Connor McDavid’s Edmonton Oilers winning the Stanley Cup seems inevitable.
For Oilers fans of a certain age, that feeling of inevitability after the 2024 playoffs brought back a flood of memories.
After the 1983 Stanley Cup Final, fans expressed a mixture of disappointment, hope and a strong belief that the Cup would soon come to western Canada.
One year later, Stanley visited Edmonton for the first time.
The population of Edmonton has doubled since that first championship in 1984, and those five Cup victories in seven seasons fuelled a generation (and their children) who want to see another.
To say fans are at a fever-pitch level of anticipation is an understatement.
To those who remember the 1983-84 season, there are several commonalities between then and now.
Critics
The June 1, 1983 edition of “The Hockey News” featured a searing editorial piece from Stan Fischler. The famous article tore a strip off coach-GM Glen Sather (“as long as Sather runs the Oilers, they can be stopped”) and Edmonton’s best player Wayne Gretzky.
“Wayne Gretzky is Ted Williams—a winner, but not a champion,” wrote Fischler, about one year before Gretzky would win the first of four championships.
This year, the downbeat verbal surrounding the team is more sophisticated, specific and math-heavy.
All Oilers fans are familiar with the criticism of the club which finished just shy of its goal this season.
The roster needs a right-handed defenceman to pair with Darnell Nurse on the second unit, and whispers about Stuart Skinner’s ability to lead the team to the promised land remain (although not at the same level as the 2023 summer).
Those questions will hang in the air until this edition of the team wins it all.
Huddy
There was plenty of room to grow on that young team that lost the 1983 final to the New York Islanders.
Charlie Huddy was a key player for the team, but was so underrated in his draft season (1979) that he passed right through the draft. According to “The Hockey News,” Huddy reportedly chose the Oilers as an amateur free agent because the team had more older defencemen and Huddy (plus agent Gus Badali) thought it was the path of least resistance in making the NHL.
The “Huddy” for this year’s team has yet to pop, but Philip Broberg appears headed to a season on the right side. Huddy is one of the most famous members of the group of blue who shoot left but play the right side.
Broberg showed well with Nurse during the postseason, and a full audition should be in order.
Fans should not expect the Paul Coffey-Huddy brilliance of the 1980s, but a solid second pairing is all that is required for the current Oilers.
Defence
The Oilers were praised in 1983 for the fantastic offensive skills deployed but heavily criticized for not being able to keep the puck out of the net during big moments of important games.
It is much the same for the current edition of the team, but the addition of Coffey to the coaching staff during 2023-24 seems to have been a sea change for the organization’s structure.
This year’s team used the middle of the ice for outlet passing and used the available time and space more productively to make those passes count.
Coffey’s return was one of the key moments of summer in giving next season’s team the best chance to win.
Injuries
Injuries were an issue for the 1983 Oilers. The second line, an impact trio during the year, was not the same after Mark Messier suffered a shoulder injury. Ken Linseman and Glenn Anderson formed a fast train trio with Messier until the injury, and not having an elite second unit hurt the team.
The second line was severely hampered by Leon Draisaitl’s injury issues in the playoffs. The big man was at less than his best, although he delivered an impact performance (31 points in 25 games) despite the injuries.
There are many calls for the team to improve overall depth in an effort to run the elite talent less during the regular season. McDavid was No. 6 among all NHL forwards in time on ice (21:22), while Draisaitl was No. 15 at 20:42.
The Oilers added several NHL veteran forwards (and brought back deadline rental centre Adam Henrique) in what looks like an attempt to address this area.
The summer
The 1983 offseason was spent trying to upgrade the team (Philadelphia Flyers left winger Bill Barber was mentioned by “Edmonton Journal” writer-reporter Jim Matheson at least once during the summer) and there was plenty of chatter about the Oilers as a team not having gone through the experience of the pressure of a final.
The consensus from the media, Fischler aside, was that the Oilers would eventually win but there might be one more championship for the Islanders (to make it five in a row) for 1984.
This summer, the Oilers were incredibly active in signing and re-signing several potential free agents.
The 2024-25 edition of the team should be able to run both McDavid and Draisaitl with top-flight wingers and have enough left over to give Henrique a fighting chance on the third line.
The current Oilers have a far more experienced look than the 1983-84 club.
That’s both good and bad. Injuries may be a bigger factor this coming season, but there is little hint anywhere that the team will be overwhelmed with the moment should the team land in the Stanley Cup Final again.
What may come
The 1983-84 Oilers made two in-season moves that would have an incredible impact on the team’s Stanley Cup chances.
A December trade for big centre Kevin McClelland gave the team an extra physical presence and a player the team could build a checking line around.
The other major item surrounded Messier.
In his role as a tough left winger early in his career, Messier would play with several legendary trios.
In 1981-82 Messier and Anderson teamed with Finnish pivot Matti Hagman (the total goals scored by the members of the line was 85) and then in 1982-83 the Messier-Linseman-Anderson line scored 91.
In the 1983-84 regular season, Sather moved Messier to the middle, and the team was transformed immediately.
We don’t know what will happen during the 2024-25 season but it’s safe to say the team could use a modern McClelland and that could come to pass.
There are no Messiers in the entire NHL, so there’s no need to send out a search party.
There is another St. Albert local (Messier is from St. Albert, an Edmonton bedroom community) who could emerge during the season and have an impact.
Matt Savoie has great skill and the Oilers are an aged group on the wings.
As is the case with Nurse-Broberg expectations, Savoie’s ability to deliver will come in a different way than Messier’s move to centre.
Summary
Oilers fans don’t care at all about how the Stanley Cup is won, only that it happens.
In this way, modern Oilers fans are identical to the group who pondered overcoming the Islanders in the summer of 1983.
(Photo: Bob Frid / USA Today)
