THN Archive: Goalie Moog Overcame NHL Demotion to Win Three Cups with Oilers

This season, the Edmonton Oilers had to send goalie Jack Campbell to the AHL in an attempt to get him back in peak form. But in this cover story from THN’s Jan. 14, 1983 edition – Vol. 36, Issue 14 – THN chronicled another Oilers netminder who’d struggled before finding redemption: Andy Moog.

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Moog was a dynamic youngster who surprised the hockey world when he joined the Oilers as a 21-year-old netminder in the 1980-81 season. Moog led Edmonton to a first-round series win over Montreal, but he lost his NHL job when future Oilers icon Grant Fuhr overtook him and made the team. Moog spent 29 games of the ‘80-81 season with the Central League’s Wichita Wind, then 40 games of the 1981-82 campaign with the Wind before returning to the NHL for good in 1982-83. It took his mental game off-track at first, but Moog – ever the battler, on and off the ice – eventually found his groove.

“The realization of being in the minors…didn’t hit right off the bat,” Moog told THN writer Dick Chubey. "When I did, I went into a slump for two or three games. Then I snapped out of it.”

Honesty with oneself is hugely important for any NHLer, but particularly for goalies. Moog was very good at being honest about his performance prior to sticking to the NHL level for good.

“I knew I was struggling, playing poorly the first time I was sent down,” Moog said. “I more or less settled it in my mind to get in a half season of hockey (in Wichita) and play my best. Being called up again was the last thing on my mind. It would have been disruptive.”

One of the Oilers’ challenges to Moog was spelled out clearly for him in the off-season in a letter from coach-GM Glen Sather.

“The letter said it would be beneficial to myself and to the Oilers if I came to camp 20 pounds lighter,” said Moog. who dropped 17 pounds by the time he arrived at training camp. “I had been thinking about it myself all along. I had planned to lose about 10 pounds."

Working with tandem-mate Fuhr, Moog went on to have incredible success, winning three Stanley Cups in Edmonton before he was traded to Boston in 1988. He finished his career with the Dallas Stars and amassed 713 regular-season games of NHL experience. But Moog will forever be an Oilers legend, and his teammates at the time of the story attested to his talent and his ability to overcome adversity.

“Andy was fabulous,” Oilers superstar Wayne Gretzky said of Moog in the story. “That’s the best goaltending we’ve had from him in two years.”

Vol. 36, Issue 14, Jan. 14, 1983

By Dick Chubey

Scratch one identity crisis!

Andy Moog does not have to pretend he’s Andy Moog anymore.

The Edmonton Oilers’ goaltender, complete with an attitude change, is back in the National Hockey League following a brief exile. As the new year began, he had lost but one of his last nine decisions (6-1-2) and only three times overall (10-3-5). His goals-against average of 3.55, although hardly minute, is certainly respectable, considering he plays behind the National Hockey League’s most high-powered offense.

In summation, Moog has reverted to the form that introduced him to the NHL as one of the ringleaders in the Montreal Canadiens' premature dismissal from the 1980-81 Stanley Cup playoffs. The cherubic-faced goaler is back as No. 1 in the eyes of the Northlands Coliseum faithful who affectionately chanted Andeee, Andeee, Andee, as he frustrated the once-mighty Canadiens in a sudden rise to fame.

Trouble is, as is often the case when dues aren’t fully paid, the fall can be equally as instantaneous. Moog, his hat size swelled considerably, experienced this during a 40-game detour with Wichita Wind, bouncing around the Central League last winter.

While the Oilers were breezing along to a Smythe Division pennant, Moog was toiling on the farm. At the tender age of 21, the former playoff hero dreamed of another place and time.

“There was this bit we did in practice (at Wichita) where my teammates pretended they were NHL stars,” he chuckled. “One guy was Lafleur, another thought he was Bossy and, of course, there was Gretzky.”

And who did Andy Moog emulate?

“I pretended I was me during the spring of a couple of years ago,” he confessed of his brief playoff hurrah against the Canadiens and New York Islanders.

Obviously, the demotion to the minors was precisely what was required for Moog. He dreaded it, but there’s no denying he couldn’t see it coming.

“Hopefully, there’s no urgency to get down to two goalies,” said Moog, who was riding the bench at the time behind rookie Grant Fuhr and veteran Ron Low. “The way things are right now, it would be me (third man out). I think they’ll wait until Christmas…which means it won’t be much of a present for somebody."

