Then them Edmonton Oilers with their second straight Stanley Cup, convincingly over the Philadelphia Flyers in five games, including an 8-3 finale that was the biggest last-game outburst since the Toronto Maple Leafs dropped the Detroit Red Wings 7-2 37 years earlier.

Suddenly, when people talked dynasty, they spoke of Wayne and Paul and Mark.

"Right now I'm just glad we won this one to give us two," said Paul Coffey. "That's enough for me. I don't want to look into the future. But if I have to, I'm sure we can be a dynasty. We've got good players, good management, good coaching. I'd way we haven't started peaking yet.

"It's sweeter this time. When you're the biggest team on the block, people want to beat you.

"We went through a lot of adversity this year; we had a lull in the final 4-6 weeks of the regular season. Some people said we wouldn't beat Winnipeg because they were going so hot.

"We proved the wrong."

Glen Sather announced after the final game that he would either step down as head coach or share it with John Muckler the following season.

"This Cup victory may not have been tougher," said Sather, "but it was more interesting. We had ups and downs this year. But that sort of thing creates an attitude that gets things going. Like we hadn't beaten Philadelphia in eight games coming into the playoffs, but I guess we like a challenge.

"The players should be proud of themselves. They've put up with my voice for a long time."

When the playoffs were finally over on May 30, the Oilers had started their own section of the Stanley Cup record book, with 24 of them.

Wayne Gretzky had won the Conn Smythe Trophy with records of 30 assists and 47 points. And Jari Kurri's 19 goals tied the playoff high set in 1976 by Philadelphia's Reggie Leach, who in 1985 was selling Japanese cars in that city. Grant Fuhr's 15 playoff wins were also an NHL best.

As for the team, it had won 16 straight playoff games at home.

The final series has started differently than it ended.

The first game has been in Philadelphia, where the Flyers had only lost five times in their last 49 games.

On this night Edmonton's offense vanished - the late Pelle Lindbergh had to handle only three shots in the last 14 minutes of the first period and two in the final 16 minutes of the second. In fact, only Willy Lindstrom's goal with three minutes kept them from being blanked for the first time in 134 games, as Philly won 4-1.

"I started thinking of all the good things that come from winning," Oilers defenceman Kevin Lowe would recall later. "I didn't want to see it end. I didn't want to see them carrying the Cup, instead of us."

But Game 2 was different. A rookie from Finland named Esa Tikkanen was inserted into the lineup. Gretzky, who didn't muster a single shot on goal in the opener, scored early. Then Lindstrom notched the winner and Dave Hunter an empty-netter as the Oilers win 3-1, thanks in large part to the "grinders."

Gretzky picked up the pace in Game 3 in Edmonton. He scored twice in the first 75 seconds and again during the 13th minute - chasing Lindbergh from the net in favor of Bob Froese - but it was barely enough, as the Oilers hung on to win 4-3.

"When you play 4-on-4 you get open ice," said Gretzky. "I pounced on a couple of open pucks and put them into the net. I got an extra wind."

Ah yes, the famed 4-on-4, which would soon be banned, the NHL changing the rule to end teams playing a man short after coincidental minor penalties.

Game 4 was Philly's turn to bold out of the blocks, with a 3-1 margin 11 1/2 minutes into the action. But the Fuhr robbed Ron Sutter on a penalty shot.

"The stop on Sutter ignited us," said Sather. "If he'd scored we might not have caught them. It may have deflated them. Grant just shut the door."

The Oilers roared back with four power play goals out of six tries - after going 1-for-16 in the first three games - and won the game 5-3.

A sore knee kept Lindbergh out of game 5, but it didn't matter. On this night, the Oilers were flying and the goals came often - two each by Coffey and Mark Messier. Rich Sutter managed a pair in a losing cause.

In the end, there wasn't much love left between the teams. With five minutes left to play in the season, Oiler Don Jackson fought Dave Brown and Brad Marsh, then threw a water bottle at Flyer coach Mike Keenan, who had been jawing profusely with Sather concerning the fisticuffs.

The Flyers finished the series without Lindbergh, Tim Kerr and Brad MacCrimmon, but offered no alibis.

Reflected captain Dave Poulin: "The first game was our style of hockey; the last game was theirs. And there were three in the middle that were a mixture and they came out ahead in all three."

To reach the finals, the Oilers had become progressively stronger as the playoffs evolved.

They had taken two overtimes and an empty net goal to sweep the Los Angeles Kings 3-0. The Oilers then eliminated a Winnipeg Jets team crippled with the loss of injured Dale Hawerchuk 4-0. And in the Campbell Conference final Edmonton won the first two games handily - 11-2 and 7-3 - before dropping a pair in Chicago en route to finishing off the Blackhawks in six games.