[Newsbot]

Title: 1984-85 Edmonton Oilers voted greatest NHL team in history
Category: Sports
Posted By: DrCaleb
Date: 2017-06-06 06:16:49
Canadian

[shockedcanadian]

I knew they would go with this team, I disagree though. Certainly the most enjoyable time in which to watch hockey as it was entertaining hockey, the best era for fans.

To me, as much as I am a Leafs fan, it has to be 1976 Habs and/or 56 Habs, led by Toe Blake with the dominance of Doug Harvey and Richard. These teams were complete and dominant. Consider, that the Habs won 5 Cups from '56-'60, and were in the two Finals beforehand which they lost to the Red Wings (a pretty damned good team themselves in that era).

The '76-77 Habs only lost 8 games for Gods sake and their team was as stacked as any, with Bowman as coach. Over a 200 goal differential, and they almost cracked 400 goals in an era that was unlike the 80's in which the Oilers played and goals were more scarce. It also, began another four year Cup run.

Yes, the players on the Oilers in 1984 were some of the best in modern history, and they overthrew another very dominant team in the Islanders, I just don't believe all things being equal, the Oilers defense is up to par to these other Hab teams.

[martin14]

shockedcanadian shockedcanadian:

I knew they would go with this team, I disagree though. Certainly the most enjoyable time in which to watch hockey as it was entertaining hockey, the best era for fans.

To me, as much as I am a Leafs fan, it has to be 1976 Habs and/or 56 Habs, led by Toe Blake with the dominance of Doug Harvey and Richard. These teams were complete and dominant. Consider, that the Habs won 5 Cups from '56-'60, and were in the two Finals beforehand which they lost to the Red Wings (a pretty damned good team themselves in that era).

The '76-77 Habs only lost 8 games for Gods sake and their team was as stacked as any, with Bowman as coach. Over a 200 goal differential, and they almost cracked 400 goals in an era that was unlike the 80's in which the Oilers played and goals were more scarce. It also, began another four year Cup run.

Yes, the players on the Oilers in 1984 were some of the best in modern history, and they overthrew another very dominant team in the Islanders, I just don't believe all things being equal, the Oilers defense is up to par to these other Hab teams.

Couldn't agree more.

[bootlegga]

shockedcanadian shockedcanadian:

I knew they would go with this team, I disagree though. Certainly the most enjoyable time in which to watch hockey as it was entertaining hockey, the best era for fans.

To me, as much as I am a Leafs fan, it has to be 1976 Habs and/or 56 Habs, led by Toe Blake with the dominance of Doug Harvey and Richard. These teams were complete and dominant. Consider, that the Habs won 5 Cups from '56-'60, and were in the two Finals beforehand which they lost to the Red Wings (a pretty damned good team themselves in that era).

The '76-77 Habs only lost 8 games for Gods sake and their team was as stacked as any, with Bowman as coach. Over a 200 goal differential, and they almost cracked 400 goals in an era that was unlike the 80's in which the Oilers played and goals were more scarce. It also, began another four year Cup run.

Yes, the players on the Oilers in 1984 were some of the best in modern history, and they overthrew another very dominant team in the Islanders, I just don't believe all things being equal, the Oilers defense is up to par to these other Hab teams.

No, I think the 84-85 Oilers were the right pick (as a former Jets fan, it galls me to admit this).

Picking any team from the Original Six era isn't comparable, simply because the league was so different from current hockey (or even in the 1980s).

While the 1976 Habs were very good, the league was watered down by several rounds of expansion (Washington and Kansas City in 1974/75), as well as competition from the WHA, which meant the quality of a lot of teams was sub-par, making it easier to rack up wins for the better, more established teams. That argument faded after the merger because the number of pro hockey teams shrank to 24, and 1984/85 all NHL teams had pretty decent rosters, including the former WHA teams.

The 1984-85 Oilers actually did score more than 400 goals and had one of the better defences in the league (7th or 8th IIRC). They also had 8 or 9 future Hall or Famers, all acquired through shrewd drafting, and was the beginning of a dynasty which would win five Stanley Cups over the next 7 years.

The kicker for me is that the league created the so-called 'Gretzky Rule' in an attempt to level the playing field for other NHL teams, because penalties became opportunities to score goals for the highly skilled and speedy Oilers.

[Freakinoldguy]

Fan votes are meaningless. Ask the players from each era and they'll tell you who the best team "was" and my guess it that it'd be one from their own era. So, picking one team as the greatest is like claiming to definitively know which Prime Minister was the greatest.

Since this was quite obviously an online poll I'd say it could well be tainted by the fact that most of the participants never saw the great teams from the "Original 6" era. Because, if they had they'd have given considerably more consideration to those great teams from that period. Then, when you mix in the fact that over the years the game, equipment, players and peoples attention spans have changed you get results like this. Results that unfairly reward hockey players who played in a decade of what amounts to nothing more than All Star games with the mantle of being the best because, they were more exciting and scored a crapload more goals than any decade before them.

So, I'll have to call bullshit on this one because each generation has their own great teams and trying to mix and match teams from differing era's to come up with the greatest is about as accurate as trying to take a crap through the eye of a needle. My guess is that if they were to conduct this poll in another 75 years the Oilers wouldn't even be on the radar and would have been replaced by some team more closely associated with the participants time period.

And here's a thought. They may have made the Gretzky Rule but, long before he was a gleam in his daddy's eye, the league made the Canadiens rule which I will argue had as much if not more impact on the game than the Gretzky rule ever did.

http://www.habseyesontheprize.com/2010/ ... diens-rule

So, as you can see. It's all relative but, if I had to pick my greatest team it'd be the 56 Hab's.

[martin14]

I remember having to read these as a kid to get the scores.
Including 1975-'79..

[raydan]

An exercise in futility.