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”What If…?” #19: Gretzky Had Been Called For The High Stick?”
It was May 27, 1993. The Toronto Maple Leafs, tied 4-4 with the LA Kings in overtime of Game 6 of the Campbell Conference finals, were on the verge of doing something they hadn't done in 26 years: going to the Stanley Cup Finals. How could this be any more exciting? How about the fact that their arch rivals the Montreal Canadiens would be their opponents, having already earned a spot in the finals? Leafs fans were chomping at the bit...
A bit of background is needed. The 92-93 season was a great one for Leafs fans. Having made it through the truly horrid Ballard years things were finally starting to look up. In January of 1992, GM Cliff Fletcher completed a monster deal with Calgary that saw the Leafs landing, among others, soon to be Toronto hero Doug Gilmour as well as solid defenseman Jamie Macoun, while in March of '93 Dave Andreychuk was obtained from Buffalo, with both moves providing increased scoring punch and more freedom on the part of captain Wendel Clark to play without the brunt of the team on his shoulders. The numbers say it all: a) Andreychuk: 25 goals, 13 assists in 31 games; and b) Doug Gilmour: 32 goals, 95 assists and a +32 in 83 games, setting team records along the way for most points in a season, most points by a centre in a season, most assists in a season and most assists in one game (6).
But Dave and Dougie weren't it. A 21 year old Felix Potvin played his first full season in the NHL and posted a very impressive 25-15-7 record, a GAA of 2.50, 2 shutouts, and a .910 SV%, while Leafs rookie Nik Borschevsky racking up 34 goals and 40 assists, leading the team in the former category. Throw in a solid defensive core with the likes of Ellett, Gill, Macoun and Mironov, as well as the blue-collar, lunch pail attitude engrained by head coach Pat Burns and you had a hard working and exciting team to watch! Still, fans had tempered expectations for what the club would achieve heading into the playoffs, for to get too excited about the potential of a Leafs club following the letdowns of the Ballard years would be setting oneself up for disappointment. It was exactly these lowered expectations that made the run to follow so much more special for those of us who watched it...
Round One and Toronto draws the Detroit Red Wings, a team that lead the league in regular season even strength (369) and power-play goals (113), in addition to having five players at, or above, 30-goals. With a rookie goaltender in net and significantly less scoring power, the Leafs were not favored. The series certainly lived up to this billing in the first two games, defeating the Leafs by 6-3 and 6-2 margins. Then it began...
Toronto 4, Detroit 2. Well, you play someone you should beat 100 times you could lose a handful, right? Chalk it up to a fluke! Until...Leafs 3, Detroit 2. Oooookay, what's going on here? Detroit HAS to come storming back now! And they fight it out into OT with...Detroit 4!!!!!....Toronto...5!!! Oh boy. Leafs up 3-2 in the series, and now Detroit has to come back, and do they ever with a 7-3 ass whooping. Down to game 7, do or die, and we go to OT tied at 3-3. Leafs fans are telling themselves they'd still be happy even if they lost, that the team still went farther than expected. Then it happened...
With that the big smoke exploded! Maybe this team could make some noise after all! Bring on St. Louis!
Now, no knock against this Blues team, but the series was essentially Toronto vs. Cujo with them heavily outshooting the Blues throughout the series. In a testament to Joseph, however, the series went to 7 games, starting with back to back double OT games. Yes, the Leafs did continue their journey of destiny by winning the series with a convincing 6-0 win in game 7, but undoubtedly this series is remembered most for the following two plays:
Legends were made of Gilmour and Clark among the Leafs faithful on both those plays, while fans of the past and present stood in awe of the unthinkable prior to these playoffs: they were going to the conference finals!
Cue the LA Kings. It had been four years since the arrival of the Great One in La-La land and he had helped to deliver on what he was brought in to do: give this team a shot at a cup! They upset a favored Calgary team in the first round in a high scoring 6 game series, moving on to dispatch Vancouver in 6 games as well. Should it have been all that surprising though? In addition to Gretzky the Kings had a young studs in Luc Robitaille, Rob Blake, Darryl Sydor and Alexei Zhitnik, Gretzky beneficiary Jari Kurri, chippy scoring in Tony Granato & Tomas Sandstrom, veteran D in Paul Coffey and Charlie Huddy, and solid goaltending from Kelly Hrudey, never mind the pedigree of Cups won via the breadth of ex-Oilers in the lineup. Again, the Leafs appeared to be outmatched on paper, providing yet another occasion to rise to for the resurgent Leafs.
The tone was certainly set during Game One…
Leafs up one game to none to start. Fast forward four games and we have the makings of a familiar sight for the Leafs with them up three games to two on the Kings: can they close it out in six or do they have to hit yet another seventh game? And wouldn’t you know it, in this pivotal game the teams are tied 4-4 and heading to OT…
Now let me fast forward to June of 1999 for this:
Out of context? Let me explain. During the 1998-99 season the league’s big flag to wave was crease crackdowns, specifically that a player could not be in the crease before the puck on a goal or it would be called off. This rule resulted in a huge number of goals being waved off during the season, often unnecessarily (i.e., the player in the crease was not interfering with the goalie) as well as in situations where there would have been little repercussion had it not been called off. It disrupted the flow of play and caused a lot of play stoppages that as a fan were such a pain to sit through. That being said, it was the rule and it was called. Until the play on which the Stanley Cup goal was scored when Hull’s skate was in the crease. Now I’m not here to argue the rights or wrongs of this particular situation. Just to point out that the entire season it was called a certain way and on the goal it was not.
Rewind back to 1993. During the 1992-93 season the NHL’s flag to wave happened to be high sticks. The modus operandi of the league that season was that any high stick was to be called, intentional, careless or accidental. This was consistent throughout the season. Now where did we leave off? Oh yeah! Game 6 in OT with the Leafs and Kings tied 4-4…
Oy vey! What a non-call! Not only is the penalty not called, but to rub salt in the wound Gretzky scores the winner to take it to Game 7 which the Leafs ultimately lose 5-4 at home with Gretzky scoring a hat trick in the winning effort.
No third consecutive Game 7. No finals. No Habs-Leafs Stanley Cup. And to this day people continue to ask themselves:
What if Gretzky had been called for the high stick?
Maybe LA still wins for all I know! But what if the Leafs had won it? They go to the finals to face the best goaltending performance perhaps EVER in Stanley Cup history. Roy was huge that playoffs. The Habs were on fire. Eleven straight OT wins in the playoffs? Craziness! Nevermind that Toronto would be coming off three consecutive 7-games series going in. But even if they didn’t have a chance, imagine the vibe around a Toronto-Montreal finals!!! Pure awesomeness…
It’s in your hands now folks! Would love to hear your thoughts and hypotheses as usual! Cheers!
PS: I’m not one for shameless self-promotion but a buddy of mine and I run a hockey collectibles site called HockeyDen (www.hockeyden.net) and are currently in the run for nominations for Upper Deck’s Social Media Awards. We need as much support as possible on this so if you’re into the collectibles thing check out the site and if you enjoy it and would like to add a nomination for us drop by www.facebook.com/UpperDeck and do so. We’d really appreciate any support from anyone who feels we would deserve it! Thanks all!
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