Gretzky’s Oilers get nod over Mario’s Penguins
NHL legends have some thoughts on the 10 greatest teams as voted by fans
Wayne Gretzky has few regrets from his marvellous Hall of Fame career, but there is one he can’t let go of.
He never got to play against Mario Lemieux for the Stanley Cup. Never played against him in any playoff series at all.
Gretzky was speaking before Game 4 of the Stanley Cup final as the National Hockey League announced the fan-voted top 10 teams of all time, with Gretzky’s Edmonton Oilers team of 198485 being deemed the greatest team in history.
Second on the list was Lemieux’s Pittsburgh Penguins team of 1991-92.
Gretzky actually thought the 1986-87 championship team was the Oilers’ best and that the 1991 Penguins was Lemieux’s best squad — but as he said, he didn’t have a vote.
“For me, it’s the ’91 Penguins team. The athletes have a lot of pride,” Gretzky said. “Mario and I would have battled against each other. We had so much respect for each other. I’ve said this a million times, that he was the best player I ever played against. That fires you up as athletes. You want to compete against the best.
“Whether I was 18 years old playing against Guy Lafleur or 28 years old playing against Mario, that’s what the game is about. With Tommy Barrasso and Grant Fuhr (in goal), guys like that, the question would have been is Paul Coffey on our team or their team?”
Coffey played for both the Oilers and the Penguins.
“That could have been the difference,” Gretzky joked. “We would have taken him back.”
Gretzky had already been traded to Los Angeles by the time Lemieux’s team was ready to play for championships. Brendan Shanahan was a prominent figure on two of the top 10 teams of all time, as announced Monday by the NHL. But he figures the 199697 Stanley Cup championship team was better than the two Wings teams listed — the 1997-98 squad and the 2001-02 team.
“I believe the ’96-97 could have beaten both those teams,” the Maple Leafs president said. “On the ice and in the alley.”
Shanahan led that ’97 team in scoring with 46 goals. The centres were Steve Yzerman and Sergei Fedorov. The coach was Scotty Bowman. The Wings had three Hall of Fame defencemen, Nick Lidstrom, Slava Fetisov and Larry Murphy.
In the top 10 list, there wasn’t enough respect for the four-time
champion New York Islanders teams, which won 19 straight playoff series over a five-year period. There was only one Islanders team in the top 10. As someone who covered three of the Isles Stanley Cup wins and both of Mario Lemieux’s championship seasons in Pittsburgh, I would rate the Islanders teams as more complete than the Penguins.
The ’92 Penguins were listed as the second best team of all-time. That probably was a reach.
GAME 4 SNAPS
Nashville’s unlikely line of Craig Smith, Calle Jarnkrok and Austin Watson has continued to cause all kinds of trouble for the Penguins in the series. The three combined on a first-period goal to give the Preds a 1-0 lead ... Sidney Crosby was an absolute force for Pittsburgh. If the Penguins were going to go down, it wasn’t going to be because of their captain. He tied the game at 1-1 on a breakaway goal and had another breakaway in the second period. He made enough plays that could have resulted in four Penguins goals, had his linemates helped him out at all. This is why Crosby is Crosby: The bigger the game, the better he tends to play ... Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan separated Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel for the first time in the final series and it seemed to pay off more for Kessel than Malkin. Kessel played his strongest game of the final, which he tends to do when playing with lesser centres. Malkin, however, has to be frustrated: He was rather invisible again ... Happy 37th birthday to Nashville captain Mike Fisher, who swiped at a loose puck that ended up sending Viktor Arvidsson in on a breakaway for the key third goal by the Predators. Nashville went up 3-1 after two periods ... Toronto’s Harry Zolnierczyk, a journeyman if ever there was one, played a part in the go-ahead goal by Frederick Gaudreau, who was his teammate this season in Milwaukee of the AHL. Harry Z has bounced around from organization to organization in his seven pro seasons, but has been a valuable fourth liner for the Preds. If there has been a noticeable difference between the two teams, it has been the contributions the Preds have received from their lesser-knows, much more so than the Penguins.