1985-86 Edmonton Oilers: Stanley Cup Playoff Train Wreck

1985-86 was the year the National Hockey League changed rules to try and keep the Edmonton Oilers from obliterating the league’s scoring records. From 1985 to 1993, the NHL allowed teams to play five on five instead of four on four when coincidental minors were handed out. Unofficially, the rule was changed because the Oilers were unstoppable in a four-on-four situation.

1985-86 was also a year when the Edmonton Oilers should have cruised to a Stanley Cup victory. Instead, they allowed the Calgary Flames to oust them from the playoffs in the second round. The series went the full seven games with neither team winning consecutive games and Calgary outscoring Edmonton by a slight margin at 25-24 on the series. Both Edmonton and Calgary had easily swept in their opening round. The Oilers took out the Canucks in three and the Flames took out the Jets in three. Calgary reached the Stanley Cup final before bowing out to the Montreal Canadiens in five games.

That season, the Oilers won 56 games while losing only 17 and tying 7 for 119 points. The point total was thirty more than the Flames, who were second in the Clarence Campbell Conference. They Oilers were nine points better than the Philadelphia Flyers who were first in the Prince of Wales Conference. Coincidentally, the Flyers were knocked out in the first round by the New York Rangers who finished the season with just 78 points and were two games below .500.

Edmonton players set National Hockey League individual records that season and several still stand today. Of them, Wayne Gretzky’s 215 points and 163 assists are the records that likely will remain for an eternity. Gretzky also tied the NHL mark for most assists in a single game with seven. Paul Coffey scored 48 goals which stands as the most goals scored by a defenseman in one season. Paul eclipsed the previous mark of 46 set by Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins in 1974-75. Coffey also set the record for the longest point streak for defenseman at 28 games.

Edmonton players dominated the NHL’s top ten in the race for the Art Ross Trophy. Wayne Gretzky was 74 points ahead of the number two man in the league, Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who totalled 141 points. Paul Coffey came in third with 138 points, one less than Bobby Orr’s record for defenseman set in 1970-71. Jari Kurri finished fourth in the NHL with 131 points and led the league with 68 goals. Unfortunately for Kurri, the Rocket Richard Trophy didn’t come into existence for another decade and a half.

The Oilers took home the hardware at the NHL awards ceremony in 1985-86. Gretzky was awarded the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s leading scorer and the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s MVP. The Oilers won the President’s Trophy for the highest point total during the National Hockey League regular season. Glen Sather won the Jack Adams Award as the top coach despite having a team full of ringers and experiencing such a playoff disappointment. Of course, Paul Coffey won the Norris Trophy as the league’s top defenseman.

Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey were selected to the NHL’s First Team All-Star team and Jari Kurri made Second Team. Nine Edmonton Oilers players appeared in the NHL’s All-Star Game in 1985-86. Other than Gretzky, Coffey and Kurri, Glenn Anderson, Lee Fogolin, Grant Fuhr, Kevin Lowe, Mark Messier and Andy Moog appeared. Ironically, with such an offensively laden team, their Campbell Conference team lost a low-scoring affair to the Wales Conference squad.

The Oilers learned from their playoff disaster. The following season, Gretzky scored 32 less points, the team scored 54 less goals, had seven less wins and 13 less points. Edmonton still won the President’s Trophy but with only 106 points. Most importantly, they won the Stanley Cup in seven games over the Philadelphia Flyers. As for the Calgary Flames, they lost in the opening round in 1986-87 to the Winnipeg Jets in six games.

Hockey Trivia: 1979 NHL Entry Draft

The 1979 NHL Entry Draft had one of the best first rounds ever. All 21 players selected in the first round went on to careers in the NHL in some degree. The least regular season NHL games any of the first round picks went on to play was 238 (Ray Allison – 18^th overall by the Hartford Whalers).

Test and expand your hockey trivia knowledge of the 1979 NHL Entry Draft with the following four trivia questions.

Q. Who was the first overall pick in the 1979 NHL Entry Draft?

A. The Colorado Rockies chose Rob Ramage as the first overall pick. Ramage was drafted from the Birmingham Bulls of the World Hockey Association, though he played his junior hockey with the London Knights of the Ontario Major Junior Hockey League. Ramage played in the NHL from 1979-80 to 1993-94 with the Rockies, St. Louis Blues, Calgary Flames, Toronto Maple Leafs, Minnesota North Stars, Tampa Bay Lightning, Montreal Canadiens and Philadelphia Flyers.

Q. What player was the only one to be drafted in the first round of the 1979 NHL Entry Draft from the U.S. University system?

A. Mike Ramsey was selected eleventh overall by the Buffalo Sabres. Ramsey previously played for the University of Minnesota. Mike played over 1,000 career NHL games from 1979-80 to 1996-97 with the Sabres, Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings.

Q. What Hockey Hall of Fame member who played 1756 regular season games in the NHL was not selected until the third round of the 1979 NHL Entry Draft?

A. Mark Messier was selected 48^th overall by the Edmonton Oilers after a season with the Cincinnati Stingers of the WHA. Messier scored 694 regular season goals during his NHL career and contributed 1,887 points with the Oilers, New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks. Mark was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2007.

Mark’s point total places him second all-time in National Hockey League history. He sits just ahead of Gordie Howe but nearly 1,000 points behind Wayne Gretzky. Messier was just recently pushed down to eighth overall for goals scored by Jaromir Jagr. His 1,756 regular season games puts Mark just eleven games behind Howe for the most all-time.

Q. Who was the first European selected in the 1979 NHL Entry Draft?

A. The first round of the 1979 Draft featured players from North America only. In the second round, the New York Islanders selected Tomas Jonsson 25^th overall. Jonsson, from Sweden, played 552 NHL regular season games from 1981-82 to 1988-89 before returning to Sweden to play nine years for Leksands in the Swedish Elite League. Two other Swedes were selected in that second round, Pelle Lindbergh by the Philadelphia Flyers and Mats Naslund by the Montreal Canadiens.