Remembering The Past

 The first Edmonton Oilers Stanley Cup team will come together again for a few days in October–almost surely tied around a home game. It would make the most sense to have it around the opener Thursday Oct. 9 when the rival Calgary Flames are at Rexall Place to kick off the 2014-2015 season in a big way but the Oilers also have home games against Vancouver and Montreal in October so it could be one of those .

There will probably be a series of activities over several days (dinners and such, maybe for charity) to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the 1984 championship squad that knocked off the four-time winning New York Islanders in five games in the final.

A fair number of the ’84 team players took part in the Heritage Classic outdoor alumni game against the Montreal Canadiens on that achingly cold day in November, 2003, but this would be the first time the entire squad and coaches, training and front office staff and maybe even owner Peter Pocklington, who boldly predicted a Cup party within the first five years in the NHL, would hopefully all be here for a reunion.

Looking back to the ’84 team, here’s the roster, by position:
Goal–Grant Fuhr, Andy Moog.
Defence–Paul Coffey, Lee Fogolin, Kevin Lowe, Charlie Huddy, Randy Gregg, Don Jackson.
Forwards–Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Glenn Anderson, Dave Hunter, Pat Hughes, Kevin McClelland, Dave Semenko, Dave Lumley, Ken Linseman, Willy Lindstrom, Jaroslav Pouzar, Pat Conacher.
Coaches–Glen Sather, John Muckler, Ted Green.
Owner–Pocklington.
Chief Scout–Barry Fraser.
Training staff–Barrie Stafford, Peter Millar, Lyle Kulchisky.
They all got their name on the Stanley Cup, the first of five for the Oilers.

Smaller rosters back in 1984, obviously. Just 21 players’ names on the Cup. Winger Raimo Summanen and defenceman Rick Chartraw also got into some playoff action that spring but didn’t get their names engraved.
It’s expected that Oilers current owner Darryl Katz, who keeps a low profile except on draft day when he’s up on the stage with the team’s first pick, will be involved in the reunion, too. He hung around many of the Oiler players from those glory days.

Several of the Oiler players live here–Fogolin, Lowe, Gregg, Hunter, Lumley, Fuhr. Green lives here, as well. So does Stafford and Kulchisky. Several will have to come in from Europe. Kurri from Finland, Lindstrom from Sweden, Pouzar from the Czech Republic. Jackson is coaching in Munich. Huddy is an assistant coach for the Winnipeg Jets these days; he’ll have to take time out from his duties there. They have a home game Oct. 9 against Phoenix Coyotes. Sather will have to leave his duties as Rangers’ GM for a few days, too and fly in. Fraser, who was the architect through the draft, has lived in Mexico for years.

If it’s Oct. 9 and the Flames are here that would be fitting. The Oilers beat their greatest rival in seven games in the second round of the playoff run in 1984 with Linseman getting the winner in the last game.

(Edmonton Journal)