RE-LIVE THE EDMONTON OILERS 1980-81 SEASON
8 years ago
The cliché, “it’s not how you start but how you finish,” certainly applies to Edmonton’s second NHL season. The Oilers not only made the playoffs for the second straight year despite another poor start, they grabbed the attention of the old guard by sweeping the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the post-season on the way to a second-round meeting with the New York Islanders.
It was an eye-opening encore for fans around the league who already knew Wayne Gretzky was something special. They’d learn soon enough about a supporting cast that now included Jari Kurri, Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson, Paul Coffey and Kevin Lowe as an Oilers team that would parade up and down Jasper Avenue in years to come began to take shape.
RECORD 29-35-17 74 Pts. .463
GD 328-327 plus-1 SH% 13.7 SV% —
NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS
1981-05-05 | John Blum signed as free agent. |
1981-03-10 | |
1981-03-10 | Pat Hughes traded by Pittsburgh for Pat Price. |
1981-03-10 | John Hughes traded to NY Rangers for Ray Markham. |
1981-03-10 | |
1981-03-10 | Pat Price traded to Pittsburgh for Pat Hughes. |
1981-03-10 | Garry Unger traded by Los Angeles for 7th round pick in 1981 (Craig Hurley). |
1981-02-02 | Gary Edwards traded by Minnesota for future considerations. |
1980-12-15 | John Hughes claimed on waivers from Vancouver. |
1980-12-13 | Tom Bladon signed as free agent by Winnipeg. |
1980-10-10 | Curt Brackenbury claimed on waivers from Quebec. |
1980-10-10 | Colin Campbell claimed on waivers by Vancouver. |
1980-09-11 | Matti Hagman signed as free agent (formerly with Boston). |
1980-08-01 | Alex Tidey signed as free agent by Los Angeles. |
1980-07-10 | Tom Bladon signed as free agent (formerly with Pittsburgh). |
1980-06-26 | John Bednarski signed as free agent by Buffalo. |
1980-06-11 | Ron Areshenkoff traded to Philadelphia with 10th round pick (Bob O’Brien) for Barry Dean. |
1980-06-11 | Paul Coffey drafted 6th overall. |
1980-06-11 | Jari Kurri drafted 69th overall. |
1980-06-11 | Andy Moog drafted 132nd overall. |
1980-06-11 | Walt Poddubny drafted 90th overall. |
After claiming Lowe, Messier and Anderson in the 1979 draft, chief scout Barry Fraser and the Oilers hit it out of the park again in 1980 as they added Coffey (sixth overall) from the Kitchener Rangers, Kurri (69th) from Jokerit Helsinki and Andy Moog (132nd) from Billings of the WHL to go along with Gretzky and the likes of Brett Callighen, Blair MacDonald and Lee Fogolin.
LEADING SCORERS
Player | Pos | Age | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIMs | EV | PP | SH | GW | EV | PP | SH | S | S% |
C | 20 | 80 | 55 | 109 | 164 | 41 | 28 | 36 | 15 | 4 | 3 | 69 | 37 | 3 | 261 | 21.1 | |
LW | 20 | 75 | 32 | 43 | 75 | 26 | 40 | 23 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 34 | 9 | 0 | 202 | 15.8 | |
LW | 20 | 72 | 23 | 40 | 63 | -12 | 102 | 19 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 30 | 7 | 3 | 179 | 12.8 | |
C | 27 | 55 | 25 | 35 | 60 | 13 | 32 | 19 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 28 | 7 | 0 | 127 | 19.7 | |
RW | 20 | 58 | 30 | 23 | 53 | 4 | 24 | 17 | 10 | 3 | 5 | 20 | 3 | 0 | 160 | 18.8 | |
C | 25 | 75 | 20 | 33 | 53 | 4 | 16 | 18 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 11 | 0 | 96 | 20.8 | |
D | 22 | 79 | 17 | 36 | 53 | 5 | 54 | 9 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 14 | 22 | 0 | 209 | 8.1 | |
RW | 27 | 51 | 19 | 24 | 43 | -8 | 27 | 14 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 17 | 7 | 0 | 134 | 14.2 | |
D | 21 | 79 | 10 | 24 | 34 | -10 | 94 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 21 | 2 | 1 | 115 | 8.7 | |
C | 28 | 70 | 12 | 20 | 32 | -7 | 40 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 18 | 1 | 1 | 84 | 14.3 | |
D | 19 | 74 | 9 | 23 | 32 | 4 | 130 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 6 | 1 | 113 | 8.0 |
Gretzky, edged out of the 1980 Art Ross Trophy race by Marcel Dionne of Los Angeles – both finished with 137 points but Gretzky had two fewer goals – set an NHL record for assists (109) and points (164) on the way to his first of seven consecutive scoring titles and his second Hart Trophy.
