Today in NHL History (February 27th)

Today, February 27th, in 2007 the Edmonton Oilers retired the jersey of former Captain Mark Messier.

Here is the video tribute shown on tv and in the arena and after that a video of behind the scenes with Mark and his family and getting ready for his night.

1980 Conn Smythe Winner

The winner of the 1980 Conn Smythe trophy as NHL Playoff MVP was Bryan Trottier of the New York Islanders.   The Islanders won the first of 4 consecutive Stanley Cups in 1980.   


The Islanders led by hall of famers Denis Potvin, Billy Smith, Mike Bossy, Bryan Trottier and head coach Al Arbor beat the Philadelphia Flyers 4 games to 2.  The Isles clinched the cup in game 6 as Bobby Nystrom scored the cup winner in overtime to give the Islanders a 5-4 win.


Trottier was number 6 in scoring for the regular season with 42 goals and 62 assist for 104 points.  Strangely none of the Islanders made the all NHL 1st or 2nd teams for the 1979-80 season.

Here is a link to Bryan Trottier's memories of the 1980 Finals.

Happy Birthday Mario Lemieux

Today is the 46 birthday of my favorite player, former Pittsburgh Penguin captain and current Penguins owner, Mario Lemieux.

Now you may ask how does a kid in Indiana become a fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Mario Lemieux?  Well in the spring of 1984 I picked up the newest Sports Illustrated and read an article in the hockey section about the chances that the super kid our of Laval could save the Pittsburgh Penguins from shutting their doors.  Well after that article I started checking the papers and magazines for stories on Mario and the Penguins and eventually just became a fan of both because of the remarkable turnaround and of course the super human ability of Mario himself.

Mario Lemieux is current 9th on the NHL's all time goal scoring list with 690 goals (all with the Penguins) and 10th all time in assist with 1033.  This puts him 7th all time in scoring in the NHL with 1723 points.  The amazing part is that among the Top 50 point scorers of all time he has the fewest games played with 915...imagine if he had been healthy his entire career!

He is the owner of 3 Stanley Cup trophies (1991,92 as player and 2008 as owner) and 2 Conn Smythe trophies as playoff MVP in 1991 and 92.   He won 3 Hart trophies as NHL regular season MVP in 1988, 1993 and 1996.   He won 6 Art Ross trophies as the regular season scoring leader and in the process broke Wayne Gretzky's stranglehold on both the Hart and Ross trophies.  To top things off he was part of the Gold medal winning Canadian hockey team in 2002.

And to make things that much better he had the best announcer in all of hockey, Mike Lange, calling everyone of his games!!!