Welcome back to another deep dive. We are jumping
straight into a pretty massive stack of Wikipedia
excerpts today. Oh, yeah. A very tall sack. Yeah.
We're essentially taking a time machine back
to the 1986 -87 National Hockey League season.
And our mission today is to take this packed,
you know, 80 -game season spread across 21 franchises.
Right. And distill it all down to the most pivotal
moments. We're looking at the wildest front office
scandals. the most bizarre anomalies, and frankly,
the staggering statistics that define this very
specific era of hockey. It really is a specific
era. It is. I mean, imagine your favorite team
today stepping onto the ice in the mid -80s.
The math, the physicality, the sheer volume of
scoring. It's an entirely different universe.
Exactly. A completely different landscape. And
the 86 -87 season, which happened to be the NHL's
70th season overall, it serves as this... perfect
microcosm of that era you have a league sitting
right in the middle of a historic dynasty but
simultaneously they're experiencing these massive
structural shifts the way the game was played
managed and even just survived by the players
It was all shifting. Yes. Survived is a good
word for it. It is. It's fascinating because
you see unbelievable individual feats happening
right alongside this incredible behind the scenes
chaos. Well, the dominance of the Edmonton Oilers
is really the only place to start here. Oh, absolutely.
You look at the standings from this season and
Edmonton isn't just winning the Stanley Cup.
They're capturing their second straight president's
trophy as the top team in the regular season.
Dominant. And the numbers they produced, they
completely break. Break the modern understanding
of the sport. I mean, get this. They scored 372
goals that season. 372. Think about the sheer
math for a second. In an 80 -game season, that
means they're averaging over four and a half
goals every single night. You're an opposing
team stepping onto the ice against Edmonton.
And, you know, you just know you likely need
five goals just to push the game to overtime.
Which is terrifying. That level of offensive
production creates this psychological... deficit
for opponents before the puck even drops. Edmonton
was the undisputed powerhouse of the Clarence
Campbell Conference. They took the Smize division
with 106 points. And honestly, you have to feel
a little bit of sympathy for the Calgary Flames
that year. Oh, for sure. The Flames put together
a genuinely fantastic season. They racked up
95 points. Which is huge. Right. In almost any
other era or honestly any other division, 95
points makes you a dominant force. You're leading
the pack. Exactly. But they had the misfortune
of sharing a division with an Oilers team operating
at absolute peak efficiency. It was a period
of pure, relentless offensive power in that conference.
And Edmonton was just setting the pace for everyone
else. And setting that pace, obviously, was Wayne
Gretzky. The great one. Operating on a level
that almost defies logic. I mean, the stats from
our sources show him playing 79 games and putting
up 62 goals. 62? 62 goals alone is a career year
for a Hall of Fame player. Oh, easily. But then
you look at the assists column. This is the crazy
part. Gretzky registered 121 assists 121 he essentially
created a goal and a half for his teammates every
time he laced up his skates finishing the year
with 183 points in 79 games yeah Factor in his
plus minus rating of plus 70, along with 13 power
play goals, seven shorthanded goals. It becomes
pretty clear he was entirely peerless. Which
is precisely why he took home his eighth straight
Hart Memorial trophy. Eighth straight. Yeah,
as MVP. And his seventh straight Art Ross trophy
as the top scorer. Plus, you know, you add the
Lester B. Pearson Award and the NHL Plus Minus
Award to his resume that year. Yeah. When a single
player is sweeping the hardware for that many
consecutive years, it forces the entire league
to reevaluate their defensive structures. He
wasn't just finding open space. He was anticipating
the flow of the game, like three steps ahead
of the defenseman. But the thing is, the Oilers
were far from a one -man operation. No, not at
all. The supporting cast in Edmonton was essentially
an all -star roster that could have dominated
the league on their own. Jari Curry had 108 points.
Including 54 goals. Right. And Mark Messier was
right on his heels with 107 points and 37 goals.
