The Rough Tough Canucks of 1994 Stanley Cup Finals

[RolexSub]

Just looking back at the Stanley Cup Finals back in 1994!!! We were stacked with toughness and big forwards and we made it to the Stanley Cup Finals: 

Forwards:

Sergio Momesso 6.3 215lbs

Gino Odjick 6.3 224lbs

Tim Hunter 6.2 200lbs

Shawn Antoski 6.4 235lbs

Trevor Linden 6.4 220lbs

Roman Oksiuta 6.3 230lbs

Greg Adams 6.4 196lbs

 

Defense:

Adrian Aucoin 6.2 215lbs

Dave Babych 6.1 225lbs

Jeff Brown 6.2 204lbs

Jassen Cullimore 6.5 235lbs

Gerald Diduck 6.1 216lbs

Bret Hedican 6.2 210lbs

Dana Murzyn 6.2 208lbs

Jiri Slegr 6.1 210lbs 

 

How the game has changed so much with speed and skills now. Thought I share this video as it was quite to enjoy to watch the good old hockey days back then!! But it still hurts we lost in game 7...similar vs the Bruins. Twice we came so close in winning it!!

 

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

how many of those guys werent on the juice in that era

[Jam126]

Yep, they lost.

[Kevin Biestra]

I think that was slightly before Adrian Aucoin and Cullimore's time.  Oksiuta as well.

 

On the other hand though Nathan Lafayette was a pretty big guy that you left out.  I think he was six foot one measured with a lot of girth and a good looking body.

 

 

Edited July 15, 2023 by Kevin Biestra

[Kevin Biestra]

It's a shame we had given up Doug Lidster not long earlier as basically future considerations in a deal.  We could have really used him in the final as opposed to having him do this to us with the Rangers...

 

 

Lidster winning the Cup was pretty much the only thing I was able to take a little bit of satisfaction in with the loss.

 

 

 

Edited July 15, 2023 by Kevin Biestra

[grumpyone]

and with the way the refs treat us today, we'd always have 3 guys in the penalty box. 

 

[-DLC-]

Loved that team, they really set off my intense love of Canucks' hockey.

 

It was also a good blend because we also had Bure (matters to have someone like him) and skilled players like Ronning. McLean was in fine form.

 

A combination of things made them successful....that was a fun ride with that team. We had our entire place decorated in the Province posters and invited the neighbourhood over to watch games.  Strata even gave me special permission to keep my huge bay window logo up (it was awesome). Great memories.

[Nucker 67]

Hockey was a lot slower back in the 80s and 90s, more of a physical game with lax rules. I think today, it's more about speed, skating, skill and IQ, and players are being called for everything.

 

 

 

 

[Alflives]

4 minutes ago, NUCKER67 said:

Hockey was a lot slower back in the 80s and 90s, more of a physical game with lax rules. I think today, it's more about speed, skating, skill and IQ, and players are being called for everything.

 

 

 

 

Yup. Bure scores a billion goals with rules how they are now. 

[YEGCanuck]

Didn't the Canucks play in a game seven in each of the years ('82, '94 and '11) we were in the Stanley Cup Finals?

[Nucker 67]

33 minutes ago, Alflives said:

Yup. Bure scores a billion goals with rules how they are now. 

Yeah, Bure might've been the exception back then, as far as slow hockey. He was ahead of his time. 

[Ghostsof1915]

82 the team got wiped out and swept in 4, because the Islanders were in their prime. Whomever won the west was pretty much screwed.

It's not a matter just of size, the 94' team had balance. It had skill (Linden, Bure, Ronning, Courtnall), It had toughness, and could play any type of hockey.

Change a couple of pieces for example convincing Larionov to come back, or keeping Lidster and Neely.

Sigh. Would could have been.

[Alflives]

2 minutes ago, Ghostsof1915 said:

82 the team got wiped out and swept in 4, because the Islanders were in their prime. Whomever won the west was pretty much screwed.

It's not a matter just of size, the 94' team had balance. It had skill (Linden, Bure, Ronning, Courtnall), It had toughness, and could play any type of hockey.

