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Old 01-21-2017, 04:51 PM   #74
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Location: Ontario Canada
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1985-86

1985-86

OFFSEASON
Long-time Boston Bruin Jean Pronovost is the lone addition to the Hockey Hall of Fame this season. Pronovost scored 584 goals and 1404 points in his career.

Rick Kehoe is walking away from the game at age 33. The winger played 13 seasons for the Toronto Maple Leafs, scoring 408 goals and 500 assists in 873 career games. He had back to back 50 goal seasons in 1979-80 and 80-81.

Bobby Schmautz has retired after 15 NHL seasons and 1026 games. All but 2 of his games were with Detroit as he debuted with the Black Hawks in 1967-68 but did not become an NHL regular until joining the Wings 4 years later. He had 280 goals and 753 points in his career.

Also retiring is Butch Goring. Goring played 16 seasons with the Los Angeles Kings, scoring 336 goals and 804 points in 1037 games. The 35 year old had 18 goals and 39 points last season.

Newcomers to the league this season include Craig Simpson with Pittsburgh, Joe Nieuwendyk in Calgary, Mike Richter with the Rangers and Adam Oates in Detroit.

REGULAR SEASON
After missing the regular season last year due to a contract dispute, Wayne Gretzky returned to the Edmonton and led the Oilers to the best record in the league. Gretzky was limited to 57 games due to an abdominal injury but he still managed to lead the Oilers with 136 points. Jari Kurri (44-79-123), Mark Messier (56-62-118) and Paul Coffey (27-80-107) also managed to top the 100 point mark and were the main reasons why the Oilers led the NHL in goals.

Defending Cup champion Minnesota finished just 2 points behind the Oilers in the race for first overall. The Stars had plenty of offense of their own thanks to their big line of Bobby Smith (34-66-100) between Dino Ciccarelli (54-74-128) and Brian Bellows (53-53-106).

Pittsburgh won it's division for the first time in franchise history and the reason was almost entirely because of Mario Lemieux. Rookie of the year last season despite playing just 49 games, Lemieux was healthy all season and scored a league high 76 goals and 149 points. Only Hartford's Ron Francis (55-100-155) and Dale Hawerchuk (69-82-151) of Winnipeg finished with more points than Mario.

Montreal finished first in the Adams Division and they did it with strong defense rather than the firewagon hockey the Canadiens have been historically known for. Mats Naslund (48-62-110) and 34 year old Guy Lafleur (40-54-94) were the only offensive threats up front but the Habs got plenty of offense from their blueline led by Chris Chelios (23-64-87), Rod Langway (16-57-73) and veteran Larry Robinson (15-70-85). The strong defense combined with another solid season from goaltender Vladislav Tretiak (36-14-8, 3.06) helped Montreal allow the fewest goals against in the league. The Habs elected to give 20 year Patrick Roy another season in the minors so veteran Pat Riggin served as Tretiak's understudy.

MILESTONES
Lanny McDonald of Toronto scored his 900th career point
Ron Greschner of the NY Rangers earned his 900th career point
Clark Gillies of the NY Islanders earned his 900th career point
Bobby Clarke of Philadelphia scored his 500th career goal and 1500th career point
Borje Salming of Edmonton recorded his 500th career assist.
Kent Nilsson of Calgary picked up his 500th career assist and 900th career point
Wayne Gretzky of Edmonton earned his 500th career assist
Mike Bossy of the NY Islanders scored his 400th career goal
Bryan Trottier of the NY Islanders scored his 300th career goal
Rick Middleton of the NY Islanders scored his 300th career goal
Tim Kerr of Philadelphia scored his 300th career goal.

1000 GAMES
Jim Watson Los Angeles
Bill Barber Philadelphia
Marcel Dionne Detroit
Larry Robinson Montreal
Rogie Vachon Los Angeles
Phil Russell Chicago
Rene Robert Winnipeg
Bob Gassoff NY Islanders

Joe Mullen of the St Louis Blues had a 29 game point streak. That is the fifth longest streak in league history. The record is 44 set by Rocket Richard. Later in the season Wayne Gretzky would have a 34 game streak. Included in Gretzky's streak was a stretch of 11 straight games in which he scored at least 1 goal, which is believed to be a record. One of the games in the streak saw Gretzky score 7 points and he had 6 points on two other occassions during the run.

