I'll throw out Chelios as well. He was considered the favourite in 1989 until he had a terrible game 6 in the finals and they lost.
He's the Smythe favourite going into the 1992 Finals. But takes a lot of penalties then and gets worked by Lemieux.
Gets tons of love in 1999 for shutting down Kariya and Selanne.
Gets lots of love in 2002 for shutting down Forsberg.
100 on chelios. an absolute monster, to borrow pierre maguire’s terminology.
in 2002, he also derailed bertuzzi when bertuzzi was the best player in the league (26 goals, 60 pts in the 40 games leading up to that playoff series, 7 ahead of his linemate naslund at #2, 9 ahead of kovalev at #3, 11 ahead of art ross iginla at #4; 1 plus behind the league leaders, runaway pts/game leader, unstoppable physical force.) with the red hot canucks up 2-0 in the series, chelios absorbed an absolutely savage hit by bertuzzi.
and he gets up. after that pt, he held bertuzzi, who had 2 goals and 2 assists over two and a half games, to one single assist.
here’s a recap of that game, which of course is better known for lidstrom’s beach ball goal on cloutier.
highlights:
"It was the hit that rattled through an entire arena, so resounding and scary that the collision nearly silenced more than 18,000 raucous fans.
"When Vancouver winger Todd Bertuzzi launched his 245-plus pounds into aging Detroit defenceman Chris Chelios along the boards Sunday, the result was almost more incredible than the impact.
"Chelios, grizzled and battle hardened, pushed himself back on his skates, minus his helmet, and immediately went to the front of the net, trying to push the bullish Bertuzzi away from the crease despite giving away at least 60 pounds.
…
"Dominik Hasek, the Red Wings netminder, soon was penalized for delay of game after pushing the goal post off the moorings. Detroit was two men short and Chelios was left gasping for air.
"Did he leave the ice? Not a chance, because Chelios is a true hockey warrior, just like teammate Steve Yzerman, the Detroit captain who leads by example, despite a wonky knee that needs further surgery.
"'If I don't [play like that] I'm going to be looking for a job,' Chelios said late after a long stint in the Detroit training room. 'That's part of my game, it's kind of my role, always has been, especially when you're matched up against the other team's top line.'
…
"Yzerman set the offensive tone with his relentless pace despite the gimpy leg. Hasek finally made some saves and Nicklas Lidstrom provided the winning shot with a goal from centre ice. But, it was the presence of Chelios in the defensive zone -- elbows, stick and tenacity proving a pain in the side of the Canucks -- that gave the Wings the fortitude to get back into the series when it looked darkest.
"The score was tied 1-1 when Bertuzzi unloaded on Chelios, who went on to finish the game with 32 shifts covering 28 minutes 2 seconds. Asked about the Bertuzzi hit, which was from the side and not the back -- Chelios replied, with a wry smile: 'Tons of fun. Let him know so he'll come and hit me harder.’"
so he matched up against the top line of the number one team of that season’s second half (0.725 win%), a legendarily top heavy one line team, and chelios created the blueprint to neutralizing bertuzzi, which the next year was a playbook borrowed by barrett jackman (who probably would have succeeded if st louis wasn’t decimated by the flu), then willie mitchell (who savagely finished the job).
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but i actually didn’t mean to type all that about the vancouver series. what i really wanted to respond to was chelios in the '92 finals. it really doesn’t look like mario lit him up at all. some of that is outlined in
this thread.
the cliffs notes:
- in the four game sweep, chelios +2, mario even
- yes, mario had 5 goals, 7 pts in those games, but chelios was tied for third with kevin stevens with 5 (tocchet led the series with 8)
- that series was three one-goal games, and a 3-1 loss; with just a normal 1D in chelios’ place it stands to reason that that series is a romp
- chelios only took three penalties in that series: two minors and a 5 and a game in the dying seconds of game three (15 out of his 19 PIMs in the series)
- and yes there is a story about those 15 minutes: as chelios explains after the game, they’re down 1-0 with the goalie pulled, there’s thirty seconds left, and he starts punching larry murphy to get a stoppage in play so pittsburgh can't score an empty netter to put the game away (tocchet is carrying the puck and about to outlet it to mario for the EN breakaway)
but i wanted to take a closer look so i just watched a good chunk of that series on youtube, including every goal of the series. here’s the game-by-game:
game one (unrelated: TIL that an 11 year old christina aguilera
sang the anthem to open the series), chelios played 37 minutes (the announcers reported this number in game two). chelios had a goal and two assists, putting chicago up 4-1 midway through the second. then belfour gives this game away on some weak goals. mario scores two goals, chelios is on the ice for both. first one, he is covering mario in the corner and mario banks it in off belfour. it was the second goal in a minute on belfour and a gut punch that turned the game. mario’s second goal was on the PP, wide open on kravchuk’s side to put back a giant larry murphy rebound that belfour coughs up. chelios was covering his man on the other side.