When your second and third options are breaking
the 100 -point threshold, opposing coaches are
just completely out of answers. What do you even
do? Exactly. You can't shadow Gretzky without
leaving Curry or Messier wide open. The concentration
of talent. was an absolute nightmare for line
matching. To put that into perspective, look
over the Prince of Wales Conference. Okay. You
had Mario Lemieux playing for the Pittsburgh
Penguins, and Lemieux managed an incredible 107
points in just 63 games. Wow. He tallied 54 goals
and 53 assists. So on a point per game basis,
Lemieux is matching the highest echelons of the
sport. He's right there. He is. But because Edmonton
had Gretzky, Curry, and Messier all operating
at that elite level simultaneously, the Oilers'
depth simply overwhelmed the singular brilliance
you saw on other rosters. It's just wave after
wave. Exactly. Well, moving beyond the staggering
offensive numbers, the 86 -87 season was also
filled with front office scandals. Oh, the drama.
Stuff that feels like it belongs in a Hollywood
script, honestly. The Pat Quinn situation is
one of the most glaring examples of the chaotic
nature of league operations at the time. It really
is. So Quinn was actively employed as the head
coach of the Los Angeles Kings. But while standing
behind the bench for L .A., he signed a contract
to become the president and general manager of
the Vancouver Canucks. A team in the exact same
division. The exact same division. The audacity
of that move is just staggering when you consider
the obvious conflicts of interest. You have a
coach. whose primary directive is to win games
for Los Angeles while holding a signed contract
to build the future of their direct divisional
rival. It makes no sense. It completely undermines
the integrity of the competition. Absolutely.
So NHL president John Ziegler had to intervene
to protect the league's reputation. And he didn't
just hand down a fine. Ziegler expelled Quinn
from the league pending an investigation. And
ultimately barred him from coaching in the NHL
until the 1990 -91 season. That's a heavy penalty.
It was a massive disciplinary action. But it
really exposed the somewhat Wild West environment
of team management back then. Front offices were
operating with a level of brazenness that modern
league oversight would catch in a heartbeat.
Oh, for sure. It forced the league to tighten
its regulatory framework. You couldn't have general
managers and coaches treating contracts like
casual suggestions. Just a side hustle. Right.
And that sense of logistical madness, it wasn't
just confined to the front office. It extended
right down to the operations of the games themselves.
Oh, the 334 Club. Yes. The perfect illustration
of that operational madness. I love this story.
So it's January 22, 1987. The New Jersey Devils
are set to host the Calgary Flames at the Brendan
Byrne Arena. Okay. But the region gets hit by
a massive, paralyzing blizzard. Just a whiteout.
The roads are treacherous. The weather is apocalyptic.
Travel is essentially impossible. Out of a massive
arena that holds thousands of fans, exactly 334
spectators make it through the doors. Picture
the atmosphere inside that building. It must
have been so weird. Brennanburn Arena was a cavernous
space. To have 334 people scattered across the
stands while two professional hockey teams play
a regular season game is surreal. Yeah. In today's
highly polished television optimized NHL, that
game is postponed immediately. Oh, 100 percent
due to safety concerns and obviously lost gate
revenue. Exactly. But the 1980s NHL was built
on this localized show must go on mentality.
You would be able to hear every single blade
cutting the ice. Every shout. Every shout from
the bench, the physical impact of every hit on
the boards, the Devils actually recognized the
absurdity and the sheer dedication of those fans
by dubbing them the 334 Club. It's a great badge
of honor. It really immortalized the people who
are stubborn enough to brave an apocalyptic storm
just to watch their team play on a random Thursday
night. It really highlights a completely different
era of fandom and league logistics. You know,
the physical endurance wasn't just limited to
the fans in the blizzard. No. The players were
enduring. unimaginable physical tolls on the
ice. Borges -Salming is the prime example of
that physical endurance. Yeah. The Toronto Maple
Leafs defenseman took a skate blade to the face
in late November. Just brutal. It was a horrific
injury. It required more than 200 stitches to
close. 200. 200. This wasn't a minor cut. It
was major facial trauma. And get this, it was
the third significant facial injury of his career.
Which is just, wow. Despite having his face essentially
stitched back together, Salming simply strapped
on a visor and returned to the ice. It speaks
to a deeply ingrained culture of playing through
severe trauma. Just toughness. Right. The medical
protocols and player safety standards were drastically
different back then. Players were expected to
absorb massive physical damage and just continue
performing. Yeah. And while Solming was enduring
that physical extreme, Other players were achieving
milestones in the most unconventional ways imaginable.
