THE NHL : Top Stories of 1990 May Have ’91 Sequels

It was the year the Edmonton Oilers came back and Mario Lemieux couldn’t.

It was the year the Russians came, saw, but didn’t conquer much.

And for the Kings, it was a year with another long winter followed by a short spring.

This was 1990 in the NHL, a year that produced the following top five stories with more to be written on each in 1991.: OILERS WIN THE STANLEY CUP

1990: Who would have thought it when last season began?

Two years after Wayne Gretzky supposedly left them for dead, the Oilers found new life, winning their fifth Cup to start off the ‘90s as they had spent much of the ‘80s.

Owner Peter Pocklington, vilified in his own town for trading off a national treasure, found vindication sooner than perhaps even he dreamed.

“To win in the ‘90s,” he said after the Cup-clinching victory in Boston Garden, “you sometimes have to do something unpopular in the ‘80s. I did what I had to do.”

1991: The outlook is a lot brighter than it was a month ago when the defection of Jari Kurri to Italy and the loss of Mark Messier to a knee injury had sunk Edmonton into the Smythe Division cellar.

The Oilers still don’t figure to be in the 1990-91 finals.

Any more than they did a year ago. BACK INJURY SIDELINES LEMIEUX

1990: Pittsburgh Penguin center Mario Lemieux was the heir apparent to Gretzky. Perhaps someday even the Greater One.

Two seasons ago, he scored 85 goals and had 199 points.

Midway through last season, he was bearing down on one of Gretzky’s hallowed marks, his 51-game point-scoring streak.

But as the games mounted for Lemieux, so did the pain. Plagued with a herniated disk, Lemieux still managed to stretch his streak to 46 games.

Then, after going scoreless in the first two periods of Game 47, he removed himself from the ice.

And the season.

He has played only once since, in the Penguins’ last game of last season. Back surgery was followed by an infection in the afflicted area.

1991: Lemieux hopes to be in the Penguins’ lineup within a month.

The infection and much of the pain are gone. Lemieux will come back. The question is, how far? SAN JOSE, OTTAWA, TAMPA GRANTED NHL FRANCHISES

1990: The league, following through on its goal of adding seven teams by the turn of the century, expanded by three with the San Jose Sharks entry next season to be followed by the Ottawa Senators and the Tampa Lightning a year later.

The San Jose franchise came into existence only after a bizarre game of musical teams.

Minnesota North Star owners George and Gordon Gund dropped their threat to move their team to the Bay area in exchange for the rights to the new team there.

The Gunds sold the North Stars to Howard Baldwin and Morris Belzberg. But, when this pair came up short of funds, they wound up selling control to Norm Green, a former minority owner of the Calgary Flames.

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1991: The struggle over expansion rights was only the opening skirmish of a war to remake the NHL.

This year, decisions are expected on a total realignment of what will be a 24-team league.

If King owner Bruce McNall has his way, his team will move to a new Norris Division featuring only American clubs. GRANT FUHR KICKED OUT FOR DRUG ABUSE

1990: Not long after celebrating the return of the Cup, the Oilers waved goodby to Fuhr, their goalie through the glory years of the ‘80s.

Fuhr admitted he had used cocaine for seven years, but said he had kicked the habit a year earlier in a drug treatment center. NHL Commissioner John Ziegler suspended Fuhr for a year.

1991: Fuhr can apply for reinstatement early this year.

He will probably get it, but what the players are hoping to get is a league drug policy that provides treatment rather than punishment for first-time offenders. WASHINGTON SEX SCANDAL

1990: A weary public yawns at the seemingly never-ending drug revelations in sports.

But the Washington Capitals got everybody’s attention with a different type of scandal, after a season high with an all-time low.

They exceeded expectations by reaching the conference finals before being eliminated by the Boston Bruins.

But only hours later, after a postseason party, a 17-year-old girl alleged that four Capitals--Dino Ciccarelli, Scott Stevens, Geoff Courtnall and Neil Sheehy--forced her to have sex in the back seat of a limousine.

A grand jury failed to bring an indictment against any of the four, but, in the minds of many fans, they were tried and convicted.

Stevens left town, signing a big free-agent contract with the St. Louis Blues. Courtnall followed him to St. Louis via a trade. Sheehy has been out all year with a broken ankle.

Ciccarelli has played, but not too well. The team’s leader in goals (41) and points (79) of a year ago has only eight goals and 17 points in 21 games.

The Capitals, too, have struggled, falling to fifth in the Patrick Division.

1991: Like it or not, victories have a way of washing out the black marks in sports.

In a city where hints of scandal are a way of life, another strong spring on the ice would bring back the fans who would be willing to forgive if not forget.

Here are five more stories to watch in ’91.

The Soviets: Eight of them played in the NHL last season and, although Calgary’s Sergei Makarov was rookie of the year, their overall performance was disappointing.

Give us a year of adjustment, the Soviets said. But so far, the only standout this season is rookie Sergei Fedorov of the Detroit Red Wings.

The Strike: With the collective bargaining agreement between owners and players ending in September, and salaries beginning to take off, a strike seems possible if still unlikely.

The Phenom: Move over, Wayne. Step aside, Mario. This is the year 6-foot-4, 227-pound Eric Lindros, universally billed as the game’s next superstar, enters the draft.

The Deal: The controversy over the trading of Bernie Nicholls by the Kings to the New York Rangers for Tomas Sandstrom and Tony Granato has abated, but, with both clubs in contention, a final verdict on the winner in this move could come in ’91.

The End: Will it be different this time for the Kings, who have been swept in the second round of the playoffs in both of Gretzky’s years?

A promising start turned sour at the end of 1990, but, on New Year’s Day, all things seemed possible.