The strangest Stanley Cup Final loss in Bruins history
The Boston Bruins and their fans have gone through their fair share of heartbreaking playoff losses. While 1988 was a triumphant year for the Bruins given their return to the Stanley Cup Final, their matchup with Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers wasn’t particularly close. The story of that final wasn’t the sweep at the hands of the Oilers, but the fact that it was the only four-game sweep in NHL history to happen in five games.
Despite failing to win a single game in the finals, the Bruins weren’t as overmatched as the series score would have you think. Boston almost stole Game 1 on the road with a 2-1 loss, before keeping it close again before Jari Kurri iced a 4-2 victory with an empty-netter with seven seconds remaining. When the teams returned to Boston Garden, Edmonton took more control with a 6-3 victory in Game 3.
Game 4 was when everything went sideways at the Garden. The Oilers had just tied the game 3-3 in the second period when a power outage hit the arena before the next faceoff. After some time trying to fix the problem, the game was ruled unable to continue, and Game 4 was going to be replayed in Edmonton on the originally scheduled Game 5.
What made it interesting was that if the Bruins had won Game 4 in Edmonton, they would’ve had two of the final three games in Boston, including Game 7. If the Bruins had managed to come back and win the series at TD Garden in Game 7, it would’ve been quite the scene.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case in 1988. The Oilers were a buzzsaw and won the rescheduled Game 4 in Edmonton, 6-3. It was unsurprisingly the Gretzky show that entire playoff run, as he managed 13 points in the final and 43 points total over the entire playoffs. Boston would get a chance to beat Edmonton two years later in the final again, but managed to win just one game in that series.
While the finals ended without much of a fight, the story of the 1988 Bruins was that they finally beat their rival Montreal Canadiens in a playoff series. Montreal had an 18-series losing streak, which spanned 45 years. That roster led by Ray Bourque and Cam Neely stole the hearts of Bruins fans, with one of the strangest endings to a season the NHL world has ever seen.
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