In addition, Carson, who grew up in Michigan with an affluent family, did not enjoy life in the city of Edmonton, which was nearing the end of a crushing recession.
In return, The Oilers received forwards Petr Klima, Joe Murphy, and Adam Graves, and defenceman Jeff Sharples from Detroit.
Finally, in the Oilers' fifth game of the season, at home against the Los Angeles Kings, Wayne Gretzky broke the all-time NHL points record held by Gordie Howe; watching Gretzky celebrate the milestone was tough on his former Oilers' teammates, who felt they should have been the ones celebrating with him.
Then, buoyed by the formation of the line of Martin Gelinas, Graves, and Murphy, the Oilers embarked on a run where they lost only once in 13 games.
While many of their offensive stars were not scoring as they did in previous seasons, the Oilers succeeded by playing an all-around game and overtook the slumping Calgary Flames for first place in the division.
Messier continued his stellar play in all areas of the ice and was considered to be one of two favourites for the Hart Trophy along with Bruins' captain Ray Bourque.
At the 41st NHL All Star Game in Pittsburgh, three players represented the Oilers: Messier, Kevin Lowe, and Jari Kurri.
In the 3rd period, the Oilers mounted their biggest comeback of the regular season, scoring 4 goals en route to a 7–6 victory.
Incidents in the game drew the ire of commentators and even earned negative commentary from the NHL's head office.
[1] In the second last game of the season against Calgary, Grant Fuhr re-injured his bad shoulder and had to sit out for the entire playoffs.
However, late in the second period, the Jets had back-to-back breakaways on the same shift, and goalie Bill Ranford stopped them both.
Edmonton won Game Seven on home ice 4–1, completing the comeback and moving on to the Smythe Division Finals.
In Game One, the Oilers served notice that this time would be different, dominating from start to finish and cruising to an easy 7–0 victory.
Game Three in Los Angeles saw the Kings jump out to a 3–1 first-period lead before the Oilers scored 4 unanswered goals en route to a 5–4 win.
In Game Four at Chicago Stadium, Mark Messier ran roughshod over the Blackhawks in what New York Times reporter Jeff Klein called "the most terrifying one-man wrecking crew display in hockey history.
"[3] Messier scored two goals, added two assists, threw several hard hits, and broke multiple hockey sticks over Blackhawks' players in a 4–2 Edmonton victory.
Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson, Jari Kurri, Grant Fuhr, Randy Gregg, Charlie Huddy, and Kevin Lowe each won their 5th Stanley Cup with Edmonton.
Goaltender Bill Ranford, a former Bruin, won the Conn Smythe Trophy after he tied an NHL record by winning all 16 playoff games.
Assistant captain Kevin Lowe was voted the winner of the King Clancy Memorial Trophy for his humanitarian contributions to the community.