RE-LIVE THE EDMONTON OILERS 1989-90 SEASON
8 years ago
The Edmonton Oilers already had four Stanley Cups in the trophy case when this season began, and it’s fair to say they could have had another one or two had the cards fallen their way. That’s exactly what happened in 1989-90 as the Oilers claimed their fifth Cup, the unlikeliest of the bunch.
With so many key players from previous Cups gone – Wayne Gretzky, Paul Coffey and Andy Moog, to name just three – this team had to be, and was, considered a long shot when the 1990 playoffs began. The Oilers had just 38 wins and 90 points, the fewest of any Oiler team to win a Cup (and five less than the team that would lose the 2006 final).
This season was, then, a totally unexpected encore for the remaining Boys on the Bus as the Oilers, no longer the swaggering, cocky, young upstarts on the NHL block, claimed their fifth Cup in a span of seven seasons.
RECORD 38-28-14 90 Pts. 2nd Smythe Division
GD 315-283 plus-32 SH% 14.0 SV% .882
NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS
1990-03-06 | Marc Laforge traded by Hartford for Cam Brauer. |
1990-03-06 | Reijo Ruotsalainen traded by New Jersey for Jeff Sharples. |
1990-02-01 | Bruce Bell signed as free agent (formerly with Detroit). |
1990-01-05 | Normand Lacombe traded to Philadelphia for future considerations. |
1989-12-21 | Vladimir Ruzicka traded by Toronto for 4th round pick in 1990 (Greg Walters). |
1989-11-02 | Jimmy Carson traded to Detroit with Kevin McClelland and 5th round pick in 1991 for Adam Graves, Petr Klima, Joe Murphy, and Jeff Sharples. |
1989-10-10 | Jim Ennis traded to Hartford for Norm Maciver. |
1989-10-09 | Daryl Reaugh signed as free agent by Hartford. |
1989-10-02 | Randy Exelby traded by Montreal for future considerations. |
1989-09-28 | Eldon Reddick traded by Winnipeg for future considerations. |
1989-06-17 | Josef Beranek drafted 78th overall. |
1989-06-17 | Tommy Lehmann traded by Boston for 3rd round pick in 1989 (Wes Walz). |
1989-06-17 | Darcy Martini drafted 162nd overall. |
1989-06-17 | Anatoli Semenov drafted 120th overall. |
1989-06-17 | Peter White drafted 92nd overall. |
SCORING LEADERS
Player | Pos | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | S | S% |
C | 79 | 45 | 84 | 129 | 19 | 79 | 211 | 21.3 | |
RW | 78 | 33 | 60 | 93 | 18 | 48 | 201 | 16.4 | |
RW | 73 | 34 | 38 | 72 | -1 | 107 | 204 | 16.7 | |
C | 79 | 30 | 33 | 63 | 17 | 161 | 199 | 15.1 | |
LW | 80 | 29 | 32 | 61 | -2 | 180 | 129 | 22.5 | |
LW | 63 | 25 | 28 | 53 | -1 | 66 | 149 | 16.8 | |
C | 80 | 21 | 22 | 43 | 13 | 89 | 109 | 19.3 | |
D | 75 | 7 | 34 | 41 | 6 | 171 | 125 | 5.6 | |
D | 78 | 7 | 26 | 33 | 18 | 140 | 74 | 9.5 | |
C | 58 | 12 | 16 | 28 | 10 | 42 | 81 | 14.8 |
SEASON RECAP
If you’d have suggested the Oilers would contend for another Cup during the first month of the season, even the staunchest fan would have laughed out loud. Grant Fuhr missed the start of the season after having an emergency appendectomy. Jimmy Carson, the big name coming back from Los Angeles in the Gretzky sale, walked out on the team after four games.
Carson couldn’t hack the spotlight here and didn’t particularly care for the city. GM Glen Sather responded by turning lemons into lemonade when he dealt Carson to Detroit along with Kevin McClelland, getting Adam Graves, Petr Klima, Joe Murphy and Jeff Sharples from the Red Wings in return. Graves, Klima and Murphy would prove to be key cogs the rest of the way, helping the Oilers overcome a terrible start to the season before putting their fingerprints all over that fifth Cup.
The Oilers dug themselves a 6-9-5 hole in their first 20 games with John Muckler behind the bench as head coach and they spent the next 60 games digging themselves out of it. Mark Messier, who’d take a run at the Art Ross Trophy with a career-high 129 points and win the Hart Trophy, was the guy doing most of the spade work.
The Oilers would win nine of their next 10 games, but as quickly as they got Fuhr back from the appendectomy, they lost him with a shoulder injury that would see Bill Ranford transition into the No. 1 job in the crease. Another storyline was the Kid Line of Martin Gelinas, Graves and Murphy, a trio put together by Muckler.
ONE MORE TIME
When Fuhr re-injured his shoulder in the second-to-last regular season game, which would keep him on the shelf for the entire playoffs, Ranford began a stretch that would see him go on to win the Conn Smyth Trophy as playoff MVP. He got lots of help from Messier and Craig Simpson, who each had 31 post-season points, and the Kid Line, who chipped in with 30.
The big scare of the post-season came in the first round against Winnipeg as the Jets, who’d traditionally been their playoff patsies, took a 3-1 series lead. Then, behind 3-1 in Game 5, Ranford buckled down. The Oilers came back to win 4-3 on a goal by Messier and then win Game 6 in Winnipeg, also by a 4-3 score, before waltzing to a 4-1 win back at home to move on.
In the second round, the Oilers swept Gretzky and Los Angeles 4-0, sweet revenge for a first-round exit at the hands of the Kings the previous spring. It was a lopsided smackdown that included a 7-0 waxing in the first game and a series that saw Esa Tikkanen get in the Great One’s kitchen from the first buzzer to the last.
In the conference final against Chicago, the Oilers trailed the series 2-1 before Messier took over in a noteworthy fourth game at Chicago Stadium, scoring twice and running roughshod over the Blackhawks in a 4-2 win. After a 4-3 win back home, the Oilers pounded the Blackhawks 8-4 in Chicago to take the series 4-2 and move to the Cup final in a rematch against the Boston Bruins, the team they swept in 1988.
Ranford was the story against his former Boston teammates in the series opener as the Bruins outshot the Oilers 52-31, but lost 3-2 in triple-overtime (still the longest Cup final game at 115:13) on a goal by Klima. The Oilers put the finishing touches on their fifth Cup in seven seasons in Beantown with a 4-1 win. Ranford won all 16 playoff games, tying the NHL record for most post-season wins by a goaltender..
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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