric	D	6	1	3	4
2	Horcoff, Shawn	F	6	3	1	4
3	Laraque, Georges	F	6	1	3	4
4	Chimera, Jason	F	2	0	2	2
5	Smyth, Ryan	F	6	2	0	2
6	Marchant, Todd	F	6	0	2	2
7	York, Mike	F	6	0	2	2
8	Bergeron, Marc-Andre	D	1	0	1	1
9	Dvorak, Radek	F	4	1	0	1
10	Cross, Cory	D	6	0	1	1
11	Comrie, Mike	F	6	1	0	1
12	Pisani, Fernando	F	6	1	0	1
13	Reasoner, Marty	F	6	1	0	1
14	Isbister, Brad	F	6	0	1	1
15	Moreau, Ethan	F	6	0	1	1
16	Ferguson, Scott	D	5	0	0	0
17	Semenov, Alexei	D	6	0	0	0
18	Smith, Jason	D	6	0	0	0
19	Staios, Steve	D	6	0	0	0
20	Hemsky, Ales	F	6	0	0	0
						
				Goalies		
	Goalie	Games	Min	GAA	SV %	W-L
1	Salo, Tommy	6	343	3.15	0.888	2-4
2	Markkanen, Jussi	1	14	4.29	0.917	0-0


Playoff result: Eliminated in Western Conference quarter-final						
Round 1: vs Dallas, lost 2 games to 4; 11GF 20GA



Transactions

May 28, 2002
• Signed Mike Bishai as free agent.

June 18, 2002
• 3rd round pick in 2003 (Ryan Potulny) traded to Philadelphia for Jiri Dopita.

June 22, 2002
• 1st round pick in 2002 (Christopher Higgins) traded to Montreal for 1st (Jesse Niinimaki*) and 8th (Tomas Micka*) round picks in 2002.
• Jochen Hecht traded to Buffalo for two 2nd round picks in 2002 (Jeff Deslauriers and Jarret Stoll).
• 2002 NHL entry draft (rounds 1-3)—Oilers selected Jesse Niinimaki* (15), Jeff Deslauriers (31), Jarret Stoll (36), and Matt Greene (44).

June 23, 2002
• 2002 NHL entry draft (rounds 4-9)—Oilers selected Mikko Luoma (181) and Dwight Helminen* (244).

July 9, 2002
• Sven Butenschon signed as free agent by Florida.

July 23, 2002
• Chris Hajt signed as free agent by Washington.

July 24, 2002
• Domenic Pittis signed as free agent by Nashville.

October 7, 2002
• Mike Grier traded to Washington for 2nd (Evgeny Tunik (NY Islanders)) and 3rd (Zack Stortini) round picks in 2003.

October 24, 2002
• Alex Henry claimed on waivers by Washington.

December 12, 2002
• Josh Green traded to NY Rangers for future considerations (not exercised).

March 11, 2003
• Anson Carter and Ales Pisa traded to NY Rangers for Cory Cross and Radek Dvorak.
• Janne Niinimaa and 2nd round pick in 2003 (Evgeny Tunik) traded to NY Islanders for Brad Isbister and Raffi Torres.



So after a season where they missed the playoffs, but still had a pretty good record, the Oilers went into 2002-03 mostly staying pat. They dealt Jochen Hecht at the draft for a couple of picks and then, just prior to the start of the season, they dealt Grier for a couple more picks. The only significant add they made was acquiring Jiri Dopita, a veteran Czech centre who had been probably the most sought after non-NHLer at the time. With their limited budget, any other improvements would have to come from within. Lowe did make two deadline deals getting rid of veterans Niinimaa and Carter to cut costs, despite the fact the Oilers were comfortably in the playoffs by that point.

For the fourth consecutive year, Salo would be the workhorse in goal, playing 65 games with Markkanen backing him the entire season. Salo's numbers were down slightly from the previous year, but he still managed a respectable .899% and an overall winning record.

On defense, they had a solid top four where Niinimaa and Brewer were again their top two offensively, while Smith and Staios worked on keeping the pucks out. Ferguson played the full season as a third pairing guy, while the sixth man was alternated between newcomers Alexi Semenov and Ales Pisa. Both Niinmaa and Pisa were dealt at the deadline with only Cory Cross coming back as relief for the backend, so those who remained were forced to step up.

