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Wayne Gretzky! |
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Gretzky NHL BioAfter the 1978-79 season, four WHA teams, including the Oilers, joined the National Hockey League. In his first NHL season, 1979-80, Gretzky was awarded the Hart Memorial Trophy as the League's Most Valuable Player (the first of eight in a row) and tied for the scoring lead with Marcel Dionne with 137 points (Dionne was awarded the Art Ross Memorial Trophy as the league's leading scorer because he had scored more goals). Gretzky was not eligible for the Calder Memorial Trophy, given to the top NHL rookie, because of his previous year of professional experience.In his second season, Gretzky won the Art Ross (the first of seven consecutive years) with a single-season record 164 points, and won his second straight Hart Trophy. The Oilers were a young, strong team featuring forwards Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson and Jari Kurri, defenseman Paul Coffey, goalie Grant Fuhr, and Gretzky as its captain. In 1983, they made it to the Stanley Cup finals, only to be swept by the three-time defending champion New York Islanders. The following season, the Oilers met the Islanders in the Finals again, this time winning their first of four Stanley Cups over the next five years. [edit] Breaking goal records In 1981, Gretzky became the fastest player to score 50 goals in a season. Breaking "Rocket" Richard's record of 50 goals in 50 games (achieved during the 1944-45 season), Gretzky took 39 games to reach the same tally when, on December 30, he scored on an empty net in the remaining seconds of the game against Philadelphia, to win the game 7-5. Gretzky scored 5 of Edmonton's goals. On 24 February, 1982, Gretzky broke Phil Esposito's record for most goals in a season (76), when he scored four goals to help beat the Buffalo Sabres 6-3. It was not an entirely unexpected event, even Esposito was on hand to present Gretzky with the record-breaking game puck. During the rest of the 1981-1982 season, Gretzky would go on to break yet another scoring record, netting an amazing 92 goals in the 80 game season as well as amassing 212 points, another record thought unobtainable. |