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Top 90 of the ’90s
The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.
THE GOOD FIGHT
MARC TARDIF HAS A hard time choosing which shining moment in his illustrious hockey career stands out as his favorite. You can hardly blame the guy for having to think it over. He won just about every major team trophy he could in his career, taking home a Memorial Cup with the Montreal Jr. Canadiens in 1969, two Stanley Cups with the Montreal Canadiens (1971, 1973) and an Avco Cup with the WHA’s Quebec Nordiques in 1977. And it was with the Nordiques where he became the third pro player – after Phil Esposito and Bobby Hull – to score more than 70 goals in a season. He remains the WHA’s all-time leading goal-scorer. “There were so many amazing things and great friendships,” Tardif said. “It’s impossible to pick just one…
TOP 90 OF THE ‘90S: 78. DERIAN HATCHER
D | MIN/DAL 1990s STATS: 585 GP | 57 G | 159 A | 216 P | 1,110 PIM THERE WAS NO MEDIA event or press release the day Derian Hatcher was named captain of the Dallas Stars. And given it was decades before the rise of social media, there were no spiffy graphics whipped up, which these days would be considered the bare minimum. Instead, when Hatcher earned the captaincy in 1994-95, not even he knew it was coming. As the story goes, the Stars were passing the captaincy around on a rotational basis following the departure of Neal Broten. It was short-lived, though, as coach-GM Bob Gainey quickly landed on Hatcher as the Stars’ permanent leader. Gainey did so, however, without so much as a word to Hatcher. “I don’t know…
SMOKES, MULLETS AND MAGIC
WHEN I THINK BACK to the 1990s, a lot of fond memories come to mind. After all, I was a rabid hockey fan back then, even if my lackluster house-league career was winding down in favor of a couple years of football followed by total punk-rock immersion. I think back to Maple Leaf Gardens, where for much of the ’90s, people were still allowed to smoke indoors. Climbing the stairs up to the reds, I remember the legs of the smokers in the stairwells and not so much the top halves, which were completely obscured by a sickly blue fog. Even as a kid, there wasn’t much room for your knees in the Gardens’ reds, so I can’t imagine how adults coped. (I also saw Nirvana and Nine Inch Nails perform…
TOP 90 OF THE ‘90S: 8-13
>8. JOE SAKIC C | QUE/COL 1990s STATS: 702 GP | 341 G | 555 A | 896 P | 317 PIM Playing in an era with so many other iconic centers deprived Sakic of individual awards, except the Conn Smythe – which he earned while leading the Avs to their first Cup in 1996. His 896 points are tied for second in the decade, and these days, ‘Burnaby Joe’ is still helping the Avs as the team’s president of hockey ops. >9. BRETT HULL RW | STL, DAL 1990s STATS: 712 GP | 464 G | 378 A | 842 P | 298 PIM No one scored as many goals in the ’90s as did Hull. No one was even close – Hull’s 464 tallies are 77 more than second-place Jaromir Jagr. Hull also got his…
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