Catching Up With The Past: 1987 Canada Cup Edition

Vintage Hockey Through A Modern Lens

From Bruce McCurdy of the Edmonton Journal: A quarter century has has passed since the wonderful show of hockey put on by Canada and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the thrilling three-game final of the 1987 Canada Cup. Lots has happened between then and now — the vibrant voice of play-by-play man Dan Kelly was silenced within a year and a half; the Iron Curtain fell within half a decade; while earlier this year Soviet superstar Vladimir Krutov passed away.

Somewhere in there occurred a less-heralded but nonetheless tragic death, namely firewagon hockey of the type the two finalists gave us in that thrilling week back in September, 1987. Both teams were ready, willing and able to turn up the heat offensively, a fact which is reflected in the scores of that series: 6-5, 6-5, 6-5. Full Story

More Things You Didn't Know About 1987 Canada Cup

From Chris Iorfida from CBC: Here's some tidbits you may have forgotten about the 1987 Canada Cup, gleaned from contemporaneous reports in the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail: 

• The likes of Doug Crossman and James Patrick were the beneficaries after injuries to Paul Reinhart, Kevin Lowe and Doug Wilson put them out of the defence mix. Larry Robinson, meanwhile, was committed to a polo tournament (That's not a joke). 
• The first group of cuts included Hall of Famers Steve Yzerman, Al MacInnis and Dino Ciccarelli, as well as Kirk Muller, Tony Tanti and Doug Lidster. Fellow Hall of Famers Scott Stevens, Patrick Roy and Cam Neely were later cleaved, and if was just based on training camp, most writers thought Wendel Clark deserved a spot. 
• Sylvain Turgeon really didn't get a chance to make an impression, when Ron Hextall. unintentionally (he said) broke a bone in Turgeon's arm early on with his goal stick. 
• Hextall and HNIC's Kelly Hrudey were the support for Grant Fuhr. 
• Roy's fuming re: Mike Keenan was rendered quaint after his volcanic reaction to Mario Tremblay eight years on. 
• The Soviets drilled Canada 9-4 in an exhibition three weeks before the legendary final. 
• Lemieux scored 11 of Canada's 41 goals. Next highest scorer on the team was Hawerchuk, with four goals. 
• Gretzky set up 18 of the 38 goals he didn't score himself.

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