Mario Lemieux had an 8 point night, including 3 goals, in Pittsburgh's 13-3 win over the New York Rangers on December 15th. Lemieux would follow that up with 6 points in his next game.

Edmonton defenseman Paul Coffey had an 8 point night in a 10-3 win over Quebec on February 14th. Included in his totals were 7 assists. The 8 points are believed to be a record for defenseman and his 7 assists are tied for the third most ever.

Code:
  
     NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE 
ADAMS DIVISION	    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Montreal Canadiens	80 48 26  6  102
Hartford Whalers	80 43 30  7   93
Boston Bruins		80 39 31 10   88
Quebec Nordiques	80 35 41  4   74
Buffalo Sabres		80 33 43  4   70

PATRICK DIVISION  	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Pittsburgh Penguins	80 48 29  3   99
Washington Capitals 	80 31 44  5   67
New York Islanders	80 29 46  5   63
New York Rangers	80 24 45 11   59
Philadelphia Flyers	80 23 48  9   55
New Jersey Devils	80 25 53  2   52

NORRIS DIVISION 	GP  W  L  T  PTS
Minnesota North Stars   80 51 25  4  106
St Louis Blues		80 44 30  6   94
Detroit Red Wings 	80 33 43  4   70
Chicago Black Hawks	80 28 42 10   66
Toronto	Maple Leafs	80 30 48  2   62
   
SMYTHE DIVISION	    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Edmonton Oilers		80 49 21 10  108
Calgary Flames		80 44 31  5   93
Winnipeg Jets		80 45 33  2   92
Vancouver Canucks	80 42 30  8   92
Los Angeles Kings	80 35 40  5   75

SCORING LEADERS		TEAM GP  G   A  PTS
Ron Francis		HAR  80 55 100  155
Dale Hawerchuk		WPG  80 69  82  151
Mario Lemieux 		PIT  78 76  73  149
Joe Mullen		STL  80 68  75  143
Wayne Gretzky		EDM  57 59  77  136
Dino Ciccarelli		MIN  80 54  74  128
Jari Kurri		EDM  80 44  79  123
Mark Messier		EDM  80 56  62  118
Doug Gilmour		STL  77 35  81  116
Mats Naslund		MON  80 48  62  110
Rick Vaive		VAN  80 62  47  109
Hakaan Loob		CGY  80 54  55  109
Anton Statsny		QUE  80 31  76  107
Paul Coffey		EDM  80 27  80  107
Michel Goulet		QUE  77 60  46  106
Brian Bellows		MIN  74 53  53  106
Brian Sutter		STL  80 44  61  105
Brian Propp		PHI  80 44  60  104
Dave Taylor		LA   80 33  71  104
Steve Larmer		CHI  80 48  55  103
Mark Howe		HAR  75 36  67  103
Peter Statsny		QUE  80 39  62  101
Dave Andreychuk		BUF  80 51  49  100
Andrew McBain		WPG  80 39  61  100
Bobby Smith		MIN  78 34  66  100
PLAYOFFS
Hard to have a better playoff series than Pittsburgh's Mario Lemieux did in a preliminary round matchup with the New York Rangers. The Pens won the best of five series in 4 games with Lemieux scoring 12 goals and adding 7 assists. The highlight was a 5 goal, 2 assist performance in Game Four, won 12-4 by the Pens. After a 4 game sweep of the New York Islanders in the quarterfinals Lemieux was leading all playoff performers with 17 goals and 29 points....thats in 8 games.

Montreal will be tasked with trying to slow Lemieux down in the semi-finals after the Canadiens finally managed to beat Boston after years of playoff futility against the Bruins.

The other semi-final will be a rematch of last season when the Minnesota North Stars upset the Edmonton Oilers. Edmonton had a tough go of things so far, going the distance against both Vancouver in the preliminary round and Winnipeg in the quarterfinals. Wayne Gretzky has 13 goals and 25 points in 12 games to lead Edmonton.

SEMI-FINALS
The Montreal defense proved too much for Lemieux and the Penguins and, while Mario did get 4 goals and an asssit in the series, the Pens were eliminated in 4 straight games. On the other side the Minnesota North Stars again knocked off the Oilers mighty offense, winning the series in 6 games despite 6 goals and 12 points from Gretzky in the series.

