Canucks alumni Greg Adams says the play-by-play call of his OT winner against the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1994 “was better than the goal”
The audio and the visual have taken up residence in your head if you’re a Canuck fan. It’s there, right beside the likes of Robson declaring “He will play…you know he’ll play… he’ll play on crutches,” in regards to a wounded and weary Trevor Linden at the end of Game 6 against the Rangers in those finals that followed and John Shorthouse belting out “they’ve slayed the dragon,” for Alex Burrows’ OT marker in Game 7 against the Chicago Blackhawks in 2011.
“The Robson call was better than the goal,” Adams, 61, says now of that marker that sent the Maple Leafs home. “He made it sound like it was a good goal.
“I’ve not sat down and talked to Jim about it directly, but we’ve always joked back and forth. I’ve always thanked him for making me sound like a good hockey player, for making me sound better than I actually was.”
Adams and Burrows are the lone Canucks with three playoff overtime goals. Two for Adams came in back-to-back games, seven days apart. He one-timed a feed from Cliff Ronning past Mike Richter in the Rangers’ net at 19:26 of the first extra session to give the Canucks a 3-2 win in Game 1 of the finals on May 31, 1994.
The goal against the Maple Leafs, though, remains the one that he’s asked about more.
“I think because it put out Toronto and put us into the finals it’s more recognizable with the fans,” Adams reasoned.
The Canucks had six overtime wins in those playoffs, which has them in a tie for sixth most in a single postseason in NHL history.
The 1993 Montreal Canadiens triumphed in extra time on 10 occasions. Four teams were victorious in overtime seven times in a single playoff run, with the 2023 Florida Panthers being the most recent.
Along with the Adams’ winners, the Canucks got overtime goals in those playoffs from Geoff Courtnalll (Round 1 versus Calgary, Game 5), Linden (Round 1 versus Calgary, Game 6), Bure (Round 1 versus Calgary, Game 7) and Sergio Momesso (Round 2 versus Dallas, Game 4).
“It felt like if we got into overtime we were going to win,” Adams says. “There was such a confident feeling in that dressing room. Just get us to overtime, and let’s see who’s the guy who gets it. No one cared who got the goal. Let’s just get the goal and move onto the next game.
“We played for each other. You’re on different teams and coaches always talk about playing for the guy next to you. I’ve never experienced that like I did with that team. It was by far the closest team I’ve ever played on. It was just such a good group of guys.
“Everyone cared about each other. Sitting on the bench, watching guys sacrificing themselves, there was no way I wasn’t going to do the same thing. You watch your buddies throw themselves in front of shots to block them or take that hit to make a play when they could have easily bailed out and there’s no way you’re not going to do the same.”
And Adams, like so many others from the team in that era, talks about how dialled in and excited the fan base was during those playoffs.
“I was living downtown during the finals and I couldn’t go anywhere. Every place was packed and if I did go out I don’t think I paid for dinner during that run,” Adams says. “It was amazing. It was such an electric time in Vancouver. It was just so much fun.”
There’s another amusing connection between Adams and Robson other than that Maple Leafs’ goal.
For Robson, something similar began on March 7, 1989 when the Canucks traded for Greg Charles Adams, a 28-year-old forward originally from Fuller Lake, B.C.
The aforementioned Greg Adams, then 25, had been on the team since coming over with goalie Kirk McLean from the New Jersey Devils in the Sept. 15, 1987 swap that sent centre Patrik Sundstrom east.
Robson took to using Gus for the original Adams, since it was his nickname. Adams got tagged with it years earlier because it was his father’s name, and it carried along with him. He joked to Postmedia in 2014 during a 1994 reunion that “I almost lost my real name Greg while playing in Vancouver.”
Bob McCammon was the Canucks coach in 1989 and he put the two same name forwards together on a line instantly, something the original Adams says “was just to mess with people.”
The double Greg Adams thing did not wind up being a major inconvenience for Robson, though, since Greg Charles played just 12 games with the Canucks, getting claimed off waivers by the Quebec Nordiques the following October.
“We got to know Greg and I’m still pretty good friends with him now,” Adams says. “It was a kind of a neat situation. It was one of those anomalies that wound up being cool.”
Hockey fight trivia fans might also recall that Adams’ first bout in the NHL came against Pittsburgh Penguins star Mario Lemieux on March 27, 1985, which was Adams’ rookie season with the Devils. Lemieux was a rookie that season as well, and it was his second fighting major that season following a bout with Canucks forward Gary Lupul.
“It was my first NHL fight. I didn’t know what I was doing, to tell you the truth,” Adams said. “You learn quick.”
These days, Adams and wife Stacy live in Scottsdale, Ariz., in the winters and head to Nelson in the summers. He admits to be disappointed that the Arizona Coyotes have left town, since he routinely took in games.
The Canucks traded Adams to the Dallas Stars on April 7, 1995 in the deal that brought back winger Russ Courtnall. Adams went on to play for the Coyotes and then the Florida Panthers. His last NHL season came with Florida in 2000-01. He played 2002-03 in Germany with Frankfurt.
@steve-ewen.bsky.social