so mario has two goals, finishes even. chelios has 3 pts, finishes +2, on the ice for 2 out of 5 pittsburgh goals (both by mario) and all 4 chicago goals.
game two, chelios is only on the ice for one goal, a PP marker by mario that he probably could have played him stronger on. after personally thwarting two zone entries by the incredibly high-powered pittsburgh PP, tocchet gains the line and dumps it into the corner, where stevens brutalizes steve smith, tocchet picks up the loose puck and gets it to mario in the slot. chelios is late because he was below the goal line expecting smith to cycle the puck back to him.
2 goals by mario, chelios on for 1.
game three, chelios is on the ice for the only goal, which was scored by a line of mceachern centering stevens and tocchet. mario not on the ice.
chelios 1 goal against, holds mario scoreless
game four, and it’s interesting to see that
they’re already talking about jagr’s work ethic and obsessiveness in training (“i imagine he’d rather be on the ice than any place else in the world"). jagr scores an early one. a little later, chelios outlets the puck to matteau, who springs dirk graham to tie it. then seconds later, stevens scores on a power move off a mario pass; chelios not on the ice. belfour gets pulled, rookie hasek comes in. it’s amazing how poor belfour was in this series, which affected his reputation for years, and the rest of the game they keep showing him looking emo on the bench while hasek puts on a show despite giving up four goals. seconds later, chelios back on the ice, graham scores again, one-timing it from the side of the net off a gorgeous feed from chelios on the blueline. then mario scores on the PP with chelios in the box (this is probably where the perception that he was undisciplined comes from: a totally unnecessary headshot on larry murphy to negate a chicago PP; the mario goal was after the original pittsburgh penalty expired). then before the first period is up, graham gets the hat trick goal. chelios on the ice but not involved in the play.
anyway, first period tally: mario has 2 pts, chelios not on the ice for either although his penalty led to one of them. chelios has 2 assists, on the ice for all 3 chicago goals.
second period starts with
tocchet violently hammering chelios into the end boards, chelios keeps going as if nothing happened. right after chelios' shift ends, pittsburgh immediately scores, tocchet in the slot from mario. the second ends with roenick tying it up, chelios not on the ice.
second period tally: mario 1 pt, chelios not on the ice.
in the third period, pittsburgh goes ahead for good on a larry murphy goal. mario hits chelios in the corner, springing the puck loose, tocchet beats smith for possession and finds murphy pinching in, who beats hasek. then they trade goals, neither mario nor chelios are on the ice. in the dying seconds with hasek pulled, chelios holds the line on a mario attempted clear and finds goulet in the slot, who hits the post with seven seconds left. the puck finds itself on chelios’ stick one more time as the clocks runs out.
game four total: chelios on the ice for 3 chicago goals, assisted on 2, 1 goal against (not a mario pt but mario is involved), 1 penalty leading to a mario goal, 3 total mario pts that chelios was not on the ice for
so final tally: chelios is on the ice for 3 of mario’s 7 pts. but man, he played more than half of every game and finished +2 in a sweep (holding that pittsburgh PP to 4 goals and only being on the ice for 2 of them is also noteworthy). to be fair, chelios also indirectly caused one on a penalty, and mario didn’t factor in the murphy go ahead goal but did cause the chelios turnover that led to pittsburgh possession. still, even if we count that as 5 of 8, in no way shape or form was chelios lit up by mario in this series. with 5 pts of his own, he battled peak mario to a standstill.
nor was he undisciplined. he only took two minors in the entire series while holding mario to just 1.25 goals a game — a number that, as i pointed out, he personally equaled. in that series, pittsburgh scored 15 goals and chelios was on the ice for 4 of them. i repeat, 4 out of 15. again, he played at least half the game (on a mike keenan-coached team whose bottom three dmen were rookie marchment, second year frantisek kucera, and journeyman enforcer rod buskas).
it’s fitting the puck was on his stick as time ran out. he was superhuman through that entire playoffs, but no less so in the finals. chicago outscored pittsburgh 7-4 with him on the ice (7-5 if you want to count the goal they scored with him in the box), and was outscored 11-3 with him not on the ice (10-3 if count that PP goal against him). he had a pt on literally half of his team’s goals and casually broke up so many pittsburgh rushes in the neutral zone like clockwork while being the main offensive catalyst.
