Flyers' Finals Scoring: 1985 & 1987
The Flyers' Finals scoring stats vs. Oilers in 1985 & 1987
Flyers' Finals Scoring: 1985 & 1987
Bob Vetrone Jr.
One of our younger followers, seeing that the Flyers were in Edmonton Thursday, asked how the clubs' scoring looked in the Stanley Cup Finals losses to the Oilers in 1985 and 1987. Below are the cumulative totals for the 12 games.
Thanks to flyershistory.com, where you can find summaries for every playoff game in Flyers history.
Notable:
♦ Tim Kerr, who had battled bad knee ligament problems throughout the 1985 postseason, lasted only three games in the Finals and missed the entire 1987 Oilers showdown with a separated shoulder.
♦ Only nine Flyers appeared in all 12 Finals games those seasons. Thirty different Flyers appeared in at least one of those Finals games.
♦ The Flyers' four game-winning goals came off the sticks of Rick Tocchet, Ron Sutter, Brad McCrimmon and J.J. Daigneault.
♦ The Oilers outscored the Flyers, 20-8, in the first period of the 12 games, including 10-2 in the 1987 opening stanzas.
| Player | GP | G | A | Pts. | PP | SH |
| Brian Propp | 12 | 6 | 6 | 12 | 2 | 0 |
| Rick Tocchet | 12 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| Pelle Eklund | 7 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 1 | 0 |
| Ron Sutter | 12 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Derrick Smith | 12 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Murray Craven | 11 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 1 |
| Doug Crossman | 12 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Dave Poulin | 12 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Rich Sutter | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Tim Kerr | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Brad McCrimmon | 7 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Scott Mellanby | 7 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Lindsay Carson | 9 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Mark Howe | 12 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Peter Zezel | 12 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Brad Marsh | 12 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Todd Bergen | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| J.J. Daigneault | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Ilkka Sinisalo | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Kjell Samuelsson | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Dave Brown | 8 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Ray Allison | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Len Hachborn | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Don Nachbaur | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tim Tookey | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Thomas Eriksson | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Daryl Stanley | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Miroslav Dvorak | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ed Hospodar | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Joe Paterson | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
JJ's goal in game 6 is still one of the greatest moments ever. The place erupted like never before. That was a great team that just happened to run into an Edmonton hall of fame laden dynasty, and still came close. Getting through the Wales Conference Playoffs was a lot harder than Edmonton's walk too. That was the difference. Which is why the recently proposed new playoff formats scare me.— burholme- That 1985 Finals ended at 4-1 Edmonton but games 2,3, and 4 were tight games that could have gone either way. The Flyers blew two key opportunities when they couldn't convert penalty shots in games 3 and 4. Still, it was a great run by a very young team.
The 1987 team fought through so many injuries as that great makeshift line of Propp, Tocchet, and Eklund just destroyed opponents, especially Montreal. Hextall played the best hockey of his career to win the Conn Smythe trophy, as playoff MVP, in a losing cause. Oh, what could have been if that team could have stayed healthy.— wylies99 - So true re 1987. Gosh, it would have been nice to have our 58 GOAL scorer Kerr in a series against Edmonton that went right down to the third period of Game 7. Let alone a healthy Poulin; his broken ribs dropped him from the first line to the fourth line. And we still nearly beat the best of Edmonton's five Cup teams, probably one of the best teams ever... — PhilaLogic
- After game 7 1987 Mark Howe cried in the locker room. I let a few tears go myself.— 27leach
- 31 May 1987 was the happiest and saddest day of my life. I remember the anticipation of an upset, the early Craven goal which gave them the lead and how they played so scrappy throughout the game until the juggernaut Oilers teams finally broke it through. When I think of the 80s Oil teams and the run the 87 Flyers gave them, it would have been the biggest hockey upset ever (including US v. USSR) if the Flyers beat that dynastic 87 Oilers team...and it almost happened.— Repubrebirth