By Christmas, 1981, Moog had been down and up and down again as an emergency replacement for Fuhr, who was sidelined for a week with an injured shoulder. When GM-coach Glen Sather initially dispatched the second-year pro to Wichita back in November last season, he hadn’t won a game in more than a month, he had only two wins in six games and his average had ballooned to 4.89. During his brief recall, he split two decisions but could only whittle his average to 4.81. Not long after, he was settled in for doing time in the minors.

“The realization of being in the minors for the rest of the year didn’t hit right off the bat,” said Moog, a sixth-round draft pick of the Oilers from the Billings Bighorns in 1980. "When I did, I went into a slump for two or three games. Then I snapped out of it.”

He didn’t even think of coming back. Not last season, anyhow.

“I knew I was struggling, playing poorly the first time I was sent down. I more or less settled it in my mind to get in a half season of hockey (in Wichita) and play my best. Being called up again was the last thing on my mind. It would have been disruptive.”

Even when the Canadiens paid their only visit to Edmonton last February, 15 days prior to Moog’s 22nd birthday, one of the two smiling faces adorning the cover of the Oilers’ media guide was not cognizant of the gala scheduling highlight.

“Nope, never knew it…I haven’t even looked at a schedule (NHL) for the past few days,” he said when contacted in Wichita. “I’ve got to get on with the season here instead.”

He did just that, posting a 2.99 average in 40 games with the Wind and was ready for another crack at the NHL when training camp rolled around.

“I really didn’t know what to think,” said the native of Penticton, B. C. “I came to three training camps — my first year I was unknown, my second year I was the favorite and my third year I was a question mark. I just figured I’d come to camp in good condition and achieve the most I could with my skills.”

The conditioning bit stemmed from a communique he received from Sather during the off-season. “The letter said it would be beneficial to myself and to the Oilers if I came to camp 20 pounds lighter,” said Moog, who shed 17 pounds off his 5-foot-9, 185-pound frame when he showed up at camp. “I had been thinking about it myself all along. I had planned to lose about 10 pounds."

He purchased an exercise bike to lull away off-season afternoons at home in Penticton or with his in-laws in Billings, MT. Moog also experienced a change in attitude. “I no longer think ‘me, me, me,’ but now it’s ‘we, we, we.’ I don’t concern myself with my goals-against average either, it’s only wins and losses.”

Last season, during his abbreviated NHL performance, Moog didn’t win a game on the road. In nine decisions this season, he’s been beaten only once away from home (5-1-3) — a 5-4 setback in Pittsburgh Nov. 10. He bounced back from that particular setback to face 17 shots during the first period in Philadelphia’s Spectrum, while the Oilers could only muster three at the other end. Yet, they were down only 2-0 and picked up the cue of Moog’s heroic first-period performance to rebound for a 4-3 triumph.

Undoubtedly, his finest single-game showing on the road eventually turned out to be a 6-2 victory in Los Angeles on Dec. 23. For 35 minutes, the Oilers were goalless and only Moog stood between the Kings widening their 1-0 margin.

“Moog was absolutely the difference in the game as far as I was concerned,” sighed L.A. coach Don Perry, who watched in dismay as the explosive Oilers erupted for four goals within 3:19 late in the second period. “There were times when we seemed to be tight around the net, but any way you look at it, Moog played a helluva game. He was the one who beat us.”

It wasn’t the first time either. In four starts this season against the Kings, who upstaged the Oilers in last season’s playoffs, Moog is undefeated — 3-0-1.

“1 really feel comfortable out there,” he says in assessing his performance over the first half of 1982-83. “Now is the time in my career for me to start playing this way. I didn’t really feel comfortable in the NHL at this time last year. But now I do and I’m determined I’m not going back to the minors.”

How can you send a kid down to the farm who topped the Soviet National team?

As the Soviets began a six-game exhibition tour of NHL cities, Moog and the Oilers recorded a 4-3 win Dec. 28, prompting Sather to shelve his original plan of getting Grant Fuhr into the game.

“We decided we’d split the game,” explained Moog, who turned aside 32 Soviet volleys. “But if I had anything great going, we’d leave me in.”

During Moog’s only two losses on home ice, he has allowed a total of six goals. Ironically, in those two losses, his offensive-minded teammates, who average a percentage point under five goals per game, chose to take the night off. The Oilers lost 3-2 to Vancouver and 4-2 to Philadelphia (the Flyers’ final goal was an empty-netter).

“Andy was fabulous,” observed Wayne Gretzky following the Vancouver loss. “That’s the best goaltending we’ve had from him in two years.”

That’s “two years,” as in April, 1981, before Andy Moog took to pretending he was Andy Moog from a different time and place. 

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