Top 100 Oilers: Grant Fuhr (5)

6 years ago

“If you start worrying about things you can’t control, you get old fast. I don’t get mad. I don’t get angry. There’s no sense to it.” – Grant Fuhr, in an interview with Ralph Wiley of Sports Illustrated in January of 1988.

That easy-come-easy-go philosophy served Fuhr well during all the years he spent left largely to his own devices while patrolling the paint for the Edmonton Oilers during the 1980s. It’s particularly fitting Fuhr shared those words during what many consider his finest season in a HHOF career, 1987-88, when he won 40 games during the regular season and won all 16 the Oilers would need to claim a fourth Stanley Cup. Fuhr never worried much about how many pucks he had to fish out of his net as long as it was one less than the guy in the crease at the other end of the rink. All Fuhr ever did was win.

Grant Fuhr

Goalie — shoots R
Born Sep 28 1962 — Spruce Grove, ALTA
Height 5.11 — Weight 184 [180 cm/83 kg]

Drafted by Edmonton Oilers

Round 1 #8 overall 1981 NHL Entry Draft

BY THE NUMBERS

Season	Age	Tm	GP	W	L	T/O	GA	SA	SV	SV%	GAA	SO
1981-82	19	EDM	48	28	5	14	157				3.31	0
1982-83	20	EDM	32	13	12	5	129				4.29	0
1983-84	21	EDM	45	30	10	4	171	1463	1292	.883	3.91	1
1984-85	22	EDM	46	26	8	7	165	1426	1261	.884	3.87	1
1985-86	23	EDM	40	29	8	0	143	1296	1153	.890	3.93	0
1986-87	24	EDM	44	22	13	3	137	1149	1012	.881	3.44	0
1987-88	25	EDM	75	40	24	9	246	2066	1820	.881	3.43	4
1988-89	26	EDM	59	23	26	6	213	1714	1501	.876	3.83	1
1989-90	27	EDM	21	9	7	3	70	532	462	.868	3.89	1
1990-91	28	EDM	13	6	4	3	39	380	341	.897	3.01	1
1991-92	29	TOR	66	25	33	5	230	1933	1703	.881	3.66	2
1992-93	30	TOT	58	24	24	6	185	1729	1544	.893	3.30	1
1992-93	30	TOR	29	13	9	4	87	826	739	.895	3.14	1

1993-94	31	BUF	32	13	12	3	106	907	801	.883	3.68	2
1994-95	32	TOT	17	2	9	3	59	464	405	.873	4.03	0
1994-95	32	BUF	3	1	2	0	12	85	73	.859	4.00	0
1994-95	32	LAK	14	1992-93	30	BUF	29	11	15	2	98	903
1995-96	33	STL	79	30	28	16	209	2157	1948	.903	2.87	3
1996-97	34	STL	73	33	27	11	193	1940	1747	.901	2.72	3
1997-98	35	STL	58	29	21	6	138	1354	1216	.898	2.53	3
1998-99	36	STL	39	16	11	8	89	827	738	.892	2.44	2
1999-00	37	CGY	23	5	13	2	77	536	459	.856	3.83	0
10 yrs		EDM	423	226	117	54	1470	10026	8842	.882	3.69	9
4 yrs		STL	249	108	87	41	629	6278	5649	.900	2.68	11
3 yrs		BUF	64	25	29	5	216	1895	1679	.886	3.60	2
2 yrs		TOR	95	38	42	9	317	2759	2442	.885	3.50	3
1 yr		CGY	23	5	13	2	77	536	459	.856	3.83	0
1 yr		LAK	14	1	7	3	47	379	332	.876	4.04	0
Career			868	403	295	114	2756	21873	19403	.887	3.38	25

