Best Oilers Playoff Goalie Ever

[OilerFanInLangley]

The goaltending in this series has been painful to watch, so I just wanna harken back to a time when the Oilers had goaltending that was stealing them games. (Yeah, that used to be a big thing for the Oilers. They were kinda famous for it)

1981
The young Edm Oilers were the 14th seed in the 1981 playoffs, their first NHL season ever, so they faced off against the mighty Mtl Canadiens dynasty in round 1.

The Mtl Canadiens had won the cup in 1977, '78, '79 and 80, so they were heavily favoured to beat the Oilers.

Moog stood on his head, and blanked them 3 games to zero, so the Oil went on to face the Stanley Cup champion Isles, who were on their way to win their 2nd of 4 cups in a row that year.

Moog won 2 games off the Isles, but the Oil lost in 6.

Still, a 5-4 record vs the two greatest dynasties of that era was astounding.

1982
In 1982 the Oilers finished 2nd overall with 111 points, and faced the lowly Kings, the 16th-overall playoff team with 63 reg season points, and Fuhr got all 5 starts. It was the first time they were ever favourites to win a series.

The Kings won that series 3 games to 2, including the infamous Miracle on Manchester game, when the Oil were up 5-0 going into the 3rd period of game 3, trying to close out the series, but lost 6-5 in OT. In my mind's eye that was the final game of the series, I was surprised to find out it was only G3. That's not how I remembered it lol.

The Kings had a 7 goal game, an 8 goal game, and a 6 goal game in that series.

1983
In 1983 Moog was the starting goalie for all 16 games, and only lost once en route to the Oilers' first Stanley Cup appearance ever, against the Isles dynasty. The Isles beat the Oilers in 4 straight, but Moog didn't play poorly. He only allowed 2 goals in G1, a 2-0 loss, but the series wasn't really close. The Isles dominated the Oilers handily. That was the Isles 4th-straight cup win.

To that point in Moog's career he had a 5-8 record vs the Mtl and NYI dynasties, with a series win and 2 series losses, but he was 11-1 vs the rest of the league in the playoffs.

1984
4 starts, all wins

1985
0 starts

1986
1 start, win

1987
2 starts, both wins.

Moog's record as an Oiler goalie in the playoffs was 18-1 vs teams not named Mtl or NYI, and 23-9 overall.
In fairness to Moog, 4 of those 9 losses came in the Oilers first-ever season, as the 14th seed, when he was only 21 years old, against the eventual cup-winners.

There's no doubt that Moog was the best goalie the Oilers ever had in the playoffs, but for some reason Sather and Gretzky just LOVED Fuhr, so he was their guy.

 

[Soundwave]

I liked Moog too, but Fuhr was better IMO.

 

[OilerFanInLangley]

I liked Moog too, but Fuhr was better IMO.

All I can say personally, is that as a person who grew up watching all of those games, I just always knew that the Oilers had an excellent chance of winning when Moog played, regardless of anything else.

When Fuhr played the other team always had a chance. Always.

Aside from the Isles, who were by any measure a far far better team than the Oilers in 1981 and 1983, Moog had a 21-1 record in the Oilers' net in the playoffs. That includes the dynasty Mtl Canadiens team that still had Lafleur, Robinson, Shutt, Gainey, Lapointe, Houle, Tremblay, Napier, Langway, Savard, Jarvis, Lambert, etc...

After that series win against the Habs, the headline on the Edm Sun the next day was just "MOOG". That's it. Nothing about the series win, or beating the vaunted Cdns, just MOOG. That's how big he was in that series win.

The Isles team that lost 2 games against Moog in the '81 playoffs only lost 1 other game during the rest of that playoff season. They swept the Leafs, they swept the Rangers and they only lost 1 game against Minnesota. 11-1 against the rest of the NHL, 4-2 against Moog and the Oilers.

Only 2 or 3 other teams made it game 6 against the Isles during all 4 of their cup-winning seasons. No one forced the Isles to a 7th game during their 4 cup runs.

Would Moog have lost 3 games to the Flames in 1984? Fuhr allowed 27 GA in that series.

Would Moog have lost 4 games to the Flames in 1986? The Flames scored 21 goals in the first 5 games of that series.

Would Moog have lost the series against the Kings in 1983? OMG no. You can't believe how much that series loss hurt after the Oilers previous success in the playoffs, and their success in that regular season. The Miracle on Manchester game is still the NHL record book beside playoff choke-job.

I don't like dissing Fuhr, but it bugs me that so many people think he was the Oilers' best goalie. He wasn't even close.

 

[Canovin]

Cujo considering the team in front of him

 

[The Panther]

Fuhr and Moog both had their times in the sun, often side by side. But I do think Fuhr was better, a bit. Fuhr's weakness was early in regular seasons, and sometimes when he had to play back-to-backs or whatever (we later found out this was partly due to substance abuse), he struggled.

But I think Fuhr's superiority was in the playoffs. The whole team would tighten up in the playoffs, and Fuhr's GAA would have, like, an entire goal-per-game shaved off. In '85, '86 (despite loss), '87, and '88 playoffs, Fuhr was outstanding. (By contrast, Moog had his chance to take over from Fuhr vs. Calgary in '84 when Sather put him in in relief... but he crapped the bed, and in the middle of game 7 they had to pull him and put Fuhr back in, and then Edmonton won.) But credit to Moog for doing well in games 3, 4, 5 in the 1984 Final.