8/28/98- Camden, NJ
10/31/09- Philly
5/21/10- NYC
9/2/12- Philly, PA
7/19/13- Wrigley
10/19/13- Brooklyn, NY
10/21/13- Philly, PA
10/22/13- Philly, PA
10/27/13- Baltimore, MD
4/28/16- Philly, PA
4/29/16- Philly, PA
5/1/16- NYC
5/2/16- NYC
9/2/18- Boston, MA
9/4/18- Boston, MA
9/14/22- Camden, NJ
9/7/24- Philly, PA
9/9/24- Philly, PA
Tres Mts.- 3/23/11- Philly. PA
Eddie Vedder- 6/25/11- Philly, PA
RNDM- 3/9/16- Philly, PA
LeBrun: Gretzky and Lemieux on the best series ever – the ’87 Canada Cup final
Mario Lemieux is not one for hyperbole.
But when I mentioned to him this week it was the best hockey I had ever seen in my life, No. 66 quickly chimed in.
“That’s for sure,” Lemieux told The Athletic. “All 6-5 games. The pace was pretty quick for back then, too. It was certainly a great experience to be part of it.’’
The 1972 Summit Series still ranks at the top in Canada for historical significance. The 1980 Miracle on Ice is arguably the most dramatic moment in the sport. The Golden Goal at the 2010 Olympics will never be forgotten.
As for the best hockey ever played, I’m sorry to say there’s no debate. The three-game final in the 1987 Canada Cup stands alone.
Sept. 11, 1987, Soviet Union 6 Canada 5 (OT), Montreal Forum
When I found out last week that TSN was going to re-air the entire final starting with Game 1 on Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET, one of my first thoughts was the number of hockey fans under the age of 40 who didn’t get to experience the spectacle in real-time.
What better time than now to dive into the series to provide some context for a younger generation and bring back to life the best hockey ever played.
Wayne Gretzky has told me a few times over the years it was the best hockey series he ever played in.
“No question,’’ No. 99 reiterated a few weeks ago.
“100 percent,’’ Paul Coffey echoed to me this week.
Gretzky, Lemieux, Coffey, Ray Bourque, Mark Messier led a who’s who of NHL stars on a stacked Team Canada.
Vladimir Krutov, Igor Larionov and Sergei Makarov – the KLM line – with Slava Fetisov and Alexei Kasatonov on the blue line completed the Green Unit (Makarov, especially, was electrifying in that series, leading the Soviets with 15 points in nine games).
The three games produced poetry on ice.
“It was special,” Larionov said from Moscow last week. “That was a stage. You have a chance to put the game at the next level. We played the game, and they played the game, too. That’s what it’s all about, skill against skill. There were no restrictions.’’
Flyers and Oilers become frienemies
Paul Coffey was having a cold one at a bar in the Muskoka cottage area two-plus hours north of Toronto in July 1987 when an unexpected visitor joined him.
“I get a tap on my shoulder and it’s Mike Keenan,’’ Coffey recalled.
Coffey’s Oilers and Keenan’s Flyers had just played their second Stanley Cup final in three years. Game 7 of the thrilling ’87 final took place on May 31. Team Canada’s training camp was set to open Aug. 3 in Montreal.
Keenan drove an hour north from his cottage with the specific purpose of finding Coffey.
“He wanted to have a beer and wanted to discuss him coaching and would we, the Oilers guys, be OK with it,’’ Coffey said. “He said, ‘Will you guys work for me?’ I looked at him and said, ‘Mike, 100 percent.’ Mark, Wayne, me: We’re about winning. You’re the boss.’’’
“I do remember going over to see him,” Keenan said. “It was such a great, intense rivalry we had in ’85 and ’87. I wanted to make sure everybody was on board for Team Canada.’’
Coffey added with a chuckle: “I remember Mike asking to make sure if there was any animosity about the ’87 Stanley Cup final and I said, ‘Mike, not on our part. We won!’ True story.’’
Keenan also had a clever idea, pairing Flyers and Oilers players, one of each, together as training camp roommates.
It’s important to note that this was a different era.
“The game was different then. You weren’t buddies with guys on the other team,” Coffey said. “I can remember that summer, at a bar in Toronto, seeing Rick Tocchet from a distance and not even going near him. Or he wouldn’t go near me.’’
Today, they’re best friends. Before that tournament? Not so much.
“I remember seeing him at the airport before the ’87 Canada tournament,” Coffey said. “We were flying to Montreal (for the start of camp). He had his head shaved. I looked at him and snickered. He said, ‘I have to make this team.’ I said, ‘Buddy, short hair ain’t going to put you on the team. If you ain’t a good player, you ain’t making it.’’’
Coffey still laughs at that exchange today.
“Anyway, Keenan put Tocchet and I together as roommates. And that’s been a lifelong friendship ever since.’’
The barbecue
In 1987, the world was still in the throes of the Cold War.
In lockstep with the Soviet team during the ’87 Canada Cup was another team – the KGB.
“Walter Gretzky came to my room after we beat Canada 9-4 in an exhibition game (Aug. 22 in Hamilton) before the tournament, I think Mario scored all four goals,” Larionov said. “Walter comes to the hotel, knocks at my door and says: ‘Igor, Wayne has been asking if you guys can come over to have a barbecue.’ I thought it was a fantastic idea. But I didn’t think we could go.
Igor Larionov being chased by Wayne Gretzky just days after attending a barbecue at Wayne’s childhood home in Brantford. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
“But I said to Walter, ‘We better ask coach if we can go. Because we got a KGB guy with us.’ I didn’t think we can sneak out this time,’’ Larionov said.
(Larionov had snuck out of his hotel during the ’84 Canada Cup in Calgary to have a drink with some Team Canada players).
So off to head coach Viktor Tikhonov’s hotel room they went, Larionov and Mr. Gretzky.
“He was in a good mood,’’ Larionov said of the demanding Tikhonov. “We had just beat Canada 9-4. So he was happy. I said, ‘This is Mr. Gretzky, Wayne’s father. He would like to invite you and the five of us to go to his house, visit his trophy room, have a BBQ.’’’
Larionov still chuckles at the whole sequence of events. Tikhonov agreed but only if he, as well as the KGB officer, joined them.
“So seven of us went to the Gretzky house for dinner,’’ Larionov said, with Tikhonov joining the five members of the Green Unit, plus the KGB agent.
“The Big 5 all came for a barbecue late on a Sunday afternoon before the tourney started,’’ Gretzky recalled. “They weren’t allowed to come unless Tikhonov came.’’
Former Flyers captain Dave Poulin, who was Gretzky’s training camp roommate, was also invited to the Gretzky family home in Brantford, Ont.
“That was quite an evening, it was almost surreal,’’ Poulin said, who would end up being one of the last two players cut from Team Canada (more on that later).
