In right this moment’s NHL, followers and coaches alike see any goalkeeper who begins 60 video games or extra as an absolute workhorse. Beginning goalies are often anticipated to play 45-55 video games, except they’re really on the prime of the heap within the league.
20 years in the past, goalies beginning 60-plus video games was extra widespread, nevertheless it actually wasn’t routine. Which makes it much more spectacular that within the 1995-96 season, a goalie who had arrived in a brand new metropolis as a free agent, proven as much as coaching camp obese, and obtained a suspension from his head coach went on to set an NHL file by beginning 79 video games in that season. That goalie was Corridor of Famer Grant Fuhr.
Fuhr’s Inauspicious Begin
Lengthy earlier than he arrived with the St. Louis Blues, Fuhr had constructed a status as one of many league’s greatest goalies and a possible future Corridor of Fame inductee. He had received 4 Stanley Cups with the Edmonton Oilers dynasty within the 1980s, in addition to a Vezina Trophy within the 1987-88 season and a Jennings Trophy (together with Dominik Hasek) with the Buffalo Sabres within the 1993-94 season. He was additionally an All-Star six instances.
Grant Fuhr was a legendary goalie for the Edmonton Oilers, serving to them win 4 Stanley Cups within the 1980s (NHL.com)
Regardless of that Jennings Trophy win, when Fuhr hit free company following the 1994-95 season, he was not a scorching commodity. Many within the league believed he was out of form and previous his prime. However the Blues, who had traded Curtis Joseph’s rights to the Edmonton Oilers after the earlier season, provided him a two-year contract for $2.1 million.
Alas, the connection between Fuhr and the crew soured instantly initially of his first season. The veteran goalie confirmed as much as camp obese and out of form. The crew claimed that he was upwards of 30 kilos obese, whereas Fuhr himself stated on the time that it was nearer to 10 or 15, however admitted he had 20 p.c physique fats.
Regardless of the precise quantity, the Blues had been dissatisfied with Fuhr’s Falstaffian look, and notoriously irritable head coach Mike Keenan suspended his goaltender earlier than coaching camp had even begun in earnest. It appeared like the connection between the crew and its new goalie, and even perhaps Fuhr’s profession, was on the verge of ending.
An Unbelievable Return
As an alternative of wallowing in anger or self-pity, Fuhr took the suspension as a problem. He discovered a health guru named Bob Kersee and acquired himself again into enjoying form. He performed the Blues’ first sport of the common season, after which he didn’t cease enjoying.
St. Louis Blues Grant Fuhr seemed 10 years youthful when he returned to the ice to start out the Blues season (Photograph by Denis Brodeur/NHLI by way of Getty Pictures)
Fuhr turned the shining star of the crew in a short time, and he began sport after sport after sport. In reality, he began 10 video games in a row to start out the season. Then 20. Then 30. By the point he’d reached 50, it was sufficient of a narrative for Sports activities Illustrated to jot down about Fuhr. Then on the 55 sport mark, the journal requested the goalie if he might begin all 82.
If Mike decides I can play all of’em, and this previous physique lets me, then I’ll play all of ’em,” he stated. “I really feel fairly good proper now, no aches, no pains. I haven’t been this mild since my rookie 12 months in Edmonton.”
Fuhr was higher than “fairly good.” He was carrying the crew. Corridor of Fame defenseman Al MacInnis stated “we used to take a seat on the bench and say, ‘Rattling, did you see that save?’ However after 50-odd video games, we’re bored with saying it.” Brett Hull, one other Corridor of Fame member, was much more succinct, when requested how the Blues would have been with out Fuhr.
We’d have received 5 video games, possibly seven, sincere to god.Brett Hull on how the 1995-96 Blues would have been with out Grant Fuhr
Fuhr would go on to start out the primary 76 video games of the season consecutively. He completed the season with 79 video games performed. Each tallies had been NHL information. It is likely one of the most exceptional common season performances by any goalie ever, and with out him, the Blues probably wouldn’t have made the playoffs. Sadly, that’s the place the story took a tragic flip.
Kypreos Ends Fuhr’s Season
When the Blues entered the postseason, they had been as robust a contender as anybody. They’d one of many hottest goalies within the league who had carried them via the season. They’d a confirmed head coach who had received the Stanley Cup simply two seasons earlier than. They usually had an unimaginable commerce deadline addition: “the Nice One,” Wayne Gretzky.
The Blues entered the playoffs with a purple scorching goaltender, a veteran coach, and two of probably the most prolific scorers within the historical past of the league (Photograph by Bruce Bennett Studios/Getty Pictures)
However then, catastrophe struck. The Blues met the Toronto Maple Leafs within the first spherical of the playoffs. They received Recreation 1 convincingly, ending with a Three-1 victory on dwelling ice. However simply over 9 minutes into the primary interval of Recreation 2, every little thing modified. Fuhr coated a puck and the whistle blew, however as play stopped, Chris Pronger, then in his first season with the Blues, cross-checked Maple Leafs’ ahead Nick Kypreos from behind.
Kypreos, showing to magnify the influence of the cross-check, proceeded to collide with Fuhr arduous, sending him again into the web. After the following skirmish, trainers assisted Fuhr off the ice, by no means to return to the sport. In reality, it was the tip of the goalie’s season. The Blues introduced that he had suffered a number of torn ligaments in his knee and couldn’t return to motion. Keenan, not recognized for defending his gamers usually, was livid.
“[Kypreos] intentionally tried to make contact with him,” Keenan stated on the time. “He wasn’t pushed into him as everybody thought he had been… he made direct contact, that leading to a season-ending damage to a really key and necessary participant on our crew. The primary goalkeeper on any crew in playoff hockey is paramount to the success of any crew. There’s no excuse for it.”
Mike Keenan solely spent three seasons in St. Louis, however continued to educate for a few years. Most lately, he served because the inaugural head coach for the KHL’s first ever Chinese language crew, HC Kunlun Crimson Star (Roman Makhmutov – Flickr)
Fuhr would later say that whereas he believes the hit was deliberate, he doesn’t suppose Kypreos meant to injure him. Regardless of the intent, the consequence was devastating, and Blues followers are all too hauntingly conversant in the remainder of the story. Whereas the crew dispatched the Maple Leafs behind new goalie Jon Casey, who had taken half in simply 9 common season video games earlier than being thrust into Recreation 2, they might not honest so nicely within the second spherical towards the Detroit Crimson Wings.
What Would possibly Have Been…
Steve Yzerman’s double-OT winner in Recreation 7 to ship the Crimson Wings onto the Convention Remaining, and notably the Gretzky turnover that created it, nonetheless haunts many Blues followers. However Yzerman could by no means have gotten that far if Kypreos hadn’t ended one of the vital unimaginable goaltending seasons of all time prematurely.
Fuhr’s profession received’t be remembered any much less fondly due to that collision. Although he was by no means fairly the identical, he went on to start out 73 video games the next season, and performed three extra with the Blues. He would spend another season with the Calgary Flames earlier than saying his retirement previous to the 2000-01 season.
Fuhr’s quantity 31 was retired by the Oilers in 2003, the identical 12 months he was inducted into the Hockey Corridor of Fame. His legacy is safe, and his 79-game efficiency in 1995-96 is a file that can virtually actually by no means be damaged. However followers in St. Louis will at all times have a considerably bitter style of their mouths, questioning what may need been if Kypreos hadn’t hit Fuhr and their crew had completed the season with its Corridor of Fame goaltender.
