The Game (1987 Stanley Cup Final Game 6, Bruins vs Oilers)

Lore & Background

By 1987, the Edmonton Oilers had become something the NHL had never quite seen: a team that won the Cup three times in four years. Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Paul Coffey, Jari Kurri, and Grant Fuhr formed a core that seemed almost unfair to the rest of the league. The 1987 Final against Philadelphia was the third time in four years the Oilers had to defend a title, and the Flyers—led by a gritty, physical style—posed a different kind of challenge than the Bruins had the year before.

The series stretched to seven games, which told its own story. Philadelphia could match Edmonton in bursts, but the Oilers' depth and Gretzky's relentless playmaking ultimately carried the day. For fans of the sport, watching that era meant watching a team redefine what a hockey franchise could achieve in a single decade. It set the template for what 'dynasty' would mean in professional sports for years to come.

For Blue Jackets fans, this history matters as context. The Blue Jackets arrived in 2000 in a league that had already been shaped by the Oilers' golden run. The standard of excellence those players set—three Cups in four years, a #99 that transcended the sport—was the yardstick against which every subsequent franchise, including Columbus, would measure its own ambitions.

Reader's Guide

The 1987 Stanley Cup Final was the seventh and deciding game of a series between the Edmonton Oilers and the Chicago Blackhawks. The Oilers had already won three straight Cups (1984, 1985, 1986) and entered this Final as the team to beat, with Wayne Gretzky at the helm. Chicago, a physically tough and well-coached club, pushed Edmonton to the brink, forcing a Game 7.

What made the series memorable was the contrast in styles. Edmonton relied on speed, skill, and Gretzky's almost supernatural vision, while Chicago leaned on structure, grit, and a willingness to play a hard, physical game. The back-and-forth nature of the seven games—neither team able to close it out early—gave fans a genuine nail-biter in an era when the Oilers often dominated.

It is remembered because it capped a four-year run of championships, a feat that still stands as one of the most dominant stretches in NHL history. For a Blue Jackets fan looking back at the sport's history, it represents the ceiling of excellence: what a team can do when talent, chemistry, and will align for a full decade. It's the benchmark, the 'what if we could do that' conversation that every Columbus fan has had at least once.

Did You Know?

• The famous Oilers-Bruins Stanley Cup Final actually took place in 1985, not 1987. The 1987 Final featured the Philadelphia Flyers as Edmonton's opponent.
• The Oilers won the Stanley Cup in 1984, 1985, and 1987, but not 1986—so their run was three titles in four years, not four consecutive.
• Wayne Gretzky's #99 was retired league-wide in 2000—the same year the Columbus Blue Jackets played their first season—making it the only number retired across all of North American professional sports.
• The Blue Jackets did not exist until the 2000-01 season, making the entire Oilers dynasty era a 'pre-Columbus' chapter in NHL history.