Oh, the Dennis Potvin milestone. This perfectly
captures that unconventional flavor. It's so
good. So April 4th, 1987, Potvin, the captain
of the New York Islanders, becomes the first
defenseman in NHL history to reach 1 ,000 career
points. A huge deal. Reaching 1 ,000 points as
a defenseman is an incredible testament to longevity
and skill. But the way he secured that specific
milestone point is almost comical. It really
is. During a wild 6 -6 shootout of a game against
the Buffalo Sabres, Potvin's teammate, Miko McAlay,
took a shot that deflected directly off Potvin's
arm and went into the net. Think about that.
You spend your entire career dreaming of how
you'll hit that monumental 1 ,000th point. Maybe
it's a blistering slap shot from the point or
this brilliant cross ice pass. And it ends up
being a pinball deflection off your arm in a
game that ends in a 12 goal tie. It's a strangely
fitting tribute to the unpredictable bounces
that define the sport, really. It is. And, you
know, that unpredictability extended to the relationship
between the players and the league's officiating,
too. Yes. The Brian Trottier incident. Exactly.
The Islanders' Brian Trottier was so frustrated
with the state of the game that he authored an
article in the Hockey News. He actually wrote
it himself. He did. He publicly and directly
criticized the officials for failing to call
penalties. He put his name on a piece demanding
better enforcement of the rules. Which is a huge
deal. It's a direct challenge to the authority
of the league. Right. And NHL president John
Ziegler, who remember, was already dealing with
the Pat Quain contract scandal. He's having a
busy year. Very busy. He brought the hammer down
again. fining Trottier $1 ,000. It really illustrates
the simmering tension between the skilled players
who wanted protection from the ramp that hooking
and holding and a league that was struggling
to manage this highly aggressive style of play.
Even foundational elements like team names were
being scrutinized and corrected during this season.
Oh yeah, the Chicago situation. Right. The Chicago
franchise had operated as the two -word Blackhawks
for decades. But during the season, they officially
dropped the space to become the one -word Blackhawks.
Someone in the organization finally reviewed
their original Franchise Incorporation document.
Swept them long enough. Right. And they realized
they had been misspelling their own name. For
over half a century. Over 50 years. It's a minor
administrative detail, I know, but it perfectly
symbolizes a season where the league was constantly
adjusting, correcting, and finding its modern
footing. And you see that modernization taking
place in the structure of the game itself, particularly
when we look at the postseason. Okay, let's shift
our focus to the playoffs then. Because the road
to the Stanley Cup underwent a massive structural
change this year. A huge change. The league mandated
that all rounds of the playoffs, including the
division semi -finals, would now be contested
as best of seven series. Right. Previously, those
early rounds were just a best of five sprint.
And that expansion to a best of seven format
fundamentally altered the physical and mental
demands placed on the players. It's so many more
games. It is. A best of five series leaves room
for a hot goaltender or a lucky... to create
an early upset. But by stretching every single
round to a potential seven games, the NHL ensured
that the deepest, most resilient teams would
advance. It turned the playoffs into an absolute
war of attrition. You now needed 16 grueling
victories to lift the cup. And the team that
embraced that grueling war of attrition better
than anyone else in the East was the Philadelphia
Flyers. Oh, the Broad Street Bullies' successors.
Exactly. They were the undisputed kings of the
Prince of Wales Conference, capturing the Patrick
Division with 100 points. It's a solid 100. Under
head coach Mike Keenan, the Flyers were the absolute
antithesis of the Edmonton Oilers. While Edmonton
relied on a high -flying, overly structured and
incredibly punishing to play against. They were
the ultimate defensive foil. If you look across
the rest of the conference, Hartford took the
Adams division with 93 points, and St. Louis
won the Norris with 79 points. Okay. But Philadelphia
was the standard bearer. Their run through that
newly expanded playoff format was just a gauntlet.
Total gauntlet. They dispatched the Rangers in
six games, survived a brutal seven -game series
against the Islanders, and then took down the
reigning champion Montreal Canadiens in six games.
Which set up the inevitable collision in the
Stanley Cup final. Here we go. The unstoppable
offensive machine of the Edmonton Oilers against
the immovable defensive wall of the Philadelphia
Flyers. A true clash of styles. It really was.
