Hockey

HOCKEY

1980 Olympic Attention

The new heights of popularity achieved by the National Hockey League (NHL) in the 1980s stems in part from the interest in the sport generated when the United States hockey team shocked the world by upsetting the mighty Soviets and later winning the gold medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics. The "Miracle on Ice" at Lake Placid "wound up being, quite literally, an icebreaker in terms of the sport's visibility at home and the new stature American hockey attained with the National Hockey League," wrote Robin Finn of The New York Times on the tenth anniversary of the event. "Suddenly hockey gained viability as a career for aspiring athletes who might otherwise have looked to other sports as their launching pads." Moreover, the U.S. hockey team's victory brought the sport to millions of viewers who were caught up in the excitement of the unfolding national drama but who had no previous knowledge of or interest in the game. "Winning the gold medal gave our hockey program some visibility and some credibility"' said Herb Brooks, coach of the U.S. team in 1980, "and it brought the thing into a certain degree of focus, opening doors that had only been partly opened before. It was a catalyst and a springboard," Or as hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky succinctly put it, the 1980 Olympics were "the greatest thing to happen to hockey in twenty years"

Realignment

After a period of great expansion in the 1970s, the NHL opened the 1979-1980 season with a record twenty-one teams, including four from the defunct World Hockey Association (WHA). Late in 1980 in an attempt to lend some geographical logic (in terms of regional rivalries, traveling expenses, and television scheduling) to the organization of divisions, the league's board of governors unanimously approved a realignment plan for the 1981-1982 season. "This is a major step—our business has changed," said league president John Ziegler. During the season each team would continue to play eighty games, but with the realignment teams would play each of the opponents in its division four times. Preliminary playoffs between the top four teams in each of the four divisions would now determine the semifinalists in the conference championships.

New York Islanders

The 1979-1980 season witnessed the beginning of the New York Islanders' dynasty'. During the first half of the decade the Islanders' combination of offensive firepower and defensive ruggedness proved to be insurmountable for their opponents. With perennial all-stars such as high-scoring forward Mike Bossy, nifty-passing center Bryan Trottier, hard-hitting defenseman Denis Potvin, and intimidating goalie Billy Smith at his disposal, coach Al Arbour led the Isles to four consecutive Stanley Cups from 1979-1980 to 1982-1983. As one of the Islanders' opponents put it, they were "an almost perfect team." Much like the Montreal Canadiens of the late 1970s, the Islanders of the early 1980s thoroughly dominated the league. Unlike the Canadiens, however, the Islanders were a team without a glorious past. Having entered the NHL in 1972, the Islanders' accomplishments made them the winningest team in professional sports for its age and led some to ponder where they ranked in terms of other hockey dynasties. "As far as I'm concerned," said Potvin in the immediate afterglow of the Isles' fourth championship, "we're the best hockey team ever to lace on skates." Noted for their fierce competitiveness and poise, the aging and injured Islanders reached the Stanley Cup finals yet again in 1984 but were overwhelmed four games to one by the fleet, Gretzky-led Edmonton Oilers, whom the Isles had swept in the finals the year before. The Oilers' victory inspired journalist Jack Falla to quip, "the sleek may yet inherit the ice." The Islanders' dynasty had come to its inevitable end. "I don't feel badly about turning the Cup over to them," Potvin acknowledged. "They're truly a worthy champion. This is one great, great team passing the Cup along to a team that is great."

