80's vs 90's - Which decade had better hockey?

[BostonAJ]

This is a tough one for me as so many great players overlap the decades. Each ten year span can claim great hockey from the likes of Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman, Ray Bourque, Paul Coffey, Mark Messier, Patrick Roy, Chris Chelios, Al MacInnis, and Cam Neely. Gretzky's greatness was clearly more 80's heavy, tho he did win two more Art Ross Trophies in the '90s (I'm counting 1989-90 as part of the '80s).

In addition, the '80s saw Mike Bossy, Brian Trottier, Jari Kurri, Michel Goulet, Dale Hawerchuk, Rod Langway, Ron Hextall, Billy Smith, Dino Ciccarelli, Peter Stastny, and Denis Savard.

The '90s gave us greats like Jaromir Jagr, Dominik Hasek, Pavel Bure, Brett Hull, Eric Lindros, Sergei Fedorov, Eddie Belfour, Brian Leetch, Paul Kariya, and Joe Sakic.

The '80s had two of the greatest teams of all time with Islanders and Oilers dynasties. The Habs and the Flames are the only two other teams to win a Cup in that decade.

The '90s had three repeat Cup winners with the Mario led Pens in the beginning of the decade, the Wings going back-to-back in the mid '90s, and the Devils in 94-95 and 99-00. Also the Stars, Avs, Rangers, and Habs each won a Cup.

The 80's had some great run-and-gun style offense allowing the players to be more creative. The 90's say the implentation of the modern defensive systems, creating a tighter, more cerebral style of play.

Which is your favorite?

 

[HonusWagner66]

90s ftw

 

[Jimmy_the_Tongue]

I'm partial to the early 90's for a purely homer point of view...and that's the great Pens teams....Mario,Jagr,Steven,Murphy,Barrasso,Trottier,Recchi,Samuelsson,Bowman,Johnston...not to mention the other players in the league at the time....I loved it...

 

[forty_three]

As a goalie, I enjoyed the 90's more because there were some phenomenal guys to watch. Roy in his prime, Brodeur, Hasek, Belfour before the crack hit him hard, Barrasso, Joseph, Richter, Beezer...

Even the flashes in the pan were great to watch; Carey, Potvin, Tommy Soderstrom (Who remembers him, eh?).

But I have to say the 80's was the best hockey.

 

[dash]

It's tough to not have bias creep into my decision (I voted for the 80's by the way), but when you're in Calgary, that's when the battle of Alberta was at its apex and I doubt we'll ever see it again. Aside from that though, these other items tilted the scales for me:

1980 - Miracle on Ice (Tihkonov pulls Tretiak, worst coaching decision ever)
1980 - 1983 (Isles dynasty, what a great team)
84-85, 87-88 (Oilers with four Cups in five years, fun team to watch)
1986 - Steve Smith own goal and Flames lose in the SCF
1987 - Canada vs. USSR (three epic 6-5 games, unofficial passing of the torch from Gretzky to Lemieux)
1988 - Gretzky "sold" to the LA Kings (pretty sad day for Canada)
1989 - Flames win Lord Stanley's mug

I just didn't enjoy hockey as much as the 90's (mainly due to the fact that the Flames sucked, but losing two teams in the Jets and Nordiques and half a season to the first lockout didn't help either).

 

[Automattic]

The 90's were obviously better for a Wingnut. But I enjoyed all the rest of 80's hockey better. It featured everything about the sport that got me playing.

 

[dare2be]

Putting my homer reasons aside the best I could, I chose the 90s due to the fact that it had a better mix of hockey styles represented...early 90s were still wide open like the 80s were, and then the defensive modes came into play in the mid-to-late 90s.

 

[Slimpikins]

I didn't really start following hockey until the 90's so it is my unfoudned, bias, and ignorant answer.

 

[naslundfan19]

I didn't really start following hockey until the 90's so it is my unfoudned, bias, and ignorant answer.

Mine too