Change a couple of pieces for example convincing Larionov to come back, or keeping Lidster and Neely.

Sigh. Would could have been.

Drafting Jagr instead of Nedved. 

[NewbieCanuckFan]

3 hours ago, Kevin Biestra said:

On the other hand though Nathan Lafayette was a pretty big guy that you left out. 

All I remember from Lafayette was this:

 

 

I tried 'shock therapy' to remove this memory but alas, I still wake up in the middle of the night & yell "dam n you Lafayette".

[Mando27]

Still think that was the greatest group we ever had. The 2011 group would of been demolished by these guys.

[Dr. Crossbar]

That team and run to the Cup was magical. I was 24 and had just arrived in the city the year before and got swept up in all the excitement. 

 

That team was something special with Pat Quinn at the helm. It's hard to put into words. The electricity inside Pacific Colesium was incredible. 

 

What made that run so special is that we weren't supposed to even be there. There were no expectations. We made the playoffs and kept defying the odds, knocking off better teams in each round. We were making the impossible possible. 

 

Contrast that with the 2011 team and their run ... they were expected to win. The expectations were huge. 

 

But ...

 

So many great memories from that 94 team. We had so much grit, intensity, toughness,and pushback. Even Bure was physically dangerous. 

 

It was a different era of size and physicality but size still matters today. 

 

It was this team that solidified my Canucks fandom. 

 

 

[bishopshodan]

Never would have guessed that Hedican was heavier than Murzyn. 

 

What a team. I worked as a busboy at a club called Luv-a-fair at the time. The team used to come in now and then. Was such a treat, I'll aways remember those days. 

I had a cop show up at my door about a week after the riots. I had been identified by one of my neighbours ( ithink) from tv footage, that I was in the riots.

I wasn't . I told the cop how I was working that night at the club.and could get them about 500 people that would confirm that. 

[RolexSub]

4 hours ago, Kevin Biestra said:

I think that was slightly before Adrian Aucoin and Cullimore's time.  Oksiuta as well.

 

On the other hand though Nathan Lafayette was a pretty big guy that you left out.  I think he was six foot one measured with a lot of girth and a good looking body.

 

 

Haha yeah I left him out because he missed that open net to tie the game in game 7.....jk!!! I didn't add him in there because he was under 200lbs. But agree he could have made the list of big forwards. 

[grandmaster]

10 hours ago, RolexSub said:

Just looking back at the Stanley Cup Finals back in 1994!!! We were stacked with toughness and big forwards and we made it to the Stanley Cup Finals: 

Forwards:

Sergio Momesso 6.3 215lbs

Gino Odjick 6.3 224lbs

Tim Hunter 6.2 200lbs

Shawn Antoski 6.4 235lbs

Trevor Linden 6.4 220lbs

Roman Oksiuta 6.3 230lbs

Greg Adams 6.4 196lbs

 

Defense:

Adrian Aucoin 6.2 215lbs

Dave Babych 6.1 225lbs

Jeff Brown 6.2 204lbs

Jassen Cullimore 6.5 235lbs

Gerald Diduck 6.1 216lbs

Bret Hedican 6.2 210lbs

Dana Murzyn 6.2 208lbs

Jiri Slegr 6.1 210lbs 

 

How the game has changed so much with speed and skills now. Thought I share this video as it was quite to enjoy to watch the good old hockey days back then!! But it still hurts we lost in game 7...similar vs the Bruins. Twice we came so close in winning it!!

 

 

The strongest was Pavel, the greatest Canuck of those times. He crushed it with the weights and had absolute horse legs. I heard he had the greatest bench and squat.
 

No Canuck to this day has been faster than the Russian Rocket!

 

 

[nuckin_futz]

 

This is the display still of the video. I remember this play so vividly. It was Sergio Momesso taking a full 2 handed golf swing at Joey Kocur's ankles. Kocur saw it coming and was able to jump and avoid the chop.

 

If Momesso had connected he would have been suspended for a tonne of games. As it was I couldn't believe he got away without even an Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalty.

Edited July 15, 2023 by nuckin_futz