Playoffs

Season	Age	Tm	GP	W	L	GA	SA	SV	SV%	GAA	SO
1981-82	19	EDM	5	2	3	26				5.05	0
1982-83	20	EDM	1	0	0	0				0.00	0
1983-84	21	EDM	16	11	4	44	491	447	.910	2.99	1
1984-85	22	EDM	18	15	3	55	522	467	.895	3.10	0
1985-86	23	EDM	9	5	4	28	273	245	.897	3.11	0
1986-87	24	EDM	19	14	5	47	511	464	.908	2.46	0
1987-88	25	EDM	19	16	2	55	471	416	.883	2.90	0
1988-89	26	EDM	7	3	4	24	227	203	.894	3.45	1
1990-91	28	EDM	17	8	7	51	488	437	.895	3.00	0
1992-93	30	BUF	8	3	4	27	216	189	.875	3.42	1
1995-96	33	STL	2	1	0	1	45	44	.978	0.87	0
1996-97	34	STL	6	2	4	13	183	170	.929	2.18	2
1997-98	35	STL	10	6	4	28	297	269	.906	2.73	0
1998-99	36	STL	13	6	6	31	305	274	.898	2.35	1
Career			150	92	50	430	4029	3625	.900	2.92	6

AWARDS

1987-88 Vezina Trophy

1993-94 William M. Jennings Trophy

NOTABLE

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In an era before oversized pads and stifling defensive systems choked scoring and excitement out of the game, even the best goaltenders had ridiculously modest statistics compared to the butterflying behemoths of today. During that 1987-88 season when Fuhr won his fourth Cup, claimed the Vezina and finished second to Mario Lemieux in Hart Memorial Trophy voting, Patrick Roy of the Montreal Canadiens had the best save-percentage in the NHL at .900 (Fuhr finished at .881 during the regular season and .883 in the post-season). Yes, Roy’s .900 was the top of the heap back then. That’s not a typo.

Simply put, Fuhr, who shared the crease with Andy Moog during the first half of his career with the Oilers after being selected eighth overall from the Victoria Cougars in the 1981 Entry Draft, was money when it mattered most – even though that doesn’t really show compared to the kind of numbers we see today. While Fuhr was guilty of giving up soft goals from time to time, more often than not he’d find a way to buckle down with the game on the line and his high-scoring teammates fixated on the other end of the rink.

Give up four goals? That was fine with Fuhr as long as the Oilers got five. That’s far easier said than done, but Fuhr was never easily rattled and showing up teammates with animated displays of exasperation – there was plenty of opportunity for that because on far too many nights he and Moog didn’t get much help – just wasn’t his thing. Hell, Fuhr didn’t even flinch when Steve Smith banked one off him and into the net in the 1986 playoffs. Stop the puck. Don’t allow the next one.

THE STORY

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“He was the right fit for our organization because statistics and numbers didn’t matter to him,” Wayne Gretzky said of Fuhr. “All he wanted to do was win, and he didn’t care if we won 1-0 or 6-5. As we went along, it became more and more apparent to us that if it was 2-2 or 4-4 going into the third period that our goaltender was as good a goaltender in clutch situations as anyone who ever played the game.

“I never saw him point a glove or point a stick or point a finger at a player for a screen or a tip. He just got the puck and threw it to centre ice. Never saw him in the locker room, when many a time it was 5-5 after two periods and he could have looked over at someone and said, ‘Will someone at least try to play some defense?’”

The only time I ever saw Fuhr outwardly rattled was Oct. 9, 2003, the night his No. 31 jersey was retired at Rexall Place, which is completely understandable. We spent a few minutes chatting in a room down the hallway from the Oilers dressing room, where he was putting on his Oiler equipment one more time before heading out to the ice to have his banner raised. There stood Fuhr, a team-first guy if ever there was one, about to step into the spotlight – something he never chased as a player. Fuhr was overcome with emotion and the ceremony was still 30 minutes away. It was a wonderful night marking a wonderful career.

This series will look at the top 100 Edmonton Oilers from the NHL era 1979-80 to 2014-15, starting with 100 and working up.

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