1. Anatomy of the '82 Canuck Drive

Once Upon A Time in Bizarro World

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.  Although it may seem laughable now but once many, many years ago, the NHL was ruled by two teams for a decade; the New York Islanders and the Edmonton Oilers.  Yes, it's true.  Karma does have a sense of humour. 

During the run and gun eighties, these two teams epitomized that winning the Cup took only determination and a great mixture of skill, toughness and access to cocaine.  The Islanders owned the early eighties, the Oilers the later half.  If you were lucky enough to be alive in the mid-late eighties, you were treated to two Stanley Cup Finals; the Battle of Alberta and then the other one against whatever poor team hobbled out of the Eastern Conference to  lose to either Edmonton or Calgary. 



I said "one of..."

It was different times then.  Vancouver, with their 'Flying V' uniforms were considered one of the ugliest uniforms in North American sports.  Their all-star selection was picked via lottery and their most boisterous fans could afford to pay for tickets and pretty much all rode the bus to the games.
However, right on the cusp of the Oilers transforming the game of hockey into ...this... the 1982 Vancouver Canucks became the Champions of the West; true underdogs that had the unfortunate task to try and beat the last great dynasty; the New York Islanders.  It was Vancouver's first modern-day quest of the Cup and was due to five factors;


1) Harry Neale turns Reg Dunlop.  At one time, Harry Neale was more than a commentator for Hockey Night in Canada's Toronto Maple Leaf games. He was a sub-average coach pushing a sub-average team.  Then one night in Quebec he goes after a poutine vendor during game play and winds up being suspended from coaching and trying to order poutine during hockey games. 


 
2) Roger Nielson becomes head coach.  Roger Nielson was one of the most respected coaches in the NHL's history if for no other reason he knew how to work the VCR.  He was beloved by all players who played under him and all owners who fired him.  When Harry Neale was suspended, Roger picked up the puck, took it with him to practices and most importantly got the team into the playoffs.

3) The Miracle on Manchester.  Sometimes, you need a little luck and for the Canucks and it came from the only team with uniforms worse than theirs.  The LA Kings were losing 5-0 in the third period only to beat the overly-cocky Oilers in overtime 6-5.  When the Oilers went out in a blaze of yellow and purple glory, people (like my dad) thought that Vancouver may have a chance. And seeing as how most of the Kings were still suffering Miracle hangovers, they never showed up for the series and Vancouver beat them handidly to move on to the Conference Finals against Chicago.

4) Towel Power;  in the greatest team-building event since the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Nielson leads the charge in ironically surrendering to the higher powers of referee Bill Myers in Game 2 of their Conference Finals match-up against Chicago.  Little did they know that act would lead to a 2 million percent increase in towels for the next two decades and thousands of Canuck fans that totally misunderstand that they are actually signalling that they are giving up.

5)  Grant Mulvey.  Grant Mulvey did for the Canuck Cup Drive what Shane Churla did for Bure's elbow in 94.  He sacrificed his face and body (but mostly his face) to produce an iconic moment of Canucks Stanley Cup lore;  
 

Mustaches were also good for sponging up blood.

Grant Mulvey will never go down in history as the smartest player in hockey history.  While taking a cheap shot at Lars Lindgren was a relatively safe bet during the early eighties, this was an energized self-defining new Canuck team that was evolving.   Not realizing that Ron Delorme's mustache was listed as the #4 most dangerous enforcer in the NHL playoffs at that time (his fist was #3), he paid the price.  The only thing keeping him from a permanent state of unconsciousness was back then, when a Canuck fought, it was with a sense of honor, unlike...say...this which is just girly. The vision of Delorme's cocked fist still must haunt him to this day, waiting.... 


And just to show you how badly Delorme scrambled Mulvey's brains, here he is trying win some redemption by fighting a goalie. Unfortunately, he forgot it was Billy Smith, who Ron Hextall listed as a 'positive role model' in his NHL application.
  
Post script;

The Islanders were what many would call the last true dynasty.  They had a fighting goalie in Billy Smith, a ton of great mustaches (Trottier, Gillies, Nystrom, Goring), one or two Sutters, a all-star defenceman and a guy named Mike Bossy.  If the Canucks were to have a real chance, it couldn't have been against these guys.  The Canucks lost 4-0 but sent fair warning to the rest of the league;  we will be back in a decade and we will make it entertaining.  And if we don't win it then, we will come back in another 10-15 years and try again and if we don't win it then we will just pretend that we did and that will have to be good enough.