Gretzky’s 164 points was a ridiculous 89 points more than runner-up Kurri and 101 more than Messier, who jumped to third in team scoring with 63 points after tallying just 33 as a rookie the previous season. Anderson, who quickly introduced himself to opposing goaltenders by crashing the crease from the wing, scored 30 goals.
SEASON RECAP
Having rebounded from a bad start the previous season, the Oilers would have to do it again as they staggered out of the gate with three straight losses on the way to a 4-9-5 record under new coach Bryan Watson.
The miserable start prompted Glen Sather, who’d been promoted to GM and president by owner Peter Pocklington after coaching the Oilers in 1979-80, to step back behind the bench – Watson was retained as an assistant. The Oilers were no great shakes record-wise under Sather, either, at 25-26-11 the rest of the way, but as was the case in 1979-80, the Oilers got hot when it mattered, losing just one of their final 11 games. Messier, in particular, hit his stride as he counted 35 of his 63 points in the final 24 games.
The hot finish left the Oilers sixth in the Clarence Campbell Conference and 13th overall, setting up a first-round series with the Canadiens, who’d won the Prince of Wales Conference and finished third overall with 103 points. Truth was, most fans outside Edmonton thought the Habs, while not the same team that won four straight Cups 1976-79, would mop the floor with the Oilers.
Montreal goaltender Richard Sevigny certainly seemed to feel that way, dimly providing all the bulletin board material the Oilers would need when he told a reporter star Guy Lafleur would put Gretzky “in his back pocket.” The Great One responded by opening a big can of STFU with five assists as the Oilers cruised to a 6-3 win in the first game of the series.
The Oilers followed that stunner with a 3-1 win thanks to a 40-save performance from Andy Moog to lead the series 2-0. They completed the sweep by pounding the Habs 6-2 in Edmonton with Gretzky getting the winning goal. In the end, Gretzky would finish the series with 10 points, while Lafleur had one assist.
Then came the Islanders, the defending Stanley Cup champions and coming off a season in which they led the NHL with 48 wins and 110 points. This would be the first time – not the last – the Oilers would measure themselves against the Isles, and they came up wanting.
Al Arbour’s Islanders – Mike Bossy, Bryan Trottier, Clark Gillies, Denis Potvin, Bob Nystrom, John Tonelli and Billy Smith, to name just seven – were at the height of their powers. They spanked the Oilers 8-2 and 6-3 in the first two games in Long Island.
The Oilers won Game 3 by a 5-2 score back in Edmonton, but the Islanders took a 3-1 series lead with a 5-4 overtime win – Ken Morrow, of all people, deciding it. The Oilers narrowed the series to 3-2 with a 4-3 win back in Uniondale, but the Islanders closed the deal with 5-2 exclamation mark in Edmonton on the way to their second of four straight Stanley Cups.
RETHINKING THE SEASON
In the simplest terms, the Oilers of 1980-81 were going through the necessary growing pains that every championship team experiences on the way to the top. In Gretzky, the Oilers had the best player in the game. With Messier, Kurri, Anderson and Coffey, Edmonton’s core players were as talented as any group in the NHL, but not one of those players had reached their 21st birthday when the season started. Coffey was a teenager.
While talent alone carried the Oilers past the fading and over-confident Canadiens, it wasn’t enough to get them past the battle-tested Islanders, a team with its best players right in their prime years on a roster that simply boasted more playoff experience.
Listen to Robin Brownlee Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the Jason Gregor Show on TSN 1260.
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