SI Flashback: Stanley Cup 1989

Al MacInnis and his sizzling slap shot led the Calgary Flames to victory over the Canadiens and to their first Stanley Cup

By Austin Murphy

Proud Habs quiet Now it's the Habs that look suspect. They have won just one Cup in the last ten years, and an inspection of their roster suggests that they could use a Rembrandt or two to supplement a generous supply of housepainters. The forwards on whom they rely to score disappeared in the Stanley Cup finals: Shayne Corson, Mike McPhee, Stephane Richer and Mats Naslund struck for 103 goals during the regular season but could muster only three against Calgary. A Star is born [Ed. Note: Excerpts follow from SI's coverage of the Stanley Cup quarterfinals -- where a star, then-19-year-old rookie Blackhawk Jeremy Roenick, was born.] Played in the tropical humidity of a glorified barn called the St. Louis Arena, the game turned on a second-period spat between Roenick and Blues defenseman Glen Featherstone. With St. Louis leading 1-0, the two exchanged unpleasantries and shoves. The quick-tempered Featherstone then jammed the shaft of his stick into Roenick's mouth, inducing a condition known in hockey as "bloody Chiclets." "Your first instinct is to spit (teeth fragments) out," said Roenick, "but I kept them on my tongue so I could show them to (referee) Kerry Fraser." Roenick's instincts proved correct. Fraser was moved by the exhibit of enamel and assessed Featherstone a five-minute penalty for cross-checking. Roenick drew a two-minute minor. With the teams skating four on four, the speedier Hawks scored twice in an eight-second span to go ahead 2-1. Roenick came out of the box and, 1 1/2 minutes later, scored on the power play. Hey, who needs novocaine? -- Austin Murphy Issue date: May 8, 1989 A Great Oilers' loss [Ed. Note: Excerpts follow from SI's coverage of the Smythe Division semifinals -- where Wayne Gretzky showed that the Great One could play in L.A.] Winning a playoff series without Gretzky in itself presented a difficult task for the Oilers; winning one against him -- even after sitting on a fat three-games-to-one lead in their Smythe Division semifinal series -- proved not to be in the cards. "I told our guys once we went up three-one, 'Don't start thinking that it's over,'" said a grim Glen Sather, Edmonton's general manager and coach, after the Oilers were eliminated 6-3 in Saturday's Game 7. "You got a player like Wayne on a club, that club is not going to fold." Shockingly, it was the Oilers who folded, after skating to that supposedly daunting lead, a choke of such colossal proportions that it has been duplicated only five times in NHL history. In victory, Gretzky, who assisted on the game-winner and scored two other goals in the clincher -- one of them just 52 seconds into the game -- was the picture of graciousness and conciliation. "No one takes losing worse than Mark Messier and Kevin Lowe," he said of his close friends and former Edmonton teammates. "Long after hockey's done and over with, Kevin and Mark and I will still be buddies." Gretzky's guard slipped just once, at a mention of Oiler owner Peter Pocklington, with whom he has feuded since Pocklington dealt him to the Kings. "He said after Game 3 that the people of Edmonton had told him the trade was a good trade," said Gretzky. "We'll see what they say tomorrow." -- Austin Murphy Issue date: April 24, 1989

It is always tempting to tease Calgary Flame fans. Their prolonged, contented silences often seem to transform the Saddledome into a kind of cavernous library. And by springtime, those all-red ensembles are definitely out-of-season.

Sedate and sartorially misguided though they may be, let it never be said that followers of the team -- who, by beating the Montreal Canadiens 4-2 last Thursday, won the Stanley Cup four games to two -- are disloyal or ungrateful. This much they proved on Saturday when 45,000 loyalists lined the streets of downtown Calgary in near-freezing temperatures and driving rain for a parade to salute their shivering heroes ... The Cup finals came in defiance of two tired bits of conventional hockey wisdom. The first states that the Canadiens couldn't lose a Stanley Cup in the Forum, their sanctum sanctorum. Seven times the Habs had been in a position to lose the Cup on home ice. Their record in such games: 7-0. The ghosts of Hall of Famers past -- Morenz, Beliveau, Richard, et al. -- would not stand for a defeat.

But Calgary won anyway and, in doing so, debunked the second axiom: The Flames couldn't win because their roster was top-heavy with strong, silent types. Calgary had no take-charge players, the kind who punch walls, upend trash cans and otherwise rally the troops in times of trouble. When the going got tough, the Flames' collars shrunk.

"Until we won the Cup, the perception was, leave 'em alone and they'll find some way to screw it up," said Calgary assistant general manager Al MacNeil. Sure enough, in Game 3 the Flames blew a 3-2 lead with 41 seconds to play, then lost in double overtime. Montreal was up two games to one, and the Forum ghost stories gained credence.

Instead of wallowing in doubt, the Flames got angry. "We knew we had outplayed them," says Al MacInnis . What had begun as an evenly matched series became one-sided. While Montreal's snipers played ineffectually -- the Canadiens power play was 4 for 33 in the series -- four of the Flames stepped up and played the best hockey of their lives. Linemates Joey Mullen and Doug Gilmour had nine points in the final three games; bone-compacting center Joel Otto dominated a 3-2 Flame win in Game 5 with a breakaway goal and an assist; and goalie Mike Vernon played well enough to finish a close second to MacInnis in the Conn Smythe voting.

Unsolicited, Vernon told a reporter that MacInnis "was ready for the role of a captaincy." Which is well and good, because current cocaptains Jim Peplinski and Lanny McDonald were both scratched at different times in the finals, McDonald for Games 3, 4 and 5 and Peplinski for Game 6.

In addition to quarterbacking the Flame power play, he had four goals and five assists in the series. Two of the goals were game-winners. Not surprisingly, he was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy, which goes to the playoff MVP.

MacInnis also helped save the Stanley Cup finals from becoming a plodding affair. In a series that both coaches seemed intent on turning into a checkfest -- long on backchecking, short on razzle-dazzle -- MacInnis and his trusty slap shot provided most of the offensive thrills.

Sometimes the MacInnis slapper found the back of the net. Sometimes Habs goalie Patrick Roy got a piece of the puck but could not control the rebound and gave up a goal anyway. And sometimes the puck merely hit the endboards with a sharp report, eliciting an "ooooh!" from the crowd.

Left alone on his perch on the point with 29 seconds left in the first period, he unleashed a rising fastball of a slapper that was straining the twine behind Roy before the goalie could so much as twitch. It was the Flames' third goal of the evening and it turned out to be the winner.

"I did not react," said Roy, "because I could not react."

Issue date: June 5, 1989