“The night began with all of the conversation going through the interpreter,” Poulin added. “But then when we separated them and got a few of them downstairs in Gretzky’s trophy room, Igor suddenly is speaking perfect English.’’
Larionov laughs as he recalls the Soviet players being offered a drink.
“There was beer on the table. Walter says, ‘Have a beer, guys.’ We said, ‘No, no, no, we don’t drink,’’’ Larionov said.
“Walter said to me quietly, ‘There’s beer in the fridge downstairs.’’
The Soviet star players took turns going downstairs to the “washroom’’ but made sure to drink some beer on the way each time.
“That was a fantastic experience,’’ chuckles Larionov.
How the pairing of No. 66 and No. 99 came to be
Here’s a thought, let’s put the two best players in the world on the same line.
“Yeah, it worked out pretty good. That was fun,’’ Lemieux said.
“When Mike put Mario and Gretz together … that was a smart idea. The best should play with the best,’’ Larionov added.
Except head coach Mike Keenan didn’t put Lemieux and Gretzky together as regular linemates until late in the tournament.
Which was on purpose, it turns out.
“I sat on my deck at the cottage in July and I thought of that,” Keenan said of putting both superstar centres on a line, but not until the end of the tournament.
“And I kept it to myself. I didn’t discuss it with anyone, not the other coaches, not the managers, not the players. I said to myself, ‘I’m not going to show it early.’ Because I wanted something extra in the end. I didn’t want the Soviets to pre-scout us and have that knowledge.’’
Lemieux and Gretzky had the occasional 5-on-5 shift together during the tournament, and of course power-play time together, but it didn’t become a permanent fixture until Game 2 of the final.
“I can still remember Tikhonov looking over at me and looking like he’s saying, ‘What’s going on? What are you doing, what are you doing?’ He was surprised,’’ Keenan said.
Lemieux ended the tournament with 11 goals in nine games, including the game-winning goals in Game 2 and Game 3 of the final. Gretzky led the tournament with 21 points including 18 assists, assisting on both of Lemieux’s game-winners in the final. To top it off, The Great One was named tournament MVP.
“Playing with Wayne, I knew how he played, all I had to do was get open,” Lemieux said. “Especially on odd-man rushes and 2-on-1s, we scored a few 2-on-1 goals throughout the tournament.
“Basically, my job was to give him the puck and get open. And he’d find me every time.’’
Mario’s coming out party
By 1987, we were all well aware that Lemieux was a special player. He had already taken the NHL by storm and had three seasons under his belt by the time he showed up at the ’87 Canada Cup.
But during that tournament, he raised his game to another level.
“That was a total coming-out party for him,” Coffey said, who remembers a 21-year-old Lemieux soaking all of it in at that event.
“Mario was a study,” Coffey said. “He sat and watched. Wayne being like Wayne is, he brought Mario into his world. He wasn’t worried about Mario being the heir apparent or winning the scoring championship next year, Wayne’s philosophy always was, ‘If he’s that good, he’s going to make me better.’’’
Larionov had caught a glimpse of a 19-year-old Lemieux two years prior at the 1985 IIHF World Championships in Prague.
“Mario was big and lanky and really skilled, but was kind of slow,” Larionov said. “Because I think it was his first year in the NHL and it was big ice at the world championships. But you could see his tremendous talent. Usually, when you talk about Canadian players you talk about toughness and determination, but I remember his skill and IQ. The way he read the game, made plays, that was a sign of greatness was coming.
“And in ’87, it came full throttle, the way he played, the way he was decisive in terms of scoring big goals.’’
Lemieux called the experience at the ’87 Canada Cup “probably the best time of my life.’’
“I was 21, just to have a chance to play with Gretz and Messier and Coffey and Ray Bourque, and really have a chance to practice with them,” Lemieux said. “I think training camp was like three weeks long, I really learned a lot by watching these guys and seeing how hard they worked in practice, the dedication they had for the sport.
“I learned so much and I was able to take that back to Pittsburgh and eventually win two Stanley Cups with the Penguins, because of learning from those guys.’’
The famous Team Canada cuts
Famous as in, imagine what Team Canada’s B squad could have looked like had it iced a second team in that tournament.
Cut from Team Canada’s camp were the likes of Steve Yzerman (which is still crazy), Poulin, Scott Stevens, Patrick Roy, Al MacInnis, Cam Neely, Dino Ciccarelli, Kirk Muller and Wendel Clark.
“I probably cut about 10 Hall of Famers,’’ Keenan said.
Poulin was the last cut, along with Stevens.
“I didn’t play very well. I was really banged up,” Poulin, now a TSN colleague of mine, said. “I played with three broken ribs in that Stanley Cup final. From a health standpoint and a play standpoint, it was the right move.’’
Classy, as always, but it sure hurt at the time. Especially when you consider how well Poulin had played in Rendez-Vous ’87 about six months earlier when he was matched up against the KLM line in those two games in Quebec City.
And well, there’s the fact Poulin was Keenan’s captain in Philadelphia.
“I wasn’t easy. It was very, very difficult,” Keenan said. “He was the last cut. And I did keep a number of the Flyers. But Poulie played centre and look at how deep we were at centre. Dougie Gilmour ended up playing left wing on that team. That was tough. Because I had to have Poulie come back and support me in the fall. Which he did. He took it like a real pro.’’
Keenan wanted to set the tone early and did so in their first team meeting.
“I assembled the group. I said to them, ‘Guys, how many minutes in a hockey game?’ They looked at me like I was cuckoo,’’ Keenan said.
Larry Murphy, according to Keenan, responded: “Everybody knows it’s 60 minutes.’’
“I said, there’s six of you on the ice so it’s 360 minutes that you share if we’re penalty-free.’’
Take out the goalie, Keenan continued, that’s 300 minutes for the remaining skaters.
“Then I said, ‘Wayne usually plays 27 minutes a game, do you guys mind if I give him 25 minutes?’ Everyone said of course not,’’ Keenan said.
When Keenan asked the players if Gretzky should get a larger share of ice time, no one objected. (Bennett Studios / Getty Images)
“And Mario and Mark and so on, the answer was ‘of course not.’ I kept going, ‘What about these great defensemen like Paul Coffey and Ray Bourque, do you mind if I give them each 25 minutes a game, they won’t get 30 minutes, but how about 25?’
“So I’m doing the math and I keep going. Now it’s Dale Hawerchuk. He had like 140 points in Winnipeg. I got him down to 15 minutes. And kept going down the lineup.’’
Until, Keenan says, Rick Tocchet got up in the room.
“Tocchet says, ‘There’s only five minutes left of ice time, do you mind if I have it?’’’ Keenan recalled. “I said, ‘Tock, only if it’s penalty-free. So stay out of the box you guys or else Tock won’t get on the ice.’’
