Are the 80's Oilers the closet thing the NHL has seen to the current Warriors?

[jack238923]

1/3 of the Warriors roster was on the All-Star team this past year. Two former MVPs. 5 (and arguably 6) future Hall-of-Famers, 5 of which are still in their prime. Sustained competitive dominance/overwhelming favourites in 4 (and maybe more) consecutive seasons. Anyone else compare?

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[Filthy Dangles]

Blackhawks

 

[BlueBull]

1/3 of the Warriors roster was on the All-Star team this past year. Two former MVPs. 5 (and arguably 6) future Hall-of-Famers, 5 of which are still in their prime. Sustained competitive dominance/overwhelming favourites in 4 (and maybe more) consecutive seasons. Anyone else compare?

1950s/1970s Habs would be more dominant then the warriors now tbfh.

 

[MessierII]

1950s/1970s Habs would be more dominant then the warriors now tbfh.

Not the same dominating a 30 team league.

 

[The Panther]

Not really. The 1980s' Oilers team somehow gets "over-ranked" as an All Star collection. Really, there were five real All-Stars on that team (Gretzky, Messier, Kurri, Coffey, Anderson) and Coffey missed the last two Cups, Gretzky the last one.

In 1986, Oilers' coach Glen Sather was coach of the Campbell Conference (west) All-Star team and he picked about 10 Oilers' players to play, which was ridiculous. This included people like Lee Fogolin and Kevin Lowe, who were not all stars.

(The most fearsome "All Star" team the Oilers ever iced lasted only about three or four months in late-winter/spring 1987. This included not only the aforementioned five All Stars and the usual supporting cast of Grant Fuhr, Esa Tikkanen, and Andy Moog, but added Kent Nilsson and Reijo Ruotsalainen, two of the most skilled players of the 80s.)

No, the best NHL equivalent would probably be Montreal in the late-50s or basically anytime from the late-60s to late-70s.

Boston in 1970-71 should also be considered: seven point-per-game players, four 100+ point scorers, and the top-four scorers in the NHL (and seven of the top ten). Pittsburgh in the early-90s and Detroit in that late-90s to 2002 window as well.

 

[Albus Dumbledore]

i dont think any team in hockey can compare, basketball you really only need so many players to play.
The warriors were arguably the best team of all time then they added KD and Boogie, that is just insane.
Adding one of the purest scorers of all time and a top 3 center(in the game rn) to a already stacked team is just disgusting.

With that said if Lebron can beat that team he is hands down the goat imo.

 

[GodEmperor]

The NBA is a disgrace, it is allowing itself to get destroyed for no reason. There will always be asterix next to Durant's championships and it has done NOTHING for his legacy.

The Oilers were an organic dynasty unlike the charade that the Warriors are. No other sports team typifies the soft and pathetic mentality of a certain generation, all veneer, zero substance and valuing looking good over actual hard work and legacy building.

 

[bobbydigital]

With that said if Lebron can beat that team he is hands down the goat imo.

As a Bulls fan I am obligated to interject that Jordan was, and always will be the G.O.A.T.

 

[bobbyking]

As a Bulls fan I am obligated to interject that Jordan was, and always will be the G.O.A.T.

Jordan never faced teams as good as gs. Not even close but he's still the goat 1a

 

[bobbydigital]

Jordan never faced teams as good as gs. Not even close but he's still the goat 1a

The 1997 and 1998 Utah Jazz were a dominant teams. Saying they were not even close to being as good as the Warriors is doing them a major disservice. Also, you can't have a goat 1a. There can't be two players considered the greatest of all time.

 

[bambamcam4ever]

As a Bulls fan I am obligated to interject that Jordan was, and always will be the G.O.A.T.

Saying someone will always be the greatest essentially invalidates your opinion. Fortunately for you though, Daigle was wrong, people do remember the 2nd best.

LeBron James is the best basketball player who has ever walked this Earth.

 

[bobbydigital]

How does saying that invalidate my opinion?

 

[grentthealien]

It is really hard to make cross sports comparisons like that. Especially when one sport has around 4-5 guys who play the majority of the game while the other has to disperse minutes between 18 players + 1 goalie. It is just so much easier for star players to dominate in Basketball than Hockey even with Gretzky making the entire 80s look like a video game.

 

[Plural]

How does saying that invalidate my opinion?

Cause you can't say that for certain I guess.

There's a real debate between Jordan and LeBron for sure.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

The Oilers were an organic dynasty unlike the charade that the Warriors are. No other sports team typifies the soft and pathetic mentality of a certain generation, all veneer, zero substance and valuing looking good over actual hard work and legacy building.

i do believe kenta nilsson and reijo ruotsalainen have already been mentioned upthread

 

[Matty Sundin]

It's tough to compare two different sports. Detroit in 2001-2002 is the probably the closes in recent history though.

 

[blogofmike]

The 1997 and 1998 Utah Jazz were a dominant teams. Saying they were not even close to being as good as the Warriors is doing them a major disservice. Also, you can't have a goat 1a. There can't be two players considered the greatest of all time.

It will be a widely held opinion. Before they lost to the Lebron Cavs the Warriors were being held up as a candidate for best team of all time. A top offense and a top defense in a large competitive league. No one thought as highly of the 90s Jazz and the Warriors proceeded to add an MVP. Even pre-KD the Golden State depth blows Utah out of the water. Hornacek as a third man doesn't seem to compare. Even as a Jordan fan it's easy to see that Lebron slayed a bigger dragon.

As for a hockey comparable I guess you go with the Oilers on quality as Edmonton had an MVP #2 guy in his prime. The 02 Wings had the same feel of stars signing to win a Cup but many were past their prime. At the time the 48 Leafs picking up Bentley probably felt similarly overwhelming.

 

[grentthealien]

Cause you can't say that for certain I guess.

There's a real debate between Jordan and LeBron for sure.

There is but it is Jordan for me. I think the amount of prime years he missed due to pursuing a baseball career after the death of his dad and his rather early 2nd retirement at age 34 are the cherry on top for me. He probably missed 3 to 4 seasons of his career where he was still an elite player who knows how many more accomplishments he could’ve had those years.

The Jordan vs Lebron debate or the Messi vs Maradona debate in soccer will be had for quite sometime. I just wish hockey could have a debate like that in the modern era. The big 4 seem like they’re locked in stone and with the way the game has evolved it seems highly unlikely that any player today can accomplish enough to challenge them.

 

[GMR]

Not the same dominating a 30 team league.

But there's only like two or three legit contenders in the NBA besides the Warriors. So it's actually not much different despite the league size. Unfortunately for the NBA, the talent pool is not spread over 30 teams evenly.