Edmonton Oilers

Well before the 1983-1984 season Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers was hailed by many as the best hockey player in the world, if not of all time. By his fifth NHL season Gretzky had won virtually every award a professional hockey player could win, and he had set a myriad of NHL scoring records. Gretzky put up numbers that few people could have imagined a decade before. In 1981-1982, his third year in the league, he led the NHL in goals (92), assists (120), and total points (212), all of which were single-season records. But, as was frequently noted, he had not won a Stanley Cup. Critics suggested that the Oilers' brand of wide-open, high-scoring hockey won games but did not win championships. By the 1981-1982 season, finally surrounded by talented players such as forwards Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, and Glenn Anderson, defenseman Paul Coffey, and goaltenders Grant Fuhr and Andy Moog, Gretzky captained the Oilers through a period of tremendous success. The Oilers' first league championship in 1984 signified a changing of the guard in more than one way. Gretzky proclaimed, "We proved that an offensive team can win the Cup. That can't do anything but help hockey. We showed you can win by skating and by being physical without having to fight all the time." Powered by a combination of explosive scoring and surprisingly tough defensive mettle, the Oilers emerged as the best team in hockey for the rest of the decade. "They've got the mix of the Canadiens of the late 1970s and the Islanders of the 1980s," commented Philadelphia Flyer Ed Hospodar. "They can beat you by skating or playing tough, anyway they want." With Gretzky leading the way and playing superlative, unselfish, finesse hockey, the Oilers won four Stanley Cups over a five-season stretch and established themselves as one of the greatest hockey teams in history.

The Great One

When Wayne Gretzky joined the Edmonton Oilers of the World Hockey Association (WHA) in 1978, he was seventeen years old, the youngest player ever in professional hockey. At the end of the season he was named WH A Rookie of the Year. After skating on the same line with Gretzky at the WHA All-Star Game, the legendary Gordie Howe said, "It scares me how good he could become." The next season the Oilers merged into the NHL and Gretzky became the youngest player to ever win the Hart Trophy, the league's MVP award. During his nine years in Edmonton, Gretzky won the Hart Trophy eight times. He also set the NHL's single-season scoring mark and established more than fifty other regular-season and career scoring records. In playoff action he became the all-time points leader. In two of the four years in which he led the Oilers to Stanley Cup titles, Gretzky was voted MVP of the playoffs. Recognizing Gretzky's brilliance and importance, Hall of Famer Bobby Orr in 1982 noted: "Hockey would have survived the last three years without him: hockey will always survive. But if Wayne is influencing the hundreds of thousands, the millions of kids that I think he is—well, put it this way: Thank God he's around." As Gretzky continued to rewrite the record book and win championships, his popularity and legend grew. And it became clear that his famous sobriquet "The Great One" was not hyperbolic nor merely slick marketing. It therefore came as a tremendous surprise to the sporting world when Gretzky was traded to the Los Angeles Kings in a multiplayer, multimillion-dollar deal the summer after he led the Oilers to their fourth Stanley Cup. Though the trade serves as a useful line of demarcation for his career, Gretzky continued his unparalleled success with the Kings. In his first season in Los Angeles Gretzky scored 168 points and earned his ninth Hart Trophy. Early the next season he broke Howe's all-time scoring record of 1,850 points. Howe set the record over the course of twenty-six seasons; Gretzky broke it in less than ten. In the end Mark Stevenson was correct: Gretzky's"only standard of comparison is himself."

Violence

Although professional hockey has long been noted for its rugged, physical play, game-related violence in the 1980s escalated. The 1980-1981 season, for example, witnessed a rash of brawls, including the most fight-filled game in NHL history. On 26 February 1981 the Boston Bruins and the Minnesota North Stars started fighting seven seconds into the game and continued throughout the contest. At the end of the first period some of the North Stars exchanged blows with Bruins fans. All told, seven North Stars and five Bruins were ejected from the game, and a record 84 penalties and 406 penalty minutes were assessed. After reviewing the debacle the league suspended three North Stars for their actions, and over $15,000 in fines were imposed. Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident. A week earlier seven New York Rangers had charged into the stands of Detroit's Joe Louis Arena and fought with Red Wings fans who had been taunting them and pelting them with debris. Two days before the infamous game in Boston, the Philadelphia Flyers and the Vancouver Canucks engaged in a vicious, bench-clearing melee. The behavior of some management was not much better. Earlier in the year Boston general manager Harry Sinden was fined for pursuing a referee onto the ice during a game. With the ascendance of the Edmonton Oilers, whose style of hockey was not predicated on ferocious checking or fighting, many hoped that the sport would become less violent. It did not. In 1986, for instance, there was a substantial increase in penalties and penalty minutes for fighting. "Intimidation is still a big factor in hockey," said Calgary Flames general manager Cliff Fletcher. "In fact it's probably the major factor. Every team likes to have one or two enforcers or designated hit men so that the rest of the team feels comfortable." This explains why a small number of players, such as Dave "Tiger" Williams and Chris Nilan, had a disproportionate share of major fighting penalties. Over the course of the decade NHL officials combated the outbursts of violence with increasingly stiff fines and suspensions, and some stars like Gretzky spoke out against fighting, but in general the league chose to accept what it described as "spontaneous combat which comes with the frustrations of the game."

