Late last week, Kelly Hrudey announced that Rogers Sportsnet hasn’t renewed his contract. He had been providing colour commentary for Calgary Flames games since 2014.
While he embraced his Flames gig and was good at it, in a way, the Flames and Hrudey made strange bedfellows. He was born in Edmonton and spent much of his career tending goal for the hated rival Los Angeles Kings. That’s some villainous backstory.
And he was certainly the villain in 1990 when he cheated the Calgary Flames out of a defending Stanley Cup run.
1990 Playoffs: Flames vs Kings
The Flames entered the 1990 Stanley Cup Playoffs as heavy favourites. They finished second overall and were, for the only time in their history, the defending champions!
They had the most goals (348), the best power play (27.7%), and the best goal differential (+83). They were stacked with the talents of Joe Nieuwendyk, Doug Gilmour, Al MacInnis, Mike Vernon, Sergei Makarov, Theo Fleury, Gary Roberts, and Joe Mullen.
The Kings were average. They finished 24 points behind the Flames, good for fourth in the Smythe Division.
Game 6: It was in!
The Kings have a 3–2 series lead going into Game Six. The Flames are ahead by a goal with four minutes remaining and on the verge of tying the series, but the Kings tie it at 18:17 to send it to overtime.
Then, with 2:23 left in the first overtime: the goal.
Doug Gilmour throws the puck on net from behind the goal line. It hits Hrudey and squeaks under him. It crosses the goal line. The goal judge fires up the red light. The Flames raise their arms in victory. The ice floods with players.
But the celebration instantly sours.
Referee Denis Morel rules that he had whistled the play dead for having lost sight of the puck. As the refs huddle to decide what to do, Flames coach Terry Crisp ignites. He jumps up on the boards to get their attention; he points directly at a cameraman who has the evidence on tape.
There it is, the proof, justice, in a man’s hands. All we have to do is replay his video. But the NHL doesn’t do that yet.
The Kings go on to win in double overtime to take the series. There would be no Stanley Cup repeat; the champs bust out in the first round.
Ironically, video of this incident is very hard to find, but here it is (starting at the 39:50 mark) in a documentary recap of that entire Flames season.
Birth of video review
The NFL adopted video review in 1986, and the NHL had been considering following their lead as early as then. But it was reportedly this Flames goal which gave the decision urgency and sparked action.
Over the 1990–91 season, the NHL tested video review. That summer, the NHL Board of Governors unanimously approved its use starting in the 1991–92 season.
No Flames fan needs to be told their team has suffered many bad calls.
While video review remains far from perfect (hello, 2004), at least it’s better than the nothing of 1990.
Water under the bridge
Of course, blaming Hrudey for the Flames getting screwed is tongue-in-cheek. What’s a goalie to do? Just stay quiet; you didn’t see anything.
It’s just bizarre that someone so quick to share stories of his playing days, and covering the Flames for so long, that this particular story seems to have never come up.
