Todd Denault - A Season in Time: Super Mario, Killer, St. Patrick, the Great One, and the Unforgettable 1992-93 NHL Season

Copyright 2012 by Todd Denault

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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data

Denault, Todd

A season in time : Super Mario, Killer, St. Patrick, the Great One, and the unforgettable 1992-93 NHLseason / Todd Denault.

Includes index.

Issued also in electronic formats.

ISBN 978-11-18118-33-7

1. National Hockey LeagueBiography. 2. Hockey playersBiography. 3. Hockey teams. 4. Lemieux, Mario, 1965-. 5. Gretzky, Wayne, 1961-. 6. Roy, Patrick, 1965-. 7. Gilmour, Doug, 1963-. I. Title.

GV847.8.N3D45 2012 796.962'6409049 C2012-903160-7

ISBN 978111814578-4 (eBk); 978111814579-1 (eBk); L978111814580-7 (eBk)

Production Credits

Cover design: Adrian So

Cover photo credits:

Top photo: Patrick Roy: Doug MacLellan/Hockey Hall of Fame

Bottom left photo: Mario Lemieux: Doug MacLellan/Hockey Hall of Fame

Bottom middle photo: Doug Gilmour: Hockey Hall of Fame

Bottom right photo: Wayne Gretzky: Paul Bereswill Photography/Hockey Hall of Fame

Interior text design: Thomson Digital

John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd.

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www.wiley.com

To the memory of Brian Wallace, a man whose spirit, kindness and generosity live on today in the hearts of all of those fortunate enough to have known him.

Preface

I was eighteen years old and in my last few days of high school when the Montreal Canadiens and the Los Angeles Kings faced off in the 1993 Stanley Cup final. And while all of us seniors were looking forward to graduation and beyond, most of the talk, at least among the male students, revolved around all things hockey. In a world before mobile devices, social networks, and cell phones, we did all of our talking in person, and every day groups of us would gather in the hallways, the cafeteria, in front of our lockers, and in between classes to chat about the sport that had long played such a vital role in our lives.

For those of us growing up in small-town Canada, hockey represented a significant part of our earliest and fondest memories. We played it and we watched it religiously. Like those of most in my age bracket, many of my youthful memories are intertwined with the greatest hockey moments of the 1980s: Gretzky and Lemieux, the Canada Cups, the dynasty Islanders, a rookie named Roy, 10-8 games, a Savardian spinnerama, Wendel, the dynasty Oilers, Hextall, the Battle of Quebec, the whiteout in Winnipeg, Stevie Y, Lanny, the lights going out in Boston Garden, Mess, the drive for five, Pelle, the Battle of Alberta, the Monday Night Miracle, Grapes, Roger and the white towel, the Trade, Hawerchuk, the Easter Epic, Iron Mike, doughnuts and yellow shirted referees, O-Pee-Chee, enforcers and fight tapes, Bourque and Coffey, the Miracle on Manchester, Slats, the Golden Brett, the Good Friday Massacre, the Stastny's, the Hunter's, and the Sutter's.

We had no way of knowing it at the time, but to grow up in the 1980s was to witness hockey at its most thrilling. The sport was exciting. The play was freewheeling. Skill, finesse, and offense ruled the day. In retrospect, the 1992/93 NHL season would be the final act of that glorious era.

What made the 1992/93 NHL season and the ensuing playoffs so special then, and still so memorable now, was the pure drama that played out on the ice and on our television screens every night. And what made that particular year stand out from others was the fact that the story being told wasn't singular. The sheer number of gripping stories that played out over the course of the year was phenomenal.

Consider this:

The sport's two greatest players, Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky, were both forced that season to confront the potential end of their playing days. Not only did both men overcome the odds quicker than anyone expected, but each went on to write another remarkable chapter in their already legendary careers.

It was also a year when hockey's two most storied franchisesthe Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafscame within a single goal of meeting one another in the Stanley Cup final, and on the prized trophy's one hundredth anniversary to boot. And while that dream encounter didn't come to pass, for two precious, extraordinary months in the spring of 1993, both the Canadiens and the Leafs took turns captivating the country, whether it was Toronto's unforgettable string of twenty-one games in forty-one nights or Montreal's remarkable run of ten straight overtime wins.

It was a season of larger-than-life characters, particularly behind the bench: Pat Burns, the gruff and charismatic ex-cop; Barry Melrose, the new-age positive thinker; and Jacques Demers, the lifelong coach whose every decision suddenly turned up roses. Each of them unexpectedly led their teams to the most unlikely successes in the most surprising of all playoff springs.

And there were superstars aplenty.

Eric Lindros, the teenager hailed as hockey's next great talent, made his long-awaited NHL debut, only to be overshadowed by Finnish rookie Teemu Selanne. Emerging stars such as Pat Lafontaine, Adam Oates, Pierre Turgeon, and Luc Robitaille electrified fans by lighting up score sheets league wide. They were joined by a wave of dynamic stars from Europe, including Pavel Bure, Alexander Mogilny, Jaromir Jagr, and Mats Sundin, who shone alongside the superstars from the decade before, like Mark Messier, Ray Bourque, Paul Coffey, and Steve Yzerman. And then, once the playoffs began, yet another set of players led by Patrick Roy, Doug Gilmour, and Curtis Joseph established themselves as heroes of the spring.

And speaking of playoffs, no other spring featured more controversial or memorable moments: the missed high-stick call in the Toronto/Los Angeles series; Marty McSorley's illegal curve; Dale Hunter's record suspension. Nor has any playoff run included more overtimes or more upsets, none greater than the biggest playoff stunner in modern NHL playoff history.

The 1992/93 NHL season had it all: individual and team performances for the ages, the resurrection of once-proud teams and the birth of new franchises, mind-numbing playoff upsets, unforgettable moments, record-breaking achievements, and ultimately a stack of memories to last a lifetime.

It would never be quite the same after that. On a personal level, I left my high school days and my hometown behind that fall and traveled to Carleton University to begin the next stage of my life. I remember going back to my old high school a couple of months later, but it wasn't the same. Sure, there were still people there who I knew, and the building hadn't changed, but the feeling definitely wasn't the same. The world I had left behind wasn't there waiting for me when I came back; like me, it had moved on.

The NHL was never quite the same either, as the league both on and off the ice went through of a mountain of change, much of which had its roots in the 1992/93 season. The dual appointments of Bruce McNall as the new chairman of the NHL's board of governors and Gary Bettman as the league's first commissioner signaled the beginning of a new era. The coming years would bring rapid expansion, franchise relocations, a precipitous escalation in salaries, new arenas, player strikes, and owner lockouts. On the ice, scoring would plummet as the NHL entered the dead puck era. Never again would we see scoring like we did in 1992/93, as offensive creativity was stifled by new defensive schemes based on clutching, grabbing, and holding that all fell under the umbrella of a word we never had heard beforeobstruction.