Edmonton Oilers Heritage Website - Highlights

The Oilers’ march to the 1985 Cup final had a more festive feel to it than the previous year’s championship. With the Islanders vanquished, Edmonton was the team to beat. During the regular season, the Oilers indicated that they would hold Lord Stanley’s mug a second time.

Even though the Oilers finished four points behind the Philadelphia Flyers—the NHL’s first-place club—the team’s 109-point campaign was proof that the club prepared themselves for a second cup. Wayne Gretzky’s 208-point season punctuated the Oilers' season.

As soon as the post-season began, it was clear that the spring would belong to Gretzky, as he would go on a playoff run like no other player in history. In just 18 games, three over the minimum needed to sweep all four playoff series (the first round was a best-of-five), Gretzky set an NHL record with 30 playoff assists and 47 points.

The Oilers did not lose a game in their first two-playoff rounds, sweeping the Los Angeles Kings and Winnipeg Jets, and setting up a Campbell Conference showdown with the rising Chicago Blackhawks. The resulting series was a goaltender's nightmare, as the two teams defied the tradition of defence-first play-off hockey. The Oilers scored 18 times in the first two games of the series at Northlands Coliseum, but the Hawks responded with two wins at Chicago Stadium, scoring 14 times in their two-game home stand.

Edmonton then responded with two straight victories, 10-5 in Game 5 and finally ending the series 8-2 in Game 6 at Chicago Stadium. At the end of the series, Edmonton had scored 44 times, Chicago 25, and Edmonton set a new NHL record for goals in a playoff series. Oilers’ Finnish star Jari Kurri scored 12 times against the Hawks, setting a new standard for goals in a playoff series. Decades later, Oilers’ highlight reels are still filled with shots of Chicago goalie Murray Bannerman being beaten repeatedly by the greatest offensive display in the history of the playoffs.

The final saw the Oilers meet the Flyers, with the first two games at the Philadelphia Spectrum. The Flyers boasted the great Pelle Lindbergh in net, who would capture the Vezina Trophy that season as the League’s top goalie.

Lindbergh turned in a vintage performance in Game 1, leading the Flyers to a 4-1 win, and buoying Flyer fan hopes. The win would be the Flyers’ sole bright spot of the finals, as the Oilers became an offensive-juggernaut the rest of the series. Led by the "Great One" Wayne Gretzky, the Oilers scored 20 times over the next four games. Since the league switched playoff formats the previous year, the Stanley Cup series shifted to Edmonton for Games 3, 4 and 5, and the Oilers were able to capture the Cup on home ice.

The previous season had given the opportunity for the Oilers to show that they could be champions. With such an overwhelming run to the Cup in 1985, the Oilers proved they were one of the greatest teams to play the game.

There was a tragic footnote to the series, however. After a night of heavy partying to celebrate the Flyers’ 10-game winning streak at the outset of the 1985-86 season, Lindbergh decided to drive his souped-up Porsche home. He missed a curve, and his vehicle flung into a wall. Two passengers were severely injured and Lindbergh, with a blood alcohol measurement of 0.24 (over twice the legal limit), was declared brain dead by doctors. Three days later, after his family arrived from Sweden, they decided to take Lindbergh off life support. He died on November 13, 1985.

The Oilers and Flyers were scheduled to have a fierce Stanley Cup rematch November 14 at the Spectrum. Instead, the night was a somber affair, as the Flyers held a 35-minute memorial before the face-off. Instead of renewing a fierce rivalry, the Flyers and Oilers together mourned a 26-year-old life that had ended far too soon.