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Show The Salt Lake Tribune, Wednesday, December 25, 1985 Dll Oilers Triumph Again; New NHL Season Begins With Tragedy 'for the National Hockey League, the 1984-8- 5 season ended predictably and the new season produced a tragedy. The death of Philadelphia's Pelle Lindbergh early in the 1985-8- 6 campaign overshadowed the glorious season he and his Flyers teammates enjoyed before losing the Stanley Cup final last May to the favored defending champion Edmonton Oilers. Predicted to finish as low as fourth in the Patrick Division because of a lineup dominated by rookies and second-yea- r players, the Flyers rode Lindberghs goaltending and team discipline to the regular-seaso- n championship with 113 points. Lindbergh's emergence as the Vezina Trophy goalie was the key to the surprising success of the Flyers. But after celebrating a d winning streak early this season, Lindbergh crashed his sports car on Nov. 10. . club-recor- Swede was Two days later the taken off his system and his organs were donated for transplant. It remains to be seen if the Flyers, who courageously maintained their level of play in the week following Lindbergh s death, will continue to challenge for the Cup. Its not like Pelles out for two or three months. Hes gone, said Bob F roese, who was elevated to Lindbergh's starting spot If you wallow in self pity or are afraid of the challenge, youll fail. Pelle set a tradition; I'm going to keep it up. Nobody wants to get this chance this way, but weve got to go on. The Oilers, too, picked up where they left off and they have yet to falter in their bid for a third straight Cup, losing only seven of their first 35 games. The tendency of many teams to sleep rt an art form of through much of the season the New York Islanders, who failed to make the Cup finals for the first time in six years paved the way for some of last year's surprises. The Winnipeg Jets finished fourth in the NHL, behind Washington, with a franchise-recor- d 96 points. The Los Angeles Kings improved from 59 points the previous year to 82 and continued a peculiar tendency to scare the Oilers. And the Chicago Black Hawks who went on a rampage after CM Bob Pul-for- d fired and replaced coach Orval Tessier in the CampFebruary 4 tied Edmonton bell Conference finals before succumbing d of the leagues 21 teams hired new head coaches. The New York Rangers, who finished with the most losses and in club history. fired Herb Brooks in January. GM Craig Patrick filled in before hiring Philadelphia assistant Ted Sator m the The Vancouver Canucks hired Tom Watt after firing Harry Neale. Neale moved on to Detroit, where Nick Polano was reassigned within the organization. At Minnesota, Glen Sonmor asked to be reassigned and was replaced by Islanders assistant Lome Henning. Jacques Lemaire resigned as Montreal coach and was replaced by his assistant Jean Per- Hed-ber- milestone. Bill Barber, the last remaining Flyer from the "Broad Street Bullies teams of 1975-7gave in to a knee injury. Terry O Reilly, the epitome of the Bruins lunch-pai- l image retired. Detroit's Brad Park ended his career as the NHLs all-tiassist leader among defensemen. Wayne Gretzky won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs MVP to silence the last n doubts about his durability. Gretzky repeated as the league's scoring champion. Most Valuable Player and top s player. Cup-winni- 6, ron. d The Boston Bruins fired coach Gerry Cheevers and eventually gave the job to player Butch Goring. Another is Buffalo's Jim Schoenfeld, named by GM Scott Bowman, who left coaching as the top winning winning coach in NHL history. Among the retired players were some of injury-ravage- 2-- 2 2. One-thir- goals-again- game s biggest symbols. The league lost two of its classiest players in Ranger Anders who had initiated the Scandinavian influx into the NHL, and Darryl Sutler, who was only 16 career goals away from the 500 st post-seaso- plus-minu- rastooa CHRISraTs TRESsf ETCJ TQ) ORfMBlEfJTS, Choose from store stock of trees XJHILE SUPPLIES LAST jg.v lights, ornaments, wreaths, wrap, candle wreaths, candles, Christmas tins, rlbbons bows garland, much more! WILD BIRD SEED & 10 lb bag Attracts and feeds a variety of wild birds Moforciaft rpzzj Y10T0RCRAFT BATTERIES OUR LOW PRICE LESS MAIL-IMFC. REBATE Get fast starts on cold winter mornings Warranteed for 60 months Super heavy-dut- PRICE AFTER REBATE y 4497 AMES SNOW PUSHER OR SHOVEL Choose from 10 x 18 carbon steel blade snow pusher, 44 handle, or 13Va" x 18 carbon steel blade snow shovel, 35 handle with hand grip YOUR CHOICE 16-36- 1 16-4- 0 mtUAHf 4 N TfXXS WINDSHIELD WASHER FLUID U.S. gallon Completely 1 mixed ACCEPTED AT ALL SKAGGS HOME CENTERS! OPEN and ready to use Helps defrost windows 9 A.M.- -9 P.M. SUNDAY 9 A.M.- -7 P.M. PRICES EFFECTIVE DEC. 26 THRU TUES., DEC. 31, 1985 MONDAY-SATURDA- Y r--ti i4 m i i C r -- In r i f |
