The 87 Canada Cup team was, for me, the best ever.
Canada
Forwards and Defense:
Glenn Anderson, Dale Hawerchuk, Mark Messier, Mike Gartner, Kevin Dineen,
Michel Goulet, Brent Sutter, Rick Tocchet, Brian Propp,
Doug Gilmour, Claude Lemieux, Mario Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky, Doug Crossman, Craig Hartsburg, Normand Rochefort, James Patrick,
Raymond Bourque, Larry Murphy, Paul Coffey
Goaltenders: Ron Hextall, Kelly Hrudey,
Grant Fuhr
Coaches: Mike Keenan, John Muckler, Jean Perron, Tom Watt
The Hall of Famers or possible HOF players on that team is incredible. Gretzyky and Lemieux together in their prime along with Coffey, Messier, Bourque, Howerchuk and Gartner makes them, IMO, the greatest international team every assembled.
However...I grew up in the 80's watching the Oilers so I'm biased never having seen the 72 series or Olympics when the Big Red Machine was so dominant.
My only agrument against them is the same as everyone elses. They never played professional talent when they won their 9 consecutive medals. Still...that is an impressive record that will never be broken.
And you would be wrong.Yzerman,Macinnis and Lemieux were all hurting with serious injuries in that whole TOURNAMENT not just one game and you mean to tell me the U.S can't help getting beat up on by them because they lose keith Tkachuk? That is hardly a team that's going to win a Gold medal.
By the Finn game the Canadian team had gelled and were going to win that thing.Beat up?.....the U.S team barely had to beat a a sweat until the 3rd period when the Russians finally decided to turn it on,why they waitied that long i'll never know. The real reason the U.S lost was because they simply did not have the defense to stop a skilled and big Canadian forward unit that basically toyed with them for 3 periods.The Russian game had SFA to do with it. They made bad personnell choices,guys like Poti and Housley are going to stop lginla,Sakic and Lemieux? bad call Herbie my boy!!!!
As is usually the case...................the best team took home the top prize.
I think in a few years, as the HOF votes start hitting that lineup (Lemieux, Yzerman, Sakic, McInnis, Neidermayer, Smyth - I'm a homer and just kidding about Smytty) then I think this team will get more credit. They were an amazing team that came together at the right time which is what international competitions are becomeing about. The team that plays the best as a team, is the team that is going to win these tournaments...that's how close everyone's talent level is now. The fact that they brought home Canada's first gold in a million years adds to their mystic. I also think they were the best team in that tournament and would have beaten Sweden had they played each other as they should have.