Keenan chuckles at the memory of it all.
“But right away, everyone understood they wouldn’t be getting their normal ice time. That’s how I approached them on the first day. They’re bright guys. They figured it out.’’
Said Hawerchuk: “Yeah, I do remember him doing that. Mike did a good job. He was involved when he needed to be, and he backed off when he needed to as well.
“Sometimes Mess would give him that look, ‘Not now, Mike.’’’
“Mike was awesome,” Coffey added. “Once he figured out he was the boss and that the likes of Wayne and Mess would respect him, he was great.’’
Soviets take Game 1 at the Forum
Let’s jump past the round-robin and get to the championship final.
Alexander Semak’s overtime goal 5:33 into the first extra period gave the Soviets a 6-5 win in the final opener and they were full value for it.
The Soviets were euphoric. Funny thing is, they weren’t used to playing series. When you think of Olympics and world championships, this was a team used to one-game knockouts.
But the Canada Cup final was a best-of-three series.
“We didn’t really have much experience with that,” Larionov said. “But we won the first game. We’re one win game away from winning the Canada Cup.’’
They could taste it.
Team Canada? You could hear a pin drop on the flight from Montreal to Hamilton.
“I remember getting on the team bus and Mike Keenan had allowed some of the guys who had moms and dads there to hop on the team plane, and I remember on the bus ride to the airport my dad told me it was my fault that we lost and that my shift was too long and that was why they scored (the tying goal in the third period),” a laughing Gretzky recalled a few weeks ago with myself and Scott Burnside on our “Two-Man Advantage” podcast.
“And I remember thinking, well, the whole country’s upset right now. I don’t need you telling me how bad I was.’’
It was no joke, though. Team Canada was feeling the heat. There was no room for error.
“That goes back to talking to Mike Keenan at the bar in July,” Coffey said. “I said, ‘Mike, we know what’s at stake. It doesn’t matter what we did with the Edmonton Oilers in winning the Stanley Cup. We’re representing our freakin’ country.’ And I do remember that plane ride (after Game 1) being deathly quiet. But there was also an air of confidence.
“We’re probably not having this story if we lose the next game.’’
Canada rebounds in Game 2 thriller
A lot of people who covered this series believe the Game 2, 6-5 overtime win by Canada at Copps Coliseum, was the best game in the series for pure entertainment.
The shifty Valeri Kamensky tied it at 5-5 late in the third period for the Soviets, before Gretzky to Lemieux ended it in double overtime.
Gretzky may have played the greatest game of his career, putting up five assists. But of course, he mentioned almost everyone but himself.
“Game 2 was one of those games that was so remarkable because Mario was so good, Paul Coffey was just a machine that night,’’ Gretzky said. “Guys like Doug Gilmour and Rick Tocchet and Dale Hawerchuk and, of course, Mark Messier were so good. Guys were so determined. But we didn’t have 20 guys that played as much as the Russian team. They were four lines and three sets of defense and (Slava) Fetisov was at his best and the KLM line was so good. But we knew the one thing that we had over them was that our goalie was going to make the big save at the key time and that’s what happened in the series. Grant Fuhr just, when it was 5-5, shut the door. We’d seen it so many times.’’
For the Soviets, an opportunity lost.
“I remember we had a glorious chance in overtime in Game 2,” Larionov said. “Grant Fuhr was making spectacular saves. We were close to closing the page and bringing that Canada Cup back to Russia.’’
What’s evident is how Team Canada fed off of the raucous crowd in Hamilton.
“I remember thinking going to Game 2, ‘Gosh wouldn’t this have been really nice if we were playing in Maple Leaf Gardens.’ Because I loved Maple Leaf Gardens, it was my favourite arena,” Gretzky said. “To me it was the hockey church of the world, right? And after the first shift of Game 2 in Hamilton at Copps Coliseum, I remember thinking ‘Wow, this is the loudest arena I’ve ever been in.’ And the emotion just picked up and picked up and got stronger and bigger. The players, you could just feel it, the players started to rally around it.’’
Early shocker in Game 3
“We were down 3-0 before anyone got into their seats,” Coffey said.
Indeed, just eight minutes into Game 3, Canada was facing a three-goal deficit.
And at this point, Keenan is muttering to himself.
“Honest to God, I remember talking to myself on the bench saying, ‘Mike, you better figure out something really quickly, because if you don’t win this game, you’re going to walk directly to the parking lot, get in your vehicle, drive to the cottage, get in your boat, drive to the island and never be heard from again,’’ Keenan said while laughing.
Two things to remember here:
First, Keenan resisted the urge to pull Fuhr.
“Credit to Mike again. He was known for pulling goalies all the time, but he kept Fuhrsy in there,” Coffey said. “Because Grant was the type of guy that Mike knew, that (being down 3-0 early) wouldn’t rattle Grant. And Fuhrsy went the last 50 minutes or whatever only letting in two goals. Nothing flustered him. But again, good for Keenan for letting him stay in there.’’
Second, despite being down 3-0, Keenan decided to give his top players a bit of a rest and played his bottom-six guys for several shifts, who in turn gave Canada a spark.
“Wayne turned to me and said, ‘Mike, I need a breather. Just give me a few minutes here just to sit,’’’ Keenan said.
“We were really tired. Messier, myself, Mario — we had played so much hockey in Games 1 and 2,’’ Gretzky said. “Mike kind of sat us down eight minutes into the first period down 3-0. And I remember sitting there for a little bit, maybe four to five minutes, which is a lot in Mike Keenan’s eyes. But Propp, Tocchet, Gilmour, those guys rose to the occasion, got us back in the game and all of a sudden it was 3-3.’’
Tocchet and Propp each scored before the end of the first period. The game was back on.
“I put out our grinders. Again Tikhonov looked over and at me and was wondering what was going on,” Keenan said.
“It took the pressure off the big guys a little bit, and of course, the big guys finished it off.’’
‘No, you take it’
With less than two minutes left in the third period of Game 3, tied at 5-5, there is a faceoff in Canada’s zone to the left of Fuhr.
Keenan sends Lemieux, Gretzky and Hawerchuk over the boards at what is now a deafening Copps Coliseum.
“So I’ve got Gretzky and Lemieux, two centremen,’’ Hawerchuk recalled. “I go ‘Gretz, you want to take the draw?’ He says, ‘Not a chance.’ And he kind of chuckles.’’
Hawerchuk said that Lemieux then tells him it’s his wrong side for the faceoff since he’s a right shot.
“I guess I’m taking it,’’ Hawerchuk said.
Lemieux confirmed the tale. No. 66 and No. 99 each passed on taking what ended up being one of Canada’s most famous won faceoffs ever.
“Yeah. But it worked out good,’’ chuckled Lemieux.
