FSD History Flashback: October 14 ~ Basic Bloganomics

On October 14, 1979, the greatest player in NHL history had scored a goal for the first time. It was on this night that the Vancouver Canucks were in Edmonton to take the ice against the Oilers. The Canucks, who were coached by Harry Neale, entered the contest with a 1-1 record. Glen Sather's Oilers were 0-1-1 as they played only their third game in NHL history.

The Oilers had struggled all game as the Canucks had scored four goals on goalie Dave Dryden. Gretzky had also not played a very good game at all, but the Oilers managed to keep the score at 4-3 in favor of Vancouver in the closing minutes.

The Canucks got a break when a tripping penalty on Gretzky by Vancouver's Stan Smyl wasn't called when Smyl was on a breakaway. Nonetheless, the Oilers happened to gain a two-man advantage in the last two minutes of regulation during the final period.

Dryden made his way to the bench, and the Oilers brought out an extra attacker in an attempt to tie the score. When the line change was being made, Gretzky had made his way towards Vancouver goalie Glen Hanlon as he tried to get the puck past him. Gretzky put a fake on Hanlon, and then tried to backhand a shot past him. Gretzky had missed the puck on the backhand attempt, but Hanlon left enough of an opening. The puck trickled past Hanlon and across the goal line as Gretzky scored his first ever NHL goal with 1:09 left in the 3rd period. Gretzky later said in his own autobiography that goal was, "not a real glorious start to my NHL career."

When asked later on after the game about his first career NHL goal, Gretzky had joked about his less than glorious moment. "When details get back to Brantford, I’ll have scored an end-to-end rush." Brantford is Gretzky's hometown.

The game ended in a 4-4 tie. The Canucks finished the season with 70 points and 27-37-16 record. The Oilers finished 28-39-13 for 69 points. Both teams made the playoffs, but neither got out of the first round. The upstart New York Islanders won the Stanley Cup by stopping the Philadelphia Flyers in the finals.

The 19-year old Gretzky ended up with 51 goals and 86 assists for a total of 137 points in his first NHL season. Even though his first career goal wasn't pretty, the sports icon impacted the NHL like no other later on. He led the Oilers to four Stanley Cup trophies, and would have shatter most other league records in the process. He ended up with over 1,000 combined goals in the regular season and playoffs during his fantastic hockey career. This day only marked the beginning of Gretzky's path to iconic status in the NHL and all of sports.

Photo is Gretzky's 1979 O-Pee-Chee rookie card. On a side note, this card that was graded in gem mint condition sold for $80,000 in 2005. To date, it's the only 1979 rookie card of his to grade PSA 10. It's also by far and away the highest price anyone has ever paid for a hockey card.

Thanks for viewing, and I hope you enjoyed today's FSD History Flashback!