STANLEY CUP FINALS
The Minnesota North Stars return basically the exact same cast of players as they had last season when they won their first Stanley Cup. The Canadiens are the all-time leader with 20 Stanly Cups but Montreal has not hoisted the hardware since 1980.

The North Stars are missing one key component as Bobby Smith (3-14-17) was injured in the final game of the Edmonton series and will not be available for the finals. Smith won the Conn Smythe Trophy a year ago. Minnesota will rely on Brian Bellos (18-7-25), Dino Ciccarelli (13-19-32) and Neal Broten (3-20-23) to carry the offense while Don Beaupre and new pickup Kelly Hrudey have shared the netminding duties in the playoffs.

Vladislave Tretiak leds the playoffs with a 1.86 GAA and will be counted on heavily as the Canadiens do not have the firepower to keep up with Minnesota's big guns. Bob Gainey (9-9-18) and Guy Lafleur (5-13-18) share the Habs postseason scoring lead. Defensive center Doug Jarvis is the only injured Hab but he will be missed against a team like Minnesota.

Dino Ciccarelli scored all 3 goals as Minnesota blanked the Canadiens in the Montreal Forum 3-0 in Game One. Don Beaupre had 31 saves for the shutout while Brian Bellows earned 3 assists.

Bob Gainey had a four point night in Game Two as Montreal built a 4-0 first period lead and hung on to beat Minnesota 6-4 and even the series.

Former Canadien Doug Risebrough scores the game winner lifting Minnesota to a 4-3 victory in Game Three. Ciccarelli scores again and adds an assist with Brian Lawton and Neal Broten also scoring for the North Stars. Larry Robinson, Pierre Mondou and Mats Naslund get the Montreal goals.

Montreal explodes for 4 goals in the second period of Game Four and evens the series with a 7-4 victory. Chris Chelios has 3 assists for the Habs, who got goals from 7 different players. Neal Broten assisted on all 4 Minnesota tallys, 2 each from Ciccarelli and Bellows.

Another big offensive display from Montreal as the Habs take the series lead with a 7-1 victory in Game Five. Guy Lafleur had 2 goals and 2 assists while Mats Naslund also scored twice for Montreal. Tretiak only faced 16 Minnesota shots in the game.

For the third straight game Montreal scores 7 times. It was just enough as the Canadiens won Game Six by a 7-6 score to claim the Stanley Cup. Chris Chelios and Guy Lafleur each had a goal and 2 helpers as once more the Canadiens got goals from 7 different players. Ken Hodge Jr had 2 goals for Minnesota with Ciccarelli scoring once and adding an assist.

Guy Lafleur led Montreal in playoff scoring with 9 goals and 30 points while the overall playoff scoring title went to Dino Ciccarelli with 21 goals and 46 points. Despite being on the losing side in the finals, Ciccarelli was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. Ciccarelli set a new playoff record for points in one year and his 21 goals also established a new record, which was also equalled this season by teammate Brian Bellows and Pittsburgh's Mario Lemieux.


Lemieux scored 21 goals despite playing in just 12 playoff games, an incredible accomplishment that was overshadowed by the Penguins bowing out in the semi-finals.


Other award winners are:

HART TROPHY: Mario Lemieux Pittsburgh (78GP 76-73-149)

VEZINA TROPHY: Grant Fuhr Edmonton (41-11-10, 3.04)

NORRIS TROPHY: Chris Chelios Montreal (80GP 23-64-87)

ART ROSS TROPHY: Ron Francis Hartford (80GP 55-100-155)

CALDER TROPHY: Luc Robitaille Los Angeles (80GP 40-54-94)


The game does not select the all-star team but I will start naming first and second team all-stars
Code:

POS      FIRST TEAM		     SECOND TEAM
G   Grant Fuhr       Edmonton	   Don Beaupre       Minnesota	      
D   Ray Bourque      Boston        Chris Chelios     Montreal    	
D   Paul Coffey      Edmonton      Larry Murphy      Los Angeles	
C   Mario Lemieux    Pittsburgh    Wayne Gretzky     Edmonton	   
LW  Mark Messier     Edmonton	   Brian Bellows     Minnesota     	
RW  Joe Mullen       St Louis      Dino Ciccarelli   Minnesota
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