“I said to Mario before I took the faceoff, ‘Look, I’m going to tie him up,’’ Hawerchuk said. “Which means for the inside winger to come in and pick up the puck. And he did a hell of a job of that.’’
Lemieux, with his long reach, poked the puck along the wall past a pinching Igor Kravchuk at the point.
“Igor Kravchuk, who later played for me in Chicago, he made an untimely pinch,” Keenan said. “But it was also because of Mario’s great reach that he was able to tip it by him.’’
Added Hawerchuk: “I played with Kravy (in St. Louis), he said to me, ‘That was the worst pinch in my life. Tikhonov let me know for quite a long time.’’’
Lemieux called it the “perfect play.’’
“Maybe a little interference from Hawerchuck at the end where he hooked (Viacheslav) Bykov, to let me go in and score the goal,’’ Lemieux said.
Yes, that did seem like interference from Hawerchuck on Bykov in the neutral zone, which kept it a 3-on-1 break for Team Canada.
“Yeah, people make a lot of that,’’ Hawerchuck said of the interference play. “If you watch that game, there was so much hooking and holding. And he spun around kind of like a dive.’’
(Great to hear from Hawerchuk this week, by the way. What a year it’s been for the Hockey Hall of Famer who was diagnosed with stomach cancer last summer, had surgery and then chemotherapy over the past several months. But now he’s out of the hospital and he’s eating food. “I’m getting my strength back here,’’ he said. All our best to Dale.)
‘He shoots, he scores. Mario Lemieux with 1:26 remaining’
The legendary voice of the late Dan Kelly still resonates.
And there’s was zero doubt Lemieux wasn’t shooting after getting the drop pass from Gretzky despite Super Mario having a wide-open Larry Murphy on his right.
“I knew that the puck was coming back to me. Wayne had it,” Lemieux told me. “And actually, I didn’t see Murph until the end because I was focusing on Gretz and the defenceman and the goalie at the same time. Our scouting report was to go top shelf on the glove side. I had made up my mind that if I got the puck, that’s where I was going.
“I got a pretty good shot off and it hit the top corner and went in. It was an amazing feeling,’’ Lemieux said.
Coffey had the best view in the house, trailing the play when Lemieux rifled it home.
“I said to Mario and I only said it to him once, ‘Mario, when Wayne gave you that puck and Murph was wide-open, had that have been me, would you have moved it?’ He looked me right in the eye and said, ‘We’ll never know,’’’ a laughing Coffey said.
Well, that is a good question, how did Murphy end up on that 3-on-1 instead of Coffey?
“We always kid Coff, ‘How did Murphy beat you up the ice?’’ laughed Hawerchuk. “That was the only time in the whole series.’’
Come on, Coffey says.
“I love Murph to death, great hockey player. He couldn’t beat me up the ice on my worst day,’’ Coffey said while chucking. “But Murph was such a smart player, he would anticipate. I was on the boards, I came in from behind to protect the D zone after the faceoff – imagine me doing that – so Murph took off. Which made Larry special all those years, the way he could anticipate.’’
Another thing to remember, Coffey said, look at the players Keenan deployed for that game-winning shift.
“You look at that last faceoff on the winning goal, this is Keenan again: Gretzky, Hawerchuk, Lemieux, Coffey, Murphy,” Coffey said. “In today’s game, when are you going to put Coffee and Murphy on the point and the faceoff in your zone. Mike was like, ‘We’ll get the puck and we’ll go score a goal.’’’
Yup.
“We were going to play to win,” Keenan said. “I had a lot of history with Dale, I coached him in Oshawa (Jr. , and he was winning every faceoff. So I put him out, and of course the two big guns. We were playing to win. I wasn’t going to put out a defensive strategy at that point. I had confidence in them.’’
The real winners
Looking back, the real winners in that ’87 Canada Cup were the sport and the fans.
“It wasn’t about who wins, it’s about hockey itself,” Larionov said. “The level of hockey. We sent a message across the world, that was the propaganda: good hockey.’’
Added Coffey: “Igor is bang on, the fans won.’’
It’s a series that impacted the game forever.
“That series really changed hockey,’’ Hawerchuk said. “When I came back to training camp (in Winnipeg), every guy on our team came up and said, ‘Man, that was the best hockey I’ve ever seen. You guys changed the game.’’’
Looks like things are about to start picking up. Strange circumstances, but given the situation I think it'll be an exciting end to the season. Thoughts?
Virginia Beach 2000; Pittsburgh 2000; Columbus 2003; D.C. 2003; Pittsburgh 2006; Virginia Beach 2008; Cleveland 2010; PJ20 2011; Pittsburgh 2013; Baltimore 2013; Charlottesville 2013; Charlotte 2013; Lincoln 2014; Moline 2014; St. Paul 2014; Greenville 2016; Hampton 2016; Lexington 2016; Wrigley 2016; Prague 2018; Krakow 2018; Berlin 2018; Fenway 2018; Camden 2022; St. Paul 2023; MSG 1 2024
Looks like things are about to start picking up. Strange circumstances, but given the situation I think it'll be an exciting end to the season. Thoughts?
Going to be strange. While I’m glad sports are coming back but hockey in August with no fans is gonna be a bit strange I think
I wonder how they are going to deal with the players and the fact that without fans you could possibly hear a lot of what they say on the ice.
I'm dying to hear some red ass tear into the refs - Sidney Crosby comes to mind. He takes a penalty or a non call in a big spot. The F bombs will be flying.
I wonder how they are going to deal with the players and the fact that without fans you could possibly hear a lot of what they say on the ice.
I'm dying to hear some red ass tear into the refs - Sidney Crosby comes to mind. He takes a penalty or a non call in a big spot. The F bombs will be flying.
Or all the other players calling Crosby well “another way to call a cat a kitten” with props to Naughty by Nature
8/28/98- Camden, NJ
10/31/09- Philly
5/21/10- NYC
9/2/12- Philly, PA
7/19/13- Wrigley
10/19/13- Brooklyn, NY
10/21/13- Philly, PA
10/22/13- Philly, PA
10/27/13- Baltimore, MD
4/28/16- Philly, PA
4/29/16- Philly, PA
5/1/16- NYC
5/2/16- NYC
9/2/18- Boston, MA
9/4/18- Boston, MA
9/14/22- Camden, NJ
9/7/24- Philly, PA
9/9/24- Philly, PA
Tres Mts.- 3/23/11- Philly. PA
Eddie Vedder- 6/25/11- Philly, PA
RNDM- 3/9/16- Philly, PA
I am hearing Toronto and Edmonton will be the hub cities, if they resume play.
can not understand why no US cities...
I heard that too, along with the thought that maybe a spike of COVID in Vegas doomed their chances. I had heard before that the NHL wanted to target Canada because operations are less expensive (not sure how true that is).
