Wayne Gretzky stands alongside his teamates as he prepares hoist the Stanley Cup in Edmonton in 1985.Bill Grimshaw/The Canadian Press
Wistful Oilers fans gathered outside a recreation centre in Edmonton on Sunday, clutching photographs and a replica of the Stanley Cup as they shivered in the –30 C cold.
Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and Glen Sather were inside, and so, too, was Grant Fuhr and so many other heroes from the 1984-85 team chosen to be the greatest in the NHL's 100 years.
It was hours before a sell-out crowd filled Rogers Place for a centennial tribute to hockey eminence. For a little while last night, the reality of this winter of discontent would be overshadowed by joyful reminiscence.
With 28 games to play, the Oilers are teetering on elimination from the playoffs. They have struggled badly after coming within one victory of reaching the conference finals last May. Time hasn't run out yet, but sand is piling up inside their hourglass. The Oilers were out of town on Saturday night and play the Panthers at home on Monday night.
One of the most beloved of the vintage Oilers was missing from Sunday night's festivities, but Dave Semenko was not forgotten. Former teammates stood with family members as a canvas was revealed of the towering tough guy at the front of a gym earlier in the day. He died last summer from cancer at the age of 59, but an initiative to raise money for hockey equipment for needy youths has been started in his name.
"When people met him, they realized he was the opposite of what they thought," Gretzky said. "He was a big puppy."
CHOSEN IN A VOTE
The Great One and his Hall of Fame sidekick, Messier, presided over the two-hour-plus shindig later that drew a large crowd at Rogers Place. Tickets cost $85 and there was such a demand for them that they were distributed by random draw. Proceeds benefited the new Semenko Legacy Project.
At the start of the program, the house lights went out, and then former CBC anchor Peter Mansbridge walked onto a stage on the arena floor and began waxing about fans and their love for hockey.
The greatest team in the NHL's 100 years was chosen in a vote by fans during the 2017 playoffs. More than 3.6 million ballots were cast, with each Stanley Cup-winning team dating to 1917-18 eligible.
Three more Gretzky-led Edmonton contingents – the Oilers of 1983-84, 1986-87 and 1987-88 – finished in the top 10. The others selected were the 1976-77 and 1977-78 Montreal Canadiens, 1997-98 and 2001-02 Red Wings, 1982-83 Islanders and 1991-92 Penguins.
"Being chosen as the best team is a great honour, but it was one of those things you can debate for hours," Gretzky said. "There were so many great teams to pick from."
In 1985, the Oilers won their fourth consecutive Smythe Division Championship and the Stanley Cup for the second successive time. They went unbeaten through the first nine games of the playoffs, outscored the Blackhawks 18-5 in the first two games of the conference finals, and went 15-3 during the postseason. Gretzky scored 208 points in the regular season, a league-record 47 during the Stanley Cup, and won the most valuable player award in a landslide. Only three other players – Dale Hawerhuk, Rod Langway and Brian Sutter – received first-place votes. No. 99 had 60.
A 'HUMBLING HONOUR'
"It was fun for all of us," Sather, the team's Hall of Fame coach, said. "These guys turned out to be the best team in the century. We believed it from the very beginning."
On Saturday, a number of the Oilers' faithful followers had waited outside a downtown hotel hoping to get autographs from greying idols who were renewing their friendships and glory days. Later, the former players dined in the team's dressing room at Rogers Place.
"Hoisting the Cup [in 1985] was the most memorable moment of my career," said Mike Krushelnyski, a Montreal-born centre who was traded by Boston to Edmonton the preceding summer. "I think every player imagines winning the Stanley Cup 100 times while playing ball hockey and on frozen ponds, but that was my first chance to do it for real."
Jari Kurri was 20 in 1980 when he came to Edmonton from Finland. He scored 135 points on Gretzky's right wing in 1984-85, and had 19 goals in the playoffs. During his tenure, the Oilers won five Stanley Cups in seven years.
"It's hard for me to say which one of those teams was the single best, but it is humbling for fans to award us this honour," Kurri, who is now running a KHL team in Finland, said. "To be chosen the best in a history that goes back 100 years is unbelievable."
Mark Napier won a Stanley Cup with the Canadiens in 1979 and then a second in Edmonton in 1985 after he was traded midway through the season by the North Stars.
'LET'S FACE IT. WE HAD GRETZKY'
"To be a small part of what is considered the greatest team is an honour I will treasure for the rest of my life," said Napier, who is 61 and retired as president of the NHL Alumni Association in 2016 after 12 years.
Napier lives in Toronto and watches the Oilers on TV only occasionally now. He is puzzled by the way the current team has stumbled. The Oilers have given up the first goal in 34 of their 54 games this season. Opponents have scored on their first shot 10 times.
"They showed so much promise last year in the playoffs that I think everybody just figured it would carry on," Napier said. "I played on some young teams, and I think right now confidence might be a factor.
"You lose that edge a little bit and then it is a slippery slope."
Krushelnyski pointed out that those Oilers teams that are now so venerated lost in the playoffs three times before they won their first Stanley Cup. The current team is not in that territory yet, but he used it as a comparison anyway.
"There is a learning process," he said. "There is no booklet to read."
Then he paused.
"Let's face it. We had Gretzky."
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Reuters