After an exciting and heart-attack inducing series win over the Vancouver Canucks, the Edmonton Oilers are headed to their second Western Conference Finals appearance in three years.
This will be the seventh time the Oilers have faced the Dallas Stars (not including one time while they were still the Minnesota North Stars, where it should be noted that the Oilers lost in the Conference Finals), and the first time since 2003, where the Oilers faced the Stars six times in seven years.
To say it was a fierce rivalry back then would be an understatement, as it was the encapsulation of a “David versus Goliath” matchup with the small market Oilers facing the rich Stars, both in terms of cash and players.
The rivalry has died down since then, given the lack of playoff meetings since, but it is set to heat right back up again on Thursday. Let’s take a walk down memory lane to make sure we are in the proper hating position by then.
1997 Western Conference Quarterfinals: 4–3 Edmonton
Following the Oilers dynasty, the team became essentially a farm team for the NHL, and had missed the playoffs for four straight seasons. The previous season, owner Peter Pocklington threatened to move the team unless they were able to sell 13,000 season tickets, which was achieved one day before Pocklington’s deadline. There were still issues, though, with the team officially being put up for sale after the 1997 playoffs.
They finally made it back to the playoffs after five seasons, with their reward being a face-off against the third best team in the league, the Stars.
To put into perspective the gap between the two teams, the Stars had 23 more points than the Oilers, who were actually below 0.500 (36–37–9).
Interestingly though, Mike Modano lead the Stars with 83 points, just one more than Doug Weight. Ryan Smyth’s 61 points, Andrei Kovalenko’s 59 points, and Jason Arnott’s 57 points would all be ahead of the Stars second leading scorer (Pat Verbeek with 53). Smyth also scored the most goals of everyone in the series with 39. Granted, Joe Nieuwendyk was limited to 66 games that season.
In any event, the Stars were still the heavy favourite, and I think for the Oilers and fans it was very much a “we’re just happy to be here” kind of vibe.
But that wasn’t the case. The Oilers lost Game 1 5–3, but dominated Game 2 with a 4–0 victory. They took the series lead with an OT win in Game 3, and took the series lead 3–2 again in Game 5 with another OT win.
The Oilers pushed Game 7 to overtime, thanks to a goal in the dying seconds of the second period to tie the game up. It looked like that would be as far as it would go though, as Nieuwendyk had a wide open net to end the series. But then Curtis Joseph made what could arguably be the biggest save in franchise history.
Clearly that inspired the team, as the very next play, Todd Marchant used his signature speed to blow by the Dallas defence and score the series winner, a moment that will live on in Oilers history forever.
The Oilers ended up facing another behemoth, the Colorado Avalanche, in the second round, where they weren’t quite so lucky, losing out in five games.
1998 Western Conference Semi Finals: 4–1 Dallas
The next season, the Oilers got their revenge on the Avalanche, winning their second straight first round series in seven games.
This led to them facing the Stars yet again, for another grudge match.
Just like the previous year, the gap between the teams was massive, with the Stars having a 29-point lead over the Oilers. The Oilers firepower also wasn’t as strong as it was the previous year (only two players with 50 or more points), while the Stars’ seemed to have increased (they had five over 50).
Like the previous season, the Stars won Game 1, and then the Oilers proceeded to shut them out the next game 2–0. However, it was the Stars who were victorious in Game 3 overtime that year, and they proceeded to win the further two games to knock the Oilers out, making it the second straight year they lost 4–1 in the second round.
1999 Western Conference Quarterfinals: 4-0 Dallas
For the third straight year these teams faced each other, and for the third straight year the gap became even bigger, with the Stars having a whopping 36 point lead on the Oilers in the regular season, en route to their second straight Presidents Trophy.
While the Stars had more starpower, the two teams were actually fairly close in goal scoring that season (236 goals for Dallas vs 230 for the Oilers). The Stars had the least amount of goals against in the regular season though, which definitely played a part in their sweep of the Oilers, allowing just 7 goals against.
The series ended on the most disappointing note a sweep could end with, as the Stars won game 4 in Edmonton in triple overtime. That was also one of the first hockey games that I can remember attending, and let me just say that I have never forgiven Joe Nieuwendyk to this day (although I did get to miss school the day after, so some good came out of it at least).