Virginia Beach 2000; Pittsburgh 2000; Columbus 2003; D.C. 2003; Pittsburgh 2006; Virginia Beach 2008; Cleveland 2010; PJ20 2011; Pittsburgh 2013; Baltimore 2013; Charlottesville 2013; Charlotte 2013; Lincoln 2014; Moline 2014; St. Paul 2014; Greenville 2016; Hampton 2016; Lexington 2016; Wrigley 2016; Prague 2018; Krakow 2018; Berlin 2018; Fenway 2018; Camden 2022; St. Paul 2023; MSG 1 2024
No US cities because we have been like a third world country in dealing with the Pandemic. All these countries are going to have sports operating Looooong before we do. People lack intelligence, you cant have nice things.
8/28/98- Camden, NJ
10/31/09- Philly
5/21/10- NYC
9/2/12- Philly, PA
7/19/13- Wrigley
10/19/13- Brooklyn, NY
10/21/13- Philly, PA
10/22/13- Philly, PA
10/27/13- Baltimore, MD
4/28/16- Philly, PA
4/29/16- Philly, PA
5/1/16- NYC
5/2/16- NYC
9/2/18- Boston, MA
9/4/18- Boston, MA
9/14/22- Camden, NJ
9/7/24- Philly, PA
9/9/24- Philly, PA
Tres Mts.- 3/23/11- Philly. PA
Eddie Vedder- 6/25/11- Philly, PA
RNDM- 3/9/16- Philly, PA
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saves you from losing that's all Ha
10/31/09- Philly
5/21/10- NYC
9/2/12- Philly, PA
7/19/13- Wrigley
10/19/13- Brooklyn, NY
10/21/13- Philly, PA
10/22/13- Philly, PA
10/27/13- Baltimore, MD
4/28/16- Philly, PA
4/29/16- Philly, PA
5/1/16- NYC
5/2/16- NYC
9/2/18- Boston, MA
9/4/18- Boston, MA
9/14/22- Camden, NJ
9/7/24- Philly, PA
9/9/24- Philly, PA
Eddie Vedder- 6/25/11- Philly, PA
RNDM- 3/9/16- Philly, PA
Mario Lemieux is not one for hyperbole.
But when I mentioned to him this week it was the best hockey I had ever seen in my life, No. 66 quickly chimed in.
“That’s for sure,” Lemieux told The Athletic. “All 6-5 games. The pace was pretty quick for back then, too. It was certainly a great experience to be part of it.’’
The 1972 Summit Series still ranks at the top in Canada for historical significance. The 1980 Miracle on Ice is arguably the most dramatic moment in the sport. The Golden Goal at the 2010 Olympics will never be forgotten.
As for the best hockey ever played, I’m sorry to say there’s no debate. The three-game final in the 1987 Canada Cup stands alone.
Pure magic.
When I found out last week that TSN was going to re-air the entire final starting with Game 1 on Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET, one of my first thoughts was the number of hockey fans under the age of 40 who didn’t get to experience the spectacle in real-time.
What better time than now to dive into the series to provide some context for a younger generation and bring back to life the best hockey ever played.
Wayne Gretzky has told me a few times over the years it was the best hockey series he ever played in.
“No question,’’ No. 99 reiterated a few weeks ago.
“100 percent,’’ Paul Coffey echoed to me this week.
Gretzky, Lemieux, Coffey, Ray Bourque, Mark Messier led a who’s who of NHL stars on a stacked Team Canada.
Vladimir Krutov, Igor Larionov and Sergei Makarov – the KLM line – with Slava Fetisov and Alexei Kasatonov on the blue line completed the Green Unit (Makarov, especially, was electrifying in that series, leading the Soviets with 15 points in nine games).
The three games produced poetry on ice.
“It was special,” Larionov said from Moscow last week. “That was a stage. You have a chance to put the game at the next level. We played the game, and they played the game, too. That’s what it’s all about, skill against skill. There were no restrictions.’’
Flyers and Oilers become frienemies
Paul Coffey was having a cold one at a bar in the Muskoka cottage area two-plus hours north of Toronto in July 1987 when an unexpected visitor joined him.
“I get a tap on my shoulder and it’s Mike Keenan,’’ Coffey recalled.
Coffey’s Oilers and Keenan’s Flyers had just played their second Stanley Cup final in three years. Game 7 of the thrilling ’87 final took place on May 31. Team Canada’s training camp was set to open Aug. 3 in Montreal.
Keenan drove an hour north from his cottage with the specific purpose of finding Coffey.
“He wanted to have a beer and wanted to discuss him coaching and would we, the Oilers guys, be OK with it,’’ Coffey said. “He said, ‘Will you guys work for me?’ I looked at him and said, ‘Mike, 100 percent.’ Mark, Wayne, me: We’re about winning. You’re the boss.’’’
“I do remember going over to see him,” Keenan said. “It was such a great, intense rivalry we had in ’85 and ’87. I wanted to make sure everybody was on board for Team Canada.’’
Coffey added with a chuckle: “I remember Mike asking to make sure if there was any animosity about the ’87 Stanley Cup final and I said, ‘Mike, not on our part. We won!’ True story.’’
Keenan also had a clever idea, pairing Flyers and Oilers players, one of each, together as training camp roommates.
It’s important to note that this was a different era.
“The game was different then. You weren’t buddies with guys on the other team,” Coffey said. “I can remember that summer, at a bar in Toronto, seeing Rick Tocchet from a distance and not even going near him. Or he wouldn’t go near me.’’
Today, they’re best friends. Before that tournament? Not so much.
“I remember seeing him at the airport before the ’87 Canada tournament,” Coffey said. “We were flying to Montreal (for the start of camp). He had his head shaved. I looked at him and snickered. He said, ‘I have to make this team.’ I said, ‘Buddy, short hair ain’t going to put you on the team. If you ain’t a good player, you ain’t making it.’’’
Coffey still laughs at that exchange today.
“Anyway, Keenan put Tocchet and I together as roommates. And that’s been a lifelong friendship ever since.’’
The barbecue
In 1987, the world was still in the throes of the Cold War.
In lockstep with the Soviet team during the ’87 Canada Cup was another team – the KGB.
“Walter Gretzky came to my room after we beat Canada 9-4 in an exhibition game (Aug. 22 in Hamilton) before the tournament, I think Mario scored all four goals,” Larionov said. “Walter comes to the hotel, knocks at my door and says: ‘Igor, Wayne has been asking if you guys can come over to have a barbecue.’ I thought it was a fantastic idea. But I didn’t think we could go.
“But I said to Walter, ‘We better ask coach if we can go. Because we got a KGB guy with us.’ I didn’t think we can sneak out this time,’’ Larionov said.
