5 Most Heartbreaking and Disappointing New Jersey Devils Losses Ever
4. November 13 1983- Mickey Mouse Game vs the Edmonton Oilers
When a new NHL franchise comes along, it can be very tough to make a name for yourself as a dominant NHL franchise. While Seattle has yet to pick a mascot for their team, they can still learn from a good example and a bad example of how a team should play in its first few years.
A good example would be the Colorado Avalanche back in 1996. Their first season ended with them winning the Stanley Cup. The bad example comes from the New Jersey Devils. This comes from their 2nd season as a franchise. In the 1983-84 season, the Devils were an elementary team to beat, getting only two wins on their record before this matchup.
This matchup made the Devils look like they didn’t even deserve an NHL franchise by the way they played. To understand how bad the matchup was, let’s process the Edmonton Oilers in the 1980s. Many people consider them the most outstanding team of that decade. They aren’t wrong. This team looked dominant, and it wasn’t just because of Wayne Gretzky. They had players that dominated like Mark Messier, Paul Coffey, and goalie Grant Fuhr.
With future legends like those, you’d think the Devils would try to play as a significant underdog in this matchup. However, with both those statements I mentioned earlier did come into play. When the game went underway, the Devils looked to get ahead in the game early, and they did just that with two early goals coming 1:24 apart. Dave Cameron scored a PP goal, then another by Jan Ludvig. Then, what Edmonton did next explains why it’s always tough to play against the Oilers in the ’80s.
The Oilers went on to score 13 goals. Just seeing 13 goals scored on a franchise is just gut-wrenching. Imagine being in the crowd in the Northlands Coliseum that night, people would have already left by the 7th goal or 8th goal. It’s no surprise that Wane Gretzky had the most points in this game with eight, including a hat trick, but there were many other contributors. Two other Oilers had hat tricks that were in this game; one scored by Willy Lindstrom and the other by Jari Kurri. While Jeff Larmer scored two goals and Paul Gange scored as well for the Devils, it was clear the Oilers were not messing around here. While 13 goals are horrid enough, this is not the main reason why many people recognize this game.
After the game was over, Gretzky had an interview when he call this “putting a Mickey Mouse organization on the ice.” He seemed right on that quote because what people saw on that ice surface was so wrong. You might think if this loss was so bad, why isn’t this higher? Well, to answer that question, first, the Devils this season were able to rebound this loss and faced the Oilers again, and while both games lead to another defeat and a tie, it wasn’t as bad as this one. The second reason is that the rest of the losses you are about to read are playoff losses.