Series
The 1989 Stanley Cup playoffs featured two Canadian hockey teams, the Montreal Canadiens and the Calgary Flames. Montreal finished the regular season with 115 points, only two behind the league leader Calgary. They had last faced each other in 1986, with Montreal winning in five games. Calgary was only the second opposing team in NHL history to win a Stanley Cup at the Montreal Forum (the New York Rangers defeated the Montreal Maroons in 1928) and the first to do so against the Canadiens.
Flames defenceman Al MacInnis won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, while Lanny McDonald, who ended the regular season with exactly 500 goals, got his name on the Cup in his last ever NHL game. Flames co-owner Sonia Scurfield became the first Canadian woman to have her name inscribed on the Stanley Cup.
On their way to the finals, Montreal lost only three games while eliminating the Hartford Whalers, Boston Bruins, and Philadelphia Flyers. Calgary survived a seven-game series with the Vancouver Canucks before sweeping the Los Angeles Kings and eliminating the Chicago Blackhawks in five to reach the Cup finals.
Wayne Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings met the defending champion Oilers in the first round. The previous season saw the Oilers sweep the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup finals as Gretzky earned the Conn Smythe Trophy, setting playoff records for playoff assists, assists in a finals series and points in a finals series.
On August 9, 1988, the Oilers traded Gretzky to the Kings. The Gretzky-led Kings and Oilers (with many veteran super-stars) met in the first round of the Smythe Division playoffs. In seven games, Gretzky and the Kings defeated the defending Stanley Cup champions after falling behind 3 games to 1. In the second round Gretzky and the Kings were swept by the eventual champion Calgary Flames in four games.
Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Ron Hextall became the first netminder to shoot and score a goal in the playoffs, a shorthanded, empty-net score in Game 5 of the Patrick Division Semifinal against the Washington Capitals. One round later, Mario Lemieux torched the Flyers for an NHL-record five goals and eight points in a 10–7 Pittsburgh win in Game 5 of the Patrick Division finals. Hextall then made headlines in the Wales Conference Finals, attacking Montreal's Chris Chelios in the late stages of Game 6 as retribution for Chelios' unpenalized hit on Flyers forward Brian Propp in Game 1. Hextall received a 12-game suspension at the start of the 1989–90 NHL season for his actions.
Former Flyers head coach Mike Keenan led Chicago to the Campbell Conference finals in his first year behind the bench. The Hawks, with 66 points, had the fewest points of any playoff team that season (and tied in the overall standings with New Jersey, a fifth-place team in the Patrick Division), yet upset first-place Detroit and then St. Louis before bowing to Calgary.
This was the only time that Bryan Trottier missed the playoffs in his entire career; he did not play in the 1992-93 season.
Read more about this topic: 1989 Stanley Cup Playoffs
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