(Larionov had snuck out of his hotel during the ’84 Canada Cup in Calgary to have a drink with some Team Canada players).
So off to head coach Viktor Tikhonov’s hotel room they went, Larionov and Mr. Gretzky.
“He was in a good mood,’’ Larionov said of the demanding Tikhonov. “We had just beat Canada 9-4. So he was happy. I said, ‘This is Mr. Gretzky, Wayne’s father. He would like to invite you and the five of us to go to his house, visit his trophy room, have a BBQ.’’’
Larionov still chuckles at the whole sequence of events. Tikhonov agreed but only if he, as well as the KGB officer, joined them.
“So seven of us went to the Gretzky house for dinner,’’ Larionov said, with Tikhonov joining the five members of the Green Unit, plus the KGB agent.
“The Big 5 all came for a barbecue late on a Sunday afternoon before the tourney started,’’ Gretzky recalled. “They weren’t allowed to come unless Tikhonov came.’’
Former Flyers captain Dave Poulin, who was Gretzky’s training camp roommate, was also invited to the Gretzky family home in Brantford, Ont.
“That was quite an evening, it was almost surreal,’’ Poulin said, who would end up being one of the last two players cut from Team Canada (more on that later).
“The night began with all of the conversation going through the interpreter,” Poulin added. “But then when we separated them and got a few of them downstairs in Gretzky’s trophy room, Igor suddenly is speaking perfect English.’’
Larionov laughs as he recalls the Soviet players being offered a drink.
“There was beer on the table. Walter says, ‘Have a beer, guys.’ We said, ‘No, no, no, we don’t drink,’’’ Larionov said.
“Walter said to me quietly, ‘There’s beer in the fridge downstairs.’’
The Soviet star players took turns going downstairs to the “washroom’’ but made sure to drink some beer on the way each time.
“That was a fantastic experience,’’ chuckles Larionov.
How the pairing of No. 66 and No. 99 came to be
Here’s a thought, let’s put the two best players in the world on the same line.
“Yeah, it worked out pretty good. That was fun,’’ Lemieux said.
“When Mike put Mario and Gretz together … that was a smart idea. The best should play with the best,’’ Larionov added.
Except head coach Mike Keenan didn’t put Lemieux and Gretzky together as regular linemates until late in the tournament.
Which was on purpose, it turns out.
“I sat on my deck at the cottage in July and I thought of that,” Keenan said of putting both superstar centres on a line, but not until the end of the tournament.
“And I kept it to myself. I didn’t discuss it with anyone, not the other coaches, not the managers, not the players. I said to myself, ‘I’m not going to show it early.’ Because I wanted something extra in the end. I didn’t want the Soviets to pre-scout us and have that knowledge.’’
Lemieux and Gretzky had the occasional 5-on-5 shift together during the tournament, and of course power-play time together, but it didn’t become a permanent fixture until Game 2 of the final.
“I can still remember Tikhonov looking over at me and looking like he’s saying, ‘What’s going on? What are you doing, what are you doing?’ He was surprised,’’ Keenan said.
Lemieux ended the tournament with 11 goals in nine games, including the game-winning goals in Game 2 and Game 3 of the final. Gretzky led the tournament with 21 points including 18 assists, assisting on both of Lemieux’s game-winners in the final. To top it off, The Great One was named tournament MVP.
“Playing with Wayne, I knew how he played, all I had to do was get open,” Lemieux said. “Especially on odd-man rushes and 2-on-1s, we scored a few 2-on-1 goals throughout the tournament.
“Basically, my job was to give him the puck and get open. And he’d find me every time.’’
Mario’s coming out party
By 1987, we were all well aware that Lemieux was a special player. He had already taken the NHL by storm and had three seasons under his belt by the time he showed up at the ’87 Canada Cup.
But during that tournament, he raised his game to another level.
“That was a total coming-out party for him,” Coffey said, who remembers a 21-year-old Lemieux soaking all of it in at that event.
“Mario was a study,” Coffey said. “He sat and watched. Wayne being like Wayne is, he brought Mario into his world. He wasn’t worried about Mario being the heir apparent or winning the scoring championship next year, Wayne’s philosophy always was, ‘If he’s that good, he’s going to make me better.’’’
Larionov had caught a glimpse of a 19-year-old Lemieux two years prior at the 1985 IIHF World Championships in Prague.
“Mario was big and lanky and really skilled, but was kind of slow,” Larionov said. “Because I think it was his first year in the NHL and it was big ice at the world championships. But you could see his tremendous talent. Usually, when you talk about Canadian players you talk about toughness and determination, but I remember his skill and IQ. The way he read the game, made plays, that was a sign of greatness was coming.
“And in ’87, it came full throttle, the way he played, the way he was decisive in terms of scoring big goals.’’
Lemieux called the experience at the ’87 Canada Cup “probably the best time of my life.’’
“I was 21, just to have a chance to play with Gretz and Messier and Coffey and Ray Bourque, and really have a chance to practice with them,” Lemieux said. “I think training camp was like three weeks long, I really learned a lot by watching these guys and seeing how hard they worked in practice, the dedication they had for the sport.
“I learned so much and I was able to take that back to Pittsburgh and eventually win two Stanley Cups with the Penguins, because of learning from those guys.’’
The famous Team Canada cuts
Famous as in, imagine what Team Canada’s B squad could have looked like had it iced a second team in that tournament.
Cut from Team Canada’s camp were the likes of Steve Yzerman (which is still crazy), Poulin, Scott Stevens, Patrick Roy, Al MacInnis, Cam Neely, Dino Ciccarelli, Kirk Muller and Wendel Clark.
“I probably cut about 10 Hall of Famers,’’ Keenan said.
Poulin was the last cut, along with Stevens.
“I didn’t play very well. I was really banged up,” Poulin, now a TSN colleague of mine, said. “I played with three broken ribs in that Stanley Cup final. From a health standpoint and a play standpoint, it was the right move.’’
Classy, as always, but it sure hurt at the time. Especially when you consider how well Poulin had played in Rendez-Vous ’87 about six months earlier when he was matched up against the KLM line in those two games in Quebec City.
And well, there’s the fact Poulin was Keenan’s captain in Philadelphia.
“I wasn’t easy. It was very, very difficult,” Keenan said. “He was the last cut. And I did keep a number of the Flyers. But Poulie played centre and look at how deep we were at centre. Dougie Gilmour ended up playing left wing on that team. That was tough. Because I had to have Poulie come back and support me in the fall. Which he did. He took it like a real pro.’’
First team meeting
Keenan wanted to set the tone early and did so in their first team meeting.
“I assembled the group. I said to them, ‘Guys, how many minutes in a hockey game?’ They looked at me like I was cuckoo,’’ Keenan said.
Larry Murphy, according to Keenan, responded: “Everybody knows it’s 60 minutes.’’
