1988–89 NHL season

The 1988–89 NHL season was the 72nd season of the National Hockey League. The Calgary Flames won an all-Canadian Stanley Cup Finals against the Montreal Canadiens four games to two. This remains the last time two Canadian teams faced each other for the Stanley Cup.

Regular season
This year saw the start of Wayne Gretzky's tenure with the Los Angeles Kings, having been traded in the off-season after leading the Edmonton Oilers to the 1988 Stanley Cup. Coinciding with Gretzky's acquisition, the team also changed its uniforms and colours for 1988–89, scrapping the purple and gold associated with its co-tenant at the Great Western Forum, the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers, in favour of black and silver. Gretzky's presence signaled a dramatic on-ice turnaround for the Kings. Prior to his arrival via trade with the Edmonton Oilers on August 9, 1988, Los Angeles had the fourth-worst record in the NHL at 30 wins, 42 losses, and 8 ties. After Gretzky's first season with the Kings, however, they moved all the way up to fourth-best in the NHL, with a record of 42 wins, 31 losses, and 7 ties for 91 points. They also managed to defeat Gretzky's former team, the Oilers, in seven games in the Smythe Division semifinals before falling victim to a four-game sweep at the hands of the eventual Cup champion Flames in the division finals.

Four years after Andy Van Hellemond became the first on-ice official to wear a helmet, the NHL also made helmets mandatory for its officials like it did with its players in 1979; like the ruling for players, any official that was not wearing a helmet before the ruling could also go helmetless if they so desired.

Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Art Ross Trophy for the second consecutive season, leading the league with 199 points and recording all three of his eight point games in his career, with one of them happening during the playoffs. Lemieux remains the only player other than Gretzky to approach the 200 point plateau (Gretzky surpassed the 200 point mark four times in five years during the 1980s). This was the only season that there were four players that scored 150 or more points; Gretzky tallied 168, while Steve Yzerman and Bernie Nicholls totalled 155 and 150 points, respectively. This was also the only time that two teammates, Gretzky and Nicholls of the Los Angeles Kings, had hit the 150 point mark. Narrowly edging out Lemieux, Gretzky won his ninth Hart Memorial Trophy as the league's MVP, while Yzerman finished third in the balloting. Yzerman was voted by his fellow players as the NHLPA MVP, taking the Lester B. Pearson Award.

New York Rangers rookie Brian Leetch broke the record for goals by a rookie defenceman with 23. He finished that season with 71 points and easily captured the Calder Memorial Trophy.

On March 22, an incident took place in Buffalo during a game between the Buffalo Sabres and the St. Louis Blues. During a goalmouth collision between the Blues' Steve Tuttle and the Sabres' Uwe Krupp, Tuttle's skate blade slashed the throat of Buffalo goaltender Clint Malarchuk, severing the latter's jugular vein. Thanks to some timely action by Sabres trainer and former US Army Vietnam War veteran Jim Pizzutelli, Malarchuk quickly received treatment and was released from the hospital the next day. He returned to action 10 days later.

This was the first season that every NHL arena had full rink board advertisements.

Final standings
Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF= Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points

Playoffs
The 1989 Stanley Cup Finals featured two Canadian hockey teams, the Montreal Canadiens and the Calgary Flames. Montreal finished the regular season with 115 points, only two behind the league leader Calgary. They had last faced each other only three years earlier, with Montreal winning a five-game series in 1986. Calgary was only the second opposing team in NHL history to win a Stanley Cup at the Montreal Forum (the New York Rangers defeated the Montreal Maroons in 1928) and the first to do so against the Canadiens, marking the first time since that the Stanley Cup wasn't awarded in the province of Alberta.

Stanley Cup Finals
The Stanley Cup Finals was decided between the top two teams during the 1988–89 NHL regular season. Co-captain Lanny McDonald scored the second Flames goal in Game 6. This turned out to be the last goal in his Hockey Hall of Fame career as he retired during the following off-season. Doug Gilmour scored two goals in the third period, including the eventual game and Cup winner to cement the victory for the Flames.

Scoring leaders
Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points, PIM = Penalties in minutes, PPG = Powerplay Goals, SHG = Shorthanded Goals, GWG = Game Winning Goals Source: NHL.

Leading goaltenders
GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; SO = Shutouts; GAA = Goals against average; Sv% = Save percentage Source: Quanthockey.com.

Patrick Division

 * New Jersey Devils: Jim Schoenfeld
 * New York Islanders: Al Arbour
 * New York Rangers: Michel Bergeron and Phil Esposito
 * Philadelphia Flyers: Paul Holmgren
 * Pittsburgh Penguins: Gene Ubriaco
 * Washington Capitals: Bryan Murray

Adams Division

 * Boston Bruins: Terry O'Reilly
 * Buffalo Sabres: Ted Sator
 * Hartford Whalers: Larry Pleau
 * Montreal Canadiens: Pat Burns
 * Quebec Nordiques: Ron Lapointe and Jean Perron

Norris Division

 * Chicago Blackhawks: Mike Keenan
 * Detroit Red Wings: Jacques Demers
 * Minnesota North Stars: Pierre Page
 * St. Louis Blues: Brian Sutter
 * Toronto Maple Leafs: John Brophy and George Armstrong

Smythe Division

 * Calgary Flames: Terry Crisp
 * Edmonton Oilers: Glen Sather
 * Los Angeles Kings: Robbie Ftorek
 * Vancouver Canucks: Bob McCammon
 * Winnipeg Jets