Mike Krushelnyski

Lore & Background

Krushelnyski made his NHL debut on October 24, 1981, against the Montreal Canadiens. During the 1984–85 offseason, the Bruins traded him to the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for Ken Linseman. While playing left wing on the Oilers top line with Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri, he finished fourth on the team in scoring with a career-high 43 goals and 88 points. He won three Stanley Cups with the Oilers in 1987, 1988, and 1990. Krushelnyski and Marty McSorley were part of the 1988 trade in which Wayne Gretzky was sent to the Los Angeles Kings. He later played for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings before retiring after the 1995 season. He is best remembered for scoring an overtime goal with the Kings that eliminated the heavily favored and defending Stanley Cup champion Calgary Flames from the 1990 Stanley Cup playoffs in the sixth game of the Smythe Division semifinal. Krushelnyski chipped the puck over Flames goaltender Mike Vernon at 3:14 of the second overtime while lying flat on the ice after being knocked down during a goalmouth scramble.

In Their Own Story

The Scotiabank Saddledome was a furnace that night. The 1989 Stanley Cup Final, Game Seven, the air thick with the smell of popcorn and nervous sweat. Krushelnyski stood at the blue line, stick planted, watching the Edmonton winger wind up for a slap shot. He didn't think. He just dropped his shoulder, raised his forearm, and let the puck hit the bone of his wrist with a sound like a cracked board. The puck deflected harmlessly into the corner. He didn't even flinch. He just turned, skated back to his zone, and waited for the next one. That was Krush. That was always Krush.

Reader's Guide

After retiring, Krushelnyski was an assistant coach with Detroit when they won the Stanley Cup in 1997, but left after winning his fourth championship to become head coach of the Central Hockey League's Fort Worth Fire, a post he held until the team folded in 1999. He coached the Vityaz Chekhov, in the Kontinental Hockey League, for the 2006-07 season and from November 2008 to December 2009. In between his two stints with the KHL, he was coach of the Ingolstadt Panthers, in Germany's top tier Deutsche Eishockey Liga. In 2013, Krushelnyski competed in the 4th season of CBC's figure skating reality show Battle of the Blades. He was voted out on October 7, losing to Oksana Kazakova and Vladimir Malakhov.

Did You Know?

• Krushelnyski played in the 1973 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with a minor ice hockey team from LaSalle, Quebec.
• He was selected by the Boston Bruins in the 6th round, 120th overall, in the 1979 NHL entry draft.
• He played for the Springfield Indians and the Erie Blades in the American Hockey League (AHL) before his NHL debut.
• Krushelnyski never played for the Calgary Flames; he eliminated them from the 1990 playoffs while playing for the Los Angeles Kings.