“I said, there’s six of you on the ice so it’s 360 minutes that you share if we’re penalty-free.’’
Take out the goalie, Keenan continued, that’s 300 minutes for the remaining skaters.
“Then I said, ‘Wayne usually plays 27 minutes a game, do you guys mind if I give him 25 minutes?’ Everyone said of course not,’’ Keenan said.
“And Mario and Mark and so on, the answer was ‘of course not.’ I kept going, ‘What about these great defensemen like Paul Coffey and Ray Bourque, do you mind if I give them each 25 minutes a game, they won’t get 30 minutes, but how about 25?’
“So I’m doing the math and I keep going. Now it’s Dale Hawerchuk. He had like 140 points in Winnipeg. I got him down to 15 minutes. And kept going down the lineup.’’
Until, Keenan says, Rick Tocchet got up in the room.
“Tocchet says, ‘There’s only five minutes left of ice time, do you mind if I have it?’’’ Keenan recalled. “I said, ‘Tock, only if it’s penalty-free. So stay out of the box you guys or else Tock won’t get on the ice.’’
Keenan chuckles at the memory of it all.
“But right away, everyone understood they wouldn’t be getting their normal ice time. That’s how I approached them on the first day. They’re bright guys. They figured it out.’’
Said Hawerchuk: “Yeah, I do remember him doing that. Mike did a good job. He was involved when he needed to be, and he backed off when he needed to as well.
“Sometimes Mess would give him that look, ‘Not now, Mike.’’’
“Mike was awesome,” Coffey added. “Once he figured out he was the boss and that the likes of Wayne and Mess would respect him, he was great.’’
Soviets take Game 1 at the Forum
Let’s jump past the round-robin and get to the championship final.
Alexander Semak’s overtime goal 5:33 into the first extra period gave the Soviets a 6-5 win in the final opener and they were full value for it.
The Soviets were euphoric. Funny thing is, they weren’t used to playing series. When you think of Olympics and world championships, this was a team used to one-game knockouts.
But the Canada Cup final was a best-of-three series.
“We didn’t really have much experience with that,” Larionov said. “But we won the first game. We’re one win game away from winning the Canada Cup.’’
They could taste it.
Team Canada? You could hear a pin drop on the flight from Montreal to Hamilton.
“I remember getting on the team bus and Mike Keenan had allowed some of the guys who had moms and dads there to hop on the team plane, and I remember on the bus ride to the airport my dad told me it was my fault that we lost and that my shift was too long and that was why they scored (the tying goal in the third period),” a laughing Gretzky recalled a few weeks ago with myself and Scott Burnside on our “Two-Man Advantage” podcast.
“And I remember thinking, well, the whole country’s upset right now. I don’t need you telling me how bad I was.’’
It was no joke, though. Team Canada was feeling the heat. There was no room for error.
“That goes back to talking to Mike Keenan at the bar in July,” Coffey said. “I said, ‘Mike, we know what’s at stake. It doesn’t matter what we did with the Edmonton Oilers in winning the Stanley Cup. We’re representing our freakin’ country.’ And I do remember that plane ride (after Game 1) being deathly quiet. But there was also an air of confidence.
“We’re probably not having this story if we lose the next game.’’
Canada rebounds in Game 2 thriller
A lot of people who covered this series believe the Game 2, 6-5 overtime win by Canada at Copps Coliseum, was the best game in the series for pure entertainment.
The shifty Valeri Kamensky tied it at 5-5 late in the third period for the Soviets, before Gretzky to Lemieux ended it in double overtime.
Gretzky may have played the greatest game of his career, putting up five assists. But of course, he mentioned almost everyone but himself.
“Game 2 was one of those games that was so remarkable because Mario was so good, Paul Coffey was just a machine that night,’’ Gretzky said. “Guys like Doug Gilmour and Rick Tocchet and Dale Hawerchuk and, of course, Mark Messier were so good. Guys were so determined. But we didn’t have 20 guys that played as much as the Russian team. They were four lines and three sets of defense and (Slava) Fetisov was at his best and the KLM line was so good. But we knew the one thing that we had over them was that our goalie was going to make the big save at the key time and that’s what happened in the series. Grant Fuhr just, when it was 5-5, shut the door. We’d seen it so many times.’’
For the Soviets, an opportunity lost.
“I remember we had a glorious chance in overtime in Game 2,” Larionov said. “Grant Fuhr was making spectacular saves. We were close to closing the page and bringing that Canada Cup back to Russia.’’
What’s evident is how Team Canada fed off of the raucous crowd in Hamilton.
“I remember thinking going to Game 2, ‘Gosh wouldn’t this have been really nice if we were playing in Maple Leaf Gardens.’ Because I loved Maple Leaf Gardens, it was my favourite arena,” Gretzky said. “To me it was the hockey church of the world, right? And after the first shift of Game 2 in Hamilton at Copps Coliseum, I remember thinking ‘Wow, this is the loudest arena I’ve ever been in.’ And the emotion just picked up and picked up and got stronger and bigger. The players, you could just feel it, the players started to rally around it.’’
Early shocker in Game 3
“We were down 3-0 before anyone got into their seats,” Coffey said.
Indeed, just eight minutes into Game 3, Canada was facing a three-goal deficit.
And at this point, Keenan is muttering to himself.
“Honest to God, I remember talking to myself on the bench saying, ‘Mike, you better figure out something really quickly, because if you don’t win this game, you’re going to walk directly to the parking lot, get in your vehicle, drive to the cottage, get in your boat, drive to the island and never be heard from again,’’ Keenan said while laughing.
Two things to remember here:
First, Keenan resisted the urge to pull Fuhr.
“Credit to Mike again. He was known for pulling goalies all the time, but he kept Fuhrsy in there,” Coffey said. “Because Grant was the type of guy that Mike knew, that (being down 3-0 early) wouldn’t rattle Grant. And Fuhrsy went the last 50 minutes or whatever only letting in two goals. Nothing flustered him. But again, good for Keenan for letting him stay in there.’’
Second, despite being down 3-0, Keenan decided to give his top players a bit of a rest and played his bottom-six guys for several shifts, who in turn gave Canada a spark.
“Wayne turned to me and said, ‘Mike, I need a breather. Just give me a few minutes here just to sit,’’’ Keenan said.
“We were really tired. Messier, myself, Mario — we had played so much hockey in Games 1 and 2,’’ Gretzky said. “Mike kind of sat us down eight minutes into the first period down 3-0. And I remember sitting there for a little bit, maybe four to five minutes, which is a lot in Mike Keenan’s eyes. But Propp, Tocchet, Gilmour, those guys rose to the occasion, got us back in the game and all of a sudden it was 3-3.’’
Tocchet and Propp each scored before the end of the first period. The game was back on.
