Fans flocked to Queen Anne Beer Hall on Monday night to watch the Florida Panthers hold off the Edmonton Oilers in a thrilling Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. (Geoff Baker / The Seattle Times)
Fans flocked to Queen Anne Beer Hall on Monday night to watch the Florida Panthers hold off the Edmonton Oilers in a thrilling Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. (RJ Eskanos / Emerald City Hockey)
Fans flocked to Queen Anne Beer Hall on Monday night to watch the Florida Panthers hold off the Edmonton Oilers in a thrilling Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. (RJ Eskanos / Emerald City Hockey)
Fans flocked to Queen Anne Beer Hall on Monday night to watch the Florida Panthers hold off the Edmonton Oilers in a thrilling Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. (Geoff Baker / The Seattle Times)
Fans flocked to Queen Anne Beer Hall on Monday night to watch the Florida Panthers hold off the Edmonton Oilers in a thrilling Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. (Geoff Baker / The Seattle Times)
Fans flocked to Queen Anne Beer Hall on Monday night to watch the Florida Panthers hold off the Edmonton Oilers in a thrilling Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. (RJ Eskanos / Emerald City Hockey)
Fans flocked to Queen Anne Beer Hall on Monday night to watch the Florida Panthers hold off the Edmonton Oilers in a thrilling Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. (RJ Eskanos / Emerald City Hockey)
Fans flocked to Queen Anne Beer Hall on Monday night to watch the Florida Panthers hold off the Edmonton Oilers in a thrilling Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. (Geoff Baker / The Seattle Times)
How do you get hundreds of hockey fans to pack a local beer hall in summertime? Just schedule the biggest game in NHL history for them to watch on big screens.
OK, that “biggest game” part sounds somewhat hyperbolic. It did to me when I initially read some commentary making that argument ahead of going to the Queen Anne Beer Hall on Monday night. There, I joined a packed house of Kraken and other hockey fans to watch Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers.
In between giving away and selling copies of my “Rising From The Deep” book, I chatted with Emerald City Hockey pundit RJ Eskanos about our takes on the biggest Cup finals we’d seen or knew about. By the time we were done, it was clear to me this was the biggest game in NHL history we were watching, culminating in the Florida Panthers capturing their initial Cup championship with a 2-1 victory in front of their home fans.
Sure, it’s all rather subjective. But “biggest” games involve the biggest stakes. That’s why I’m careful to say this was the biggest NHL game and not biggest hockey game in history.
It’s tough to beat the stakes of past international play. For me, Team USA beating the Soviet Union in the semifinal ahead of taking gold at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid is right up there with Team Canada beating the Soviets in Moscow in Game 8 of the 1972 Summit Series.
Both series woke their respective countries up. Mike Eruzione’s 1980 game-winner woke Americans up to hockey in general and eventually helped elevate this country to a global power. And Paul Henderson’s iconic 1972 goal in the closing seconds woke Canada up from its fat-cat world power status, highlighted the need to improve skills play and has kept it a global force.
Oh yeah, and those games reinforced that Russians weren’t too shabby either. They’ve since elevated the NHL quite a bit.
That’s why we’ll limit this discussion to the biggest NHL games.
And Cup finals being as big as it gets, you can quickly narrow it down to the 18 series needing the full seven games. Among those, only three involved a team rallying from a 3-0 series deficit.
The 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs remain the only team to complete the rally and capture a championship, defeating Detroit. The Red Wings tried to return the favor in 1945 by rallying to 3-3, but lost Game 7 at home 2-1 when Babe Pratt scored for the Leafs with just under eight minutes to go. Monday’s game saw the Oilers fall short by an identical 2-1 score, though the winning goal by Sam Reinhart came in the second period.
Still, context puts Monday night’s game well ahead.
The 1940s NHL featured rosters depleted by players fighting World War II overseas. Europeans had also not yet made their way to an NHL that contained only a sprinkling of Americans and wouldn’t see Willie O’Ree break the “color” barrier until 1958.
Nowadays, this truly is a league with the world’s best players.
As far as importance, the NHL has evolved from effectively a six-team house league back then into one of the four biggest major professional North American team sports circuits. Monday night’s game was shown live on ABC as part of a multi-billion-dollar U.S. television deal with ESPN and TNT.
More eyeballs on your product increases its importance.
What sealed “biggest” game status was subplots. In addition to the Oilers falling just short of becoming the second team in all major pro sports to surmount an 0-3 championship deficit, they were trying to end the 31-year title drought for Canadian-based franchises. Also, this was finally the year Connor McDavid elevated his legacy from perhaps the greatest player of his generation to one comparable to Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Gordie Howe, Maurice Richard and Sidney Crosby.
They all won multiple Cup titles. McDavid is still seeking his first in a tough salary-cap era, though he did everything possible to will the Oilers to victory — becoming the sixth player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP for the losing finalist.
And the Panthers were seeking their first championship after 32 years of existence, having just lost the final a year ago.
When we talk “biggest games” it’s also largely about pressure heading into the contest — not always the end result. For “best NHL Game 7s” it’s tough to top Pete Babando scoring in double overtime for the Red Wings in the 1950 final to defeat the New York Rangers.
For non-overtime Game 7 results, a top contender is Montreal rallying from 2-0 down in Chicago midway through their 1971 contest and taking the championship 3-2 on a third period strike by Henri Richard.
I’d argue the 1979 conference championship Game 7 thriller in which Montreal defeated Boston 5-4 in overtime is up there since everyone knew the winner would steamroll the Rangers in the final. The Bruins nearly dethroned the three-time defending champions in Montreal until coach Don Cherry’s team took an infamous too-many-men bench penalty that allowed Guy Lafleur to score a classic tying goal with 74 seconds left.
But we aren’t arguing “best games” here. We’re arguing “biggest games” and Monday’s plots and subplots jacked the pressure up to unprecedented levels heading in.
It was fitting Reinhart scored the winner, his 67{sup}th{/sup} combined goal of the regular season and playoffs. He’ll likely be the most sought-after free agent when bidding opens July 1. Ahead of that, the NHL draft starts Friday in Las Vegas.
Yes, the 1,400{sup}th{/sup} game this NHL season included a playoffs stretching beyond two months and now bumping up against the busiest part of the off-season.
That so many local fans were still interested enough to pack a huge beer hall by the hundreds for two non-Kraken teams on a gorgeous late afternoon summer day is testament to hockey’s growth here. And to how big this game really was. I flipped on NPR driving to the beer hall and was shocked even they were talking about the upcoming game despite all the major stuff happening in the world.
The Kraken can feed off that momentum in weeks ahead. There are plenty of sports fans out there looking for reasons to embrace hockey if the local team gives them one.
That’s on the Kraken from here. Right now, what the NHL is offering up is about as good as it gets.
Your comment has been submitted.
Reported
There was a problem reporting this.
Log in
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.
Please select all the ways you would like to hear from us:
You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.
We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp’s privacy practices here.
The Yakima Herald-Republic is hiring.
Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.
We recommend switching to one of the following browsers:
Sign up to receive news and updates from this site directly to your desktop.
Click on the bell icon to manage your notifications at any time.
Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.