Lemieux

After being drafted number one overall in 1984, Montrealer Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins won the NHL's Calder Trophy as the league's Rookie of the Year for the 1984-1985 season. By scoring 100 points, the third-highest total ever for a rookie, Lemieux almost immediately established himself as the second-best player in professional hockey. As Sports Illustrated later observed, "Where Wayne Gretzky once stood alone, Mario Lemieux presumes to tread." As both a goal scorer and passer, Lemieux was a dominating offensive force. Bigger and stronger than Gretzky, Lemieux was no less gifted and graceful than the Great One. "His imagination and creativity are endless," said coach Mike Keenan. "His reach is great, his talent is excessive." Following two superlative seasons, Lemieux blossomed into a full-fledged superstar in 1987. Playing with Gretzky in the Canada Cup tournament, Lemieux emerged as the Canadian team's star. Parlaying his success into added confidence, Lemieux broke Gretzky's streak of seven consecutive league scoring titles, with 168 points during the 1987-1988 season. The next season Lemieux again won the league scoring crown by amassing 199 points, setting an NHL regular-season record with 13 shorthanded goals. He also became the Penguins' all-time leader in assists and the first player other than Gretzky to score 50 goals in fewer than the first 50 games of the season. Rewarded for his achievements in 1989, Lemieux signed a five-year, $12 million contract with the Penguins, joining Gretzky as the only other NHL player to make more than $2 million a year. "Had he arrived in the NHL in an era other than Gretzky's," wrote Austin Murphy, "he would have had the whole pantheon to himself." Following another great season in 1989-1990, Lemieux fell victim to a spate of serious injuries, most notably to his back, which forced him to miss more than half of the 1990-1991 season. Still, he came back to lead the Penguins to their first-ever Stanley Cup and won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the playoffs. On 13 January 1993 it was announced that Lemieux was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, a form of cancer. Following a month of radiation treatment, he returned to the ice in time to lead the league in scoring with 160 points.

Soviet Invasion

Even before the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, there were signs that the Cold War in hockey was nearly over. Nine former Soviet players were already signed to play in the upcoming 1989-1990 NHL season. The Soviet players—with the exception of Alexander Mogilny of the Buffalo Sabres, who defected in May—were allowed to join the NHL with the stipulation that a portion of their salaries was to be paid to the Soviet Ice Hockey Federation. Unlike the proliferation of Europeans in the league (mostly Swedes, Finns, Czechs, and Slovaks), the "arrival of the powerful Soviet contingent in the NHL came about as a result of the policies of perestroika (restructuring) introduced by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev," noted John Howse. The entry of Soviets into the league generated a great deal of fanfare and diplomatic goodwill, and many fans expected significant contributions from players such as Vladimir Krutov and Igor Larionov, members of the Soviet National Team's famed "KLM" line. Not everyone, however, was pleased by the arrival of the Soviets. "There is an undercurrent of resentment by [some] North American players," observed Jay Greenberg, "both because of jobs lost to the Soviet athletes and a lingering cold war antipathy." By the end of the season many were disappointed by the peformance of the Soviet veterans. Aside from Sergei Makarov of the Calgary Flames, who won the Calder Trophy as the league's Rookie of the Year, Jim Matheson of The Sporting News concluded that the "Soviet invasion was a washout."

Sources:

Jay Greenberg, NHL: The World of Professional Hockey (New York: Rutledge Press, 1981);

Wayne Gretzky, Gretzky: An Autobiography (New York: HarperCollins, 1990);

Michael LeBlanc, ed., Professional Sports Team Histories: Hockey (Detroit: Gale Research, 1994);

Tim Wendel, Going For The Gold (Westport, Conn.: Lawrence Hill, 1980).