“I put out our grinders. Again Tikhonov looked over and at me and was wondering what was going on,” Keenan said.
“It took the pressure off the big guys a little bit, and of course, the big guys finished it off.’’
‘No, you take it’
With less than two minutes left in the third period of Game 3, tied at 5-5, there is a faceoff in Canada’s zone to the left of Fuhr.
Keenan sends Lemieux, Gretzky and Hawerchuk over the boards at what is now a deafening Copps Coliseum.
“So I’ve got Gretzky and Lemieux, two centremen,’’ Hawerchuk recalled. “I go ‘Gretz, you want to take the draw?’ He says, ‘Not a chance.’ And he kind of chuckles.’’
Hawerchuk said that Lemieux then tells him it’s his wrong side for the faceoff since he’s a right shot.
“I guess I’m taking it,’’ Hawerchuk said.
Lemieux confirmed the tale. No. 66 and No. 99 each passed on taking what ended up being one of Canada’s most famous won faceoffs ever.
“Yeah. But it worked out good,’’ chuckled Lemieux.
“I said to Mario before I took the faceoff, ‘Look, I’m going to tie him up,’’ Hawerchuk said. “Which means for the inside winger to come in and pick up the puck. And he did a hell of a job of that.’’
Lemieux, with his long reach, poked the puck along the wall past a pinching Igor Kravchuk at the point.
“Igor Kravchuk, who later played for me in Chicago, he made an untimely pinch,” Keenan said. “But it was also because of Mario’s great reach that he was able to tip it by him.’’
Added Hawerchuk: “I played with Kravy (in St. Louis), he said to me, ‘That was the worst pinch in my life. Tikhonov let me know for quite a long time.’’’
Lemieux called it the “perfect play.’’
“Maybe a little interference from Hawerchuck at the end where he hooked (Viacheslav) Bykov, to let me go in and score the goal,’’ Lemieux said.
Yes, that did seem like interference from Hawerchuck on Bykov in the neutral zone, which kept it a 3-on-1 break for Team Canada.
“Yeah, people make a lot of that,’’ Hawerchuck said of the interference play. “If you watch that game, there was so much hooking and holding. And he spun around kind of like a dive.’’
(Great to hear from Hawerchuk this week, by the way. What a year it’s been for the Hockey Hall of Famer who was diagnosed with stomach cancer last summer, had surgery and then chemotherapy over the past several months. But now he’s out of the hospital and he’s eating food. “I’m getting my strength back here,’’ he said. All our best to Dale.)
‘He shoots, he scores. Mario Lemieux with 1:26 remaining’
The legendary voice of the late Dan Kelly still resonates.
And there’s was zero doubt Lemieux wasn’t shooting after getting the drop pass from Gretzky despite Super Mario having a wide-open Larry Murphy on his right.
“I knew that the puck was coming back to me. Wayne had it,” Lemieux told me. “And actually, I didn’t see Murph until the end because I was focusing on Gretz and the defenceman and the goalie at the same time. Our scouting report was to go top shelf on the glove side. I had made up my mind that if I got the puck, that’s where I was going.
“I got a pretty good shot off and it hit the top corner and went in. It was an amazing feeling,’’ Lemieux said.
Coffey had the best view in the house, trailing the play when Lemieux rifled it home.
“I said to Mario and I only said it to him once, ‘Mario, when Wayne gave you that puck and Murph was wide-open, had that have been me, would you have moved it?’ He looked me right in the eye and said, ‘We’ll never know,’’’ a laughing Coffey said.
Well, that is a good question, how did Murphy end up on that 3-on-1 instead of Coffey?
“We always kid Coff, ‘How did Murphy beat you up the ice?’’ laughed Hawerchuk. “That was the only time in the whole series.’’
Come on, Coffey says.
“I love Murph to death, great hockey player. He couldn’t beat me up the ice on my worst day,’’ Coffey said while chucking. “But Murph was such a smart player, he would anticipate. I was on the boards, I came in from behind to protect the D zone after the faceoff – imagine me doing that – so Murph took off. Which made Larry special all those years, the way he could anticipate.’’
Another thing to remember, Coffey said, look at the players Keenan deployed for that game-winning shift.
“You look at that last faceoff on the winning goal, this is Keenan again: Gretzky, Hawerchuk, Lemieux, Coffey, Murphy,” Coffey said. “In today’s game, when are you going to put Coffee and Murphy on the point and the faceoff in your zone. Mike was like, ‘We’ll get the puck and we’ll go score a goal.’’’
Yup.
“We were going to play to win,” Keenan said. “I had a lot of history with Dale, I coached him in Oshawa (Jr.
, and he was winning every faceoff. So I put him out, and of course the two big guns. We were playing to win. I wasn’t going to put out a defensive strategy at that point. I had confidence in them.’’
The real winners
Looking back, the real winners in that ’87 Canada Cup were the sport and the fans.
“It wasn’t about who wins, it’s about hockey itself,” Larionov said. “The level of hockey. We sent a message across the world, that was the propaganda: good hockey.’’
Added Coffey: “Igor is bang on, the fans won.’’
It’s a series that impacted the game forever.
“That series really changed hockey,’’ Hawerchuk said. “When I came back to training camp (in Winnipeg), every guy on our team came up and said, ‘Man, that was the best hockey I’ve ever seen. You guys changed the game.’’’
I'm dying to hear some red ass tear into the refs - Sidney Crosby comes to mind. He takes a penalty or a non call in a big spot. The F bombs will be flying.
10/31/09- Philly
5/21/10- NYC
9/2/12- Philly, PA
7/19/13- Wrigley
10/19/13- Brooklyn, NY
10/21/13- Philly, PA
10/22/13- Philly, PA
10/27/13- Baltimore, MD
4/28/16- Philly, PA
4/29/16- Philly, PA
5/1/16- NYC
5/2/16- NYC
9/2/18- Boston, MA
9/4/18- Boston, MA
9/14/22- Camden, NJ
9/7/24- Philly, PA
9/9/24- Philly, PA
Eddie Vedder- 6/25/11- Philly, PA
RNDM- 3/9/16- Philly, PA
can not understand why no US cities...
10/31/09- Philly
5/21/10- NYC
9/2/12- Philly, PA
7/19/13- Wrigley
10/19/13- Brooklyn, NY
10/21/13- Philly, PA
10/22/13- Philly, PA
10/27/13- Baltimore, MD
4/28/16- Philly, PA
4/29/16- Philly, PA
5/1/16- NYC
5/2/16- NYC
9/2/18- Boston, MA
9/4/18- Boston, MA
9/14/22- Camden, NJ
9/7/24- Philly, PA
9/9/24- Philly, PA
Eddie Vedder- 6/25/11- Philly, PA
RNDM- 3/9/16- Philly, PA