And the series lived up to... every expectation
they pushed each other to the absolute limit
going the full distance before the Oilers finally
broke through to win game seven and claim the
cup with a four to three series victory but you
know the narrative of that Stanley Cup final
isn't just about Edmonton cementing their dynasty
no the defining story of that series and perhaps
the entire Flyers season was the performance
of their goaltender. Ron Hextall. Yes. Ron Hextall's
86 -87 campaign is one of the greatest individual
seasons by a rookie in the history of the sport.
Unbelievable season. Despite his team losing
the Stanley Cup final, Hextall was awarded the
Consummate Trophy as the most valuable player
of the playoffs. Which is so rare. Winning the
Consummate in a losing effort is an incredibly
rare distinction. The voters looked at a seven
-game series where Edmonton ultimately prevailed,
and they... They still concluded that the rookie
goaltender in the opposing net was the most impactful
player on the ice. Because without Hextall, that
series likely doesn't reach a Game 7. Not a chance.
The Oilers' offense was too potent. You have
to contextualize what Hextall accomplished over
the entire year. He didn't just win the playoff
MVP. He secured the Vizina Trophy as the league's
top goaltender during the regular season. The
workload he shouldered as a rookie is staggering.
Just immense. He played 66 regular season games,
earning 37 wins. He logged almost 3 ,800 minutes
of ice time. Wow. Finishing with a 3 .0 goals
against average and a .902 save percentage. Which,
I know a 3. 3 .00 sounds a bit high today. Right.
In an era where teams like Edmonton are scoring
close to five goals a night, maintaining a 3
.0 goals against average requires an incredible
level of focus and athleticism. Completely. He
beat out established veterans like Montreal's
Patrick Roy and Brian Hayward to establish himself
as the premier goaltender in the league. And
Hextall's aggressive puck handling style changed
the geometry of the game. He acted as a third
defenseman. Right. Coming out of the crease.
Yeah. Cutting off dump -ins and initiating the
breakout, it is exceedingly rare for a first
-year player to dictate the tactical approach
of an entire league. But Hextall managed to do
it while carrying his team to the brink of a
championship. Hextall was part of a massive influx
of new talent that completely rejuvenated the
league that year. The rookie class was insane.
The 86 -87 season really felt like a changing
of the guard. You have Luke Rabitosai debuting
for the Los Angeles Kings and capturing the Calder
Memorial Trophy as the top rookie. Lucky Luke.
Jimmy Carson and Steve Duchesne also debuted
for the Kings, creating this massive youth movement
in L .A. Yeah. Joe Murphy was taken first overall
by the Detroit Red Wings. And you had future
cornerstones like Gary Roberts and Joe Neuendijk
starting their careers with the Calgary Flames.
It was such a transitional pivot point for the
sport. Because as all of these dynamic young
stars were stepping onto the ice to define the
next decade, we were watching the final moments
of some of the game's greatest legends. That's
true. Mike Bossy, arguably one of the most lethal,
pure goal scorers to ever play the game. He skated
in his final season for the Islanders. An absolute
legend. Gilbert Perreault, the foundational building
block of the Buffalo Sabres franchise, announced
his retirement. Yeah. Chico Rush. who was the
last active NHL player born in the 1940s, finally
hung up his skates. Wow. The 1940s. End of an
era. Well, when you lay all of these stories
out on the table, the 1986 -87 season is this
incredibly vibrant, chaotic snapshot of a sport
in motion. Absolutely. You have Gretzky bending
the statistical limits of the game to his will
while coaches are getting banned for signing
double contracts. Double dipping. You have an
arena practically empty during a blizzard while
a game plays on and a captain scoring his thousandth
point off his arm. Too good. You have... Rules
being challenged, formats expanding, and rookies
going toe to toe with established dynasties in
a grueling seven game final. Thank you for joining
us on this deep dive into one of the most fascinating
years in hockey history. Keep digging into the
stats, keep exploring the stories, and we'll
catch you on the next one. And as you think about
everything we've discussed today, consider the
long term ripple effects of this specific season.
Did the overwhelming sheer offensive output of
teams like the 86 -87 Oilers fundamentally force
the rest of the league to invent modern defensive
structures? Oh, that's a great point. Think about
it. When you're facing a team that scores 372
goals, traditional defense is no longer enough.
Did the hyper -offense of this era essentially
lay the necessary groundwork for the suffocating
trap defenses and systematic checking that would
eventually define the 1990s and shape the game
we watch today? It's something for you to ponder.