Despite missing 16 games, Smyth would lead the way upfront getting 61 points, closely followed by Marchant who had his best season with 60 points. Comrie regressed slightly to 51 points, while Mike York played his first full season with the team, contributing 51. Despite being dealt to the Rangers, Carter was third in scoring on the team with 55 points. Reasoner and Moreau contributed solid seasons and Horcoff was steadily improving. Dvoark and Isbister would arrive late and make contributions down the stretch on the scoring lines. Mixed in on the bottom lines were returnees Chimera, Cleary, Laraque, and Brain Swanson. Two draft picks that played their first seasons with the team were Fernando Pisani and Ales Hemsky--both would of course have greater things to come for the team. Oh and that big acquisition Jiri Dopita--he was a big swing and miss and was cut loose after playing just 21 games (6 points).

So when all was said and done, the Oilers finished with the exact same record as the previous year, 92 points--only this time it was good enough for 8th overall in the Western Conference (a good 13 points clear of 9th place Chicago) and a playoff birth. Unbelievably, Dallas had recovered from their mis-step the previous year and had won the conference--so it would be yet another Oilers/Stars first round match-up. MacTavish made the decision to use Marchant to shadow Modano for the entire series, but it never seemed very effective. The Oilers came out of the gate with a 2-1 victory in game 1, but were then trounced 6-1 in game 2. After squeaking out a 3-2 win in game 3 (on a brilliant individual effort goal by new boy Dvorak) there was hope in Oilerville for a potential upset--but it was of course not to be. The Stars would take the next three games and for the fourth time in five years, eliminate the Oilers in the first round. It was next year country once again for the team.

[Updated on: Wed, 23 August 2023 14:48]

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 Re: Season 30 (NHL 23), 2002-03: Rebuildl and Reload [message #825260 is a reply to message #825257 ]
Tue, 22 August 2023 08:40 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Steve is currently offline Steve
Messages: 113
Registered: October 2006
Location: Ottawa
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Enough of the Dallas Stars. I hope this is the last time the Oilers ever play them in the playoffs.

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."

- Calvin

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 Re: Season 30 (NHL 23), 2002-03: Rebuildl and Reload [message #825261 is a reply to message #825260 ]
Tue, 22 August 2023 08:52 Go to previous messageGo to next message
CrusaderPi is currently online CrusaderPi
Messages: 7804
Registered: December 2003
Location: AB Highway 100
6 Cups
Steve wrote on Tue, 22 August 2023 08:40

Enough of the Dallas Stars. I hope this is the last time the Oilers ever play them in the playoffs.

We didn't know what we had 'til was gone.


The early 00s were my favorite era of obscure Oilers. It's probably because I was young enough to still be really into hockey, but old enough to be able to buy some games. It also helped the you could still get cheapish tickets, I worked with a bunch of guys that really like hockey, and we hadn't missed a whole season yet but I really loved the easily forgettable players from back then. Sven Butenschon? Ales Pisa? Mike Bishai next season? My goodness. My all time favorite came in 06-07. I can't wait.

Please do not feed the bears. Feeding the bears creates a dependent population unable to survive on their own. Bears.

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 Re: Season 30 (NHL 23), 2002-03: Rebuildl and Reload [message #825262 is a reply to message #825261 ]
Tue, 22 August 2023 09:16 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
Dragon_Matt is currently offline Dragon_Matt
Messages: 766
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Location: edmonton
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Wasn't Bishai the one who was fighting from inside the opposition bench?

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 Re: Season 30 (NHL 23), 2002-03: Rebuildl and Reload [message #825263 is a reply to message #825262 ]
Tue, 22 August 2023 09:28 Go to previous messageGo to next message
CrusaderPi is currently online CrusaderPi
Messages: 7804
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Location: AB Highway 100
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Dragon_Matt wrote on Tue, 22 August 2023 09:16

Wasn't Bishai the one who was fighting from inside the opposition bench?

Yes!

The oddly heated Oilers - Thrashers rivalry.

Please do not feed the bears. Feeding the bears creates a dependent population unable to survive on their own. Bears.

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