TOP 100 OILERS: DAVE LUMLEY (24)
7 years ago
As unlikely record-holders go on a team that made its mark re-writing the NHL record book in the early 1980s with a ridiculously prolific ability to score goals, Dave Lumley probably takes the cake. That, of course, is entirely fitting because Lumley’s NHL career was unlikely in itself – he was a 12th-round draft pick who played 437 games in the show, including 386 with the Edmonton Oilers.
On a team that’s featured some of the greatest players in the history of the game – Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Paul Coffey and Glenn Anderson, to name five – Lumley, a grinding winger considered by any measure a role player to those names on the top of the Boys on the Bus marquee, trumps them all when it comes to the franchise record for goals in consecutive games. He’s a trivia answer.
It’s Lumley, not Gretzky, Messier or any of the rest, who holds the record with goals scored in 12 straight games. It’s a stretch that ran from Nov. 21 to Dec. 16 1981, when Lumley sniped a pair in a 7-4 win over the Colorado Rockies, to give him 15 goals during the streak on the way to a career-high 32 goals. How hot was Lumley? Well, he only scored more than 15 goals in an entire season one other time – in 1979-80, when he had 20.
Dave Lumley
Forward
Born Sep 1 1954 — Toronto, ONT
Height 5.11 — Weight 185 [180 cm/84 kg]
Born Sep 1 1954 — Toronto, ONT
Height 5.11 — Weight 185 [180 cm/84 kg]
Drafted by Montreal Canadiens
– round 12 #199 overall 1974 NHL Amateur Draft
Drafted by Vancouver Blazers
Round 6 #79 overall 1974 WHA Amateur Draft
BY THE NUMBERS
| Season | Age | Tm | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | S | S% |
| 1978-79 | 24 | MTL | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.0 |
| 1979-80 | 25 | EDM | 80 | 20 | 38 | 58 | 15 | 138 | 145 | 13.8 |
| 1980-81 | 26 | EDM | 53 | 7 | 9 | 16 | -15 | 74 | 54 | 13.0 |
| 1981-82 | 27 | EDM | 66 | 32 | 42 | 74 | 12 | 96 | 148 | 21.6 |
| 1982-83 | 28 | EDM | 72 | 13 | 24 | 37 | 19 | 158 | 96 | 13.5 |
| 1983-84 | 29 | EDM | 56 | 6 | 15 | 21 | 14 | 68 | 44 | 13.6 |
| 1984-85 | 30 | TOT | 60 | 9 | 23 | 32 | -18 | 111 | 87 | 10.3 |
| 1984-85 | 30 | HAR | 48 | 8 | 20 | 28 | -17 | 98 | 77 | 10.4 |
| 1984-85 | 30 | EDM | 12 | 1 | 3 | 4 | -1 | 13 | 10 | 10.0 |
| 1985-86 | 31 | EDM | 46 | 11 | 9 | 20 | 13 | 35 | 33 | 33.3 |
| 1986-87 | 32 | EDM | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 8 yrs | EDM | 386 | 90 | 140 | 230 | 57 | 582 | 530 | 17.0 | |
| 1 yr | HAR | 48 | 8 | 20 | 28 | -17 | 98 | 77 | 10.4 | |
| 1 yr | MTL | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.0 | |
| Career | 437 | 98 | 160 | 258 | 40 | 680 | 609 | 16.1 |
PLAYOFFS
| Season | Age | Tm | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | S | S% |
| 1979-80 | 25 | EDM | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 12 | |||
| 1980-81 | 26 | EDM | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | |||
| 1981-82 | 27 | EDM | 5 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 21 | |||
| 1982-83 | 28 | EDM | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | |||
| 1983-84 | 29 | EDM | 19 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 44 | 21 | 9.5 |
| 1984-85 | 30 | EDM | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -5 | 29 | 2 | 0.0 |
| 1985-86 | 31 | EDM | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0.0 |
| Career | 61 | 6 | 8 | 14 | 1 | 131 | 24 | 8.3 |
NOTABLE
Lumley won a pair of Stanley Cups, in 1984 and 1985, during two stints with the Oilers, but it was that out-of-body experience in November and December of 1981 he gets asked about more than anything else when it comes to the career he carved out after taking the long road to the NHL by way of the University of New Hampshire. “Lummer, goals in 12 straight games, what the hell . . ?”
“Knowing that 17,000 people in the Coliseum were aware of the streak was something that really made me want to score,” Lumley said after stretching the streak to 11 games against the New York Islanders in Edmonton before making it an even dozen with his pair against Glen Resch in Denver. “I didn’t want to disappoint them. When they gave me standing ovation, I got goose bumps … it was a feeling that can’t be described.”
While Lumley matched the feeling, and then some, he got during the scoring streak by sipping champagne from those two Cups in Edmonton, it’s a feat that, not surprisingly, he never came close to replicating. His 32 goals, 42 assists and 74 points were career highs. His next best season was 58 points, including 20 goals, in his first campaign with the Oilers, 1979-80.
THE STORY
Numbers aside, Lumley, who could grind and bang with the best of them and had enough touch around the net to play up in the line-up, played a big part in the Oilers claiming their first Cup in 1984. Lumley had seven points in 19 games that post-season. He also made it his mission during the Cup final to drive New York stopper Billy Smith to distraction (as he also did in 1983) in a final series the Oilers won in five games, rubbing it in with an empty netter to make it 5-2 in the final game at Northlands Coliseum.
All of Edmonton’s five Stanley Cup teams had role players and glue guys like Lumley on them. You can go through the names – Dave Hunter, Kevin McClelland, Dave Semenko, Pat Hughes and Ken Linseman. They knew their roles, they did their jobs. Lumley was among the best of them – 32 goals and 74 points in a season is nothing to sneeze at, even given the inflated goal totals of the era.
And then there’s that franchise record (fifth all-time in the NHL) 12-game goal-scoring streak. It boggles the mind, given the HHOF guys who’ve worn the Oil Drop over the years. Lumley, a regular at charity golf tournaments around town these days, still gets asked about it by fans and ribbed about it by old media types who witnessed it. “Lummer, what the hell . . ?”
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.
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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