Despite it being a sweep, it was actually a much closer series than one would think. Every game was a 1 goal game, which against the eventual Stanley Cup Champions isn’t exactly chopped liver. Plus when the team that beats you goes on to win the Cup, then by the transitive property if you had beat them, you would have won the Cup. Therefore, the Oilers were basically that close to winning the Stanley Cup in 1999.
2000 Western Conference Quarterfinals: 4-1 Dallas
We may have entered a new millennium, but the new one started off the same way the last one ended: with an Oilers and Stars first round matchup.
For the first time in their rivalry, the Oilers owned a record above (fake) 0.500, going 32–26–1–-8 (remember ties? Pepperidge Farms remembers). That was still only good for seventh in the Conference, meaning they were once again facing the Stars, who had 11 wins and 14 points on the Oilers.
The Stars won the first two games, with the Oilers putting on a strong showing for the hometown fans in Game 3, scoring the games first first goals en route to a 5–2 victory off the back of a Weight hat trick (the first Oilers playoff hat trick since 1991) in his response to criticisms about his play in the first two games.
That would be the only victory of the series, however, as Dallas would finish the series off in five games.
The Stars would make it all the way to the Finals for the second straight year, but would lose to the New Jersey Devils. So no moral victories for the Oilers this year, unfortunately.
2001 Western Conference Quarterfinals: 4–2 Dallas
Round 5 saw the the Oilers have their first 90+ point season since 1989–90, and won 39 games, the most since the Oilers won 44 games in 1987–88. We both know how those years turned out, so clearly this year would be the same right?
The Oilers finished sixth in the Conference, the best out of all these years…and still ended up playing the Stars, who finished third in the Conference. The gap in points was one less than the year prior at 13, but the Stars would still be the favourites.
Dallas won the first game, as per tradition, but the teams would trade wins, being tied 2–2 after four games, with three of those games ending in OT.
Dallas would win Game 5 in OT once again, and close up the series with a 3–1 victory in Game 6.
2003 Western Conference Quarterfinals: 4–2 Dallas
We didn’t get a straight six-peat of this matchup in 2002, as somehow both teams missed the playoffs, with the Oilers actually finishing ahead of the Stars in the standings!
Things went back to normal the year after (although can we really call a year where Barrett Jackman wins the Calder with 19 points and Marc Denis starts 77 games a normal year?), with first seed Dallas meeting eigth seed Oilers in the first round yet again.
For the Oilers, this was their first playoffs without former captain and superstar Doug Weight, whose absence was most certainly a reason for the Oilers missing the playoffs the year prior.
Bucking tradition, the Oilers won Game 1, which the Stars clearly took great offence to, as they blew out the Oilers 6–1 in Game 2. The Oilers would go up 2–1 in the series, but Dallas would rip off three straight wins to win for the fifth straight time.
One small positive to come out from this series was 24-year-old centre Shawn Horcoff leading the team in scoring with three goals and four points.
What does it mean?
Well, it has been 21 years since the Oilers and Stars last faced off in the playoffs, meaning that there are currently adults who can legally drink who never witnessed one of the fiercest rivalries in NHL history. For instance, Wyatt Johnston, third in scoring for Dallas both in the regular season and so far these playoffs, wasn’t even born until almost a month after Game 6 in 2003—at least Logan Stankoven had the decency to be alive for two months before the series ended.
So safe to say that there probably aren’t many, if any, lessons to be learned from the past. But we all know how the hockey gods tend to enjoy having rivalries and series play out the same (Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins, anyone?).
In which case, we are likely looking at close games throughout the series, an OT game or three (plus one to go beyond the first extra time frame), and hopefully a whole boatload of renewed hatred.
Personally, I think the Oilers and Stars should break out their old late 90s/2000s jerseys for this series, or at least use the latest reverse retros, NHL single jersey for the playoff rule be damned. Also, let’s bring back Power 92 and ask Gary and Audie to show us the money, right after they play the Oilers playoff version of Kiss’ Rock and Roll All Nite.
Ok that last paragraph hit me with the nostalgia hard. I have a very strong urge to start chanting “Belllll-foooour”, get irrationally angry at seeing Mike Modano in the Mighty Ducks movie while drinking a Capri-Sun that I accidentally poked a hole all the way through and have to drink at a weird angle so it doesn’t spill out.
Please Oilers, win this one for the traumatized Millennials.
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