What if Canada took all NHLers to 1988 Olympics?

Originally published on IIHF.com in 2006

By Lucas Aykroyd

On October 20, 1986, the International Ice Hockey Federation announced that all nations would be permitted to use professional players at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, Canada. “There are no restrictions,” IIHF President Dr. Gunther Sabetzki said. “Canada can use Wayne Gretzky if it wants to.”

Yet the National Hockey League wasn’t quick to jump on the opportunity. NHL President John Ziegler responded: “We put on a thousand events a year. Most of our sales are season tickets. I don’t think it’s fair to the customer if we say, ‘You’ve paid $16 for your ticket–oh, by the way, for the next three weeks you’re not going to see the Gretzkys, the Paul Coffeys, and the Bourques and so forth.’ What would that do to the integrity of the competition?”

However, the NHL had a surprising late change of heart after heavy lobbying from the NHLPA and several prominent Canadian club owners. A week after the 1987 Canada Cup concluded, with international hockey euphoria still in the air, negotiations were staged in Toronto, and Ziegler conceded the most viable option would be to simply take an 18-day break in February. At the time, this was to be a one-off experiment, and it was particularly convenient because the Olympics would take place in North America.

On October 15, 1987, the dispersal of the standing Canadian national team was announced. “Obviously it’s a disappointing time for players like Vaughn Karpan and Wally Schreiber, who have contributed so much to this program,” said Head Coach Dave King at the press conference in Calgary. “But this will give us a much better chance to compete talent-wise with the Soviets, Czechoslovakians, and Swedes. We now have the capability to play an attacking game.”

“Do I have concerns?” King continued. “Sure. With just one practice, we won’t have nearly as much time to come together as a team compared to the Europeans. And not to take anything away from the NHLers, but our fitness consultant, Dr. Howie Wenger from the University of Victoria, has said no NHL team could match our previous Olympic team’s level of fitness. The NHL guys will be in mid-season form, though, so we’ve got to be optimistic there. Some have played in the World Championships and that should help them adjust more quickly to the big ice surface.”

On December 21, 1987, Canada announced its NHL-based 22-man Olympic roster for 1988 as selected by Dave King:

Coaching Staff: Dave King (Head Coach and General Manager), Guy Charron (Assistant Coach), Tom Watt (Assistant Coach)

Goal: Grant Fuhr (Edmonton Oilers), Patrick Roy (Montreal Canadiens)

Defense: Ray Bourque (Boston Bruins), Paul Coffey (Pittsburgh Penguins), Al MacInnis (Calgary Flames), Larry Murphy (Washington Capitals), Scott Stevens (Washington Capitals), Kevin Lowe (Edmonton Oilers), James Patrick (New York Rangers)

Forward: Wayne Gretzky (Edmonton Oilers), Mario Lemieux (Pittsburgh Penguins), Mark Messier (Edmonton Oilers), Dale Hawerchuk (Winnipeg Jets), Michel Goulet (Quebec Nordiques), Steve Yzerman (Detroit Red Wings), Mike Gartner (Washington Capitals), Kirk Muller (New Jersey Devils), Doug Gilmour (St. Louis Blues), Denis Savard (Chicago Blackhawks), Glenn Anderson (Edmonton Oilers), Brent Sutter (New York Islanders), Steve Larmer (Chicago Blackhawks)

Optimism reigned among the Canadian media in the wake of the host nation’s triumph over the Soviet Union at the 1987 Canada Cup, and fans from Vancouver to Halifax expected nothing less than gold on home ice.

But after the first puck was dropped in Calgary on February 14, 1988, things didn’t go quite according to plan. Canada beat Poland 4-1 in its opener, and after King emphasized the importance of goal differential in IIHF competition, the team romped to wins of 10-1 over Switzerland, 7-3 over Finland (which wasted a hat trick by Edmonton’s Jari Kurri), and 12-2 over France. Yet Sweden, keyed by 41 saves from goalie Peter Lindmark and two-point performances from Hakan Loob of the Calgary Flames and Mats Naslund of the Montreal Canadiens, shocked Canada 3-2 in the final Preliminary Round matchup for both Group A teams.

With the top three from both Group A and Group B moving on to the Medal Round, Canada met the undefeated Soviets on February 24 in front of a sold-out, screaming Calgary crowd. Everyone knew this game would likely determine the gold medal winner.

Playing on the Saddledome’s expanded Olympic-size ice surface with IIHF rules and officiating was more of an advantage for the puck possession-oriented, swift-skating Soviets than many Canadians had anticipated. Vladimir Krutov staked his team to a 2-0 first period lead. On his first goal, the winger took an Igor Larionov pass in the neutral zone, beat Al MacInnis wide, and snapped a shot past Grant Fuhr’s stick side. The next one saw Krutov finishing off a 2-on-1 rush with Sergei Makarov, with Scott Stevens caught out of position looking for a big hit. Brent Sutter brought Canada alive early in the second period, banging the rebound from a Ray Bourque point shot past Soviet goalie Sergei Mylnikov to make it 2-1. But Anatoli Semenov scored shorthanded three minutes later, and Makarov and Viacheslav Fetisov put the game out of reach with deft power play tallies after Mark Messier took a double minor for elbowing on Andrei Khomutov. Wayne Gretzky set up Mario Lemieux for a beautiful breakaway goal seven minutes into the third period, and Mike Gartner blew a drive from right wing over Mylnikov’s glove with 2:57 to go. Yet despite being outshot 13-5 over the last 20 minutes, the Soviets hung on for a 5-3 victory.

Dejected, the Canadians wrapped up the tournament with a penalty-filled 8-2 win over West Germany and a 4-4 tie with Czechoslovakia. The final standings included points carried over from the Preliminary Round, and the Soviets claimed the gold, Sweden took the silver, and Canada wound up with the bronze.

“NATIONAL NIGHTMARE!” blared the Vancouver Province headline on February 29, while the Toronto Star went with “Now the heartache begins.” One Canadian journalist accused Dave King of misguided loyalty in terms of choosing James Patrick and Kirk Muller, a pair of holdovers from the 1984 Olympic team, but it was pointed out that both players had respectable plus-minus ratings of +5, and couldn’t be faulted for their play versus the Soviets. Others said power forwards like Rick Tocchet, Cam Neely, and Kevin Dineen should have been taken to Calgary to pound and intimidate the Soviets, but King expressed his doubts that such tactics would have been effective on the bigger ice and with international officiating standards.

Prior to the Olympics, Wayne Gretzky had missed 13 NHL games with a sprained knee, but he’d shown good form upon returning at the end of January. The legendary Oilers captain wasn’t making any excuses for what happened in Calgary. “Our guys gave it everything they had, and unfortunately we came up short at the wrong time,” he said. “But you haven’t seen the last of Wayne Gretzky at the Olympics. I think NHL participation is great for our sport, and Canada will come back even stronger in 1992.”

The Great One was right. Canada won the 1992 Albertville Olympics, posting a convincing 5-1 decision over the USSR/CIS team in the final match, and defeated Sweden 4-2 in the 1994 gold medal game in Lillehammer, Norway.

Note: The foregoing is a work of alternative historical fiction. However, the first two quotes from Dr. Gunther Sabetzki and John Ziegler are authentic; the fitness analysis from Dr. Howie Wenger appeared in the February 11, 1988 Vancouver Sun; Wayne Gretzky did miss 13 games with a strained knee; and all NHL players were in fact eligible to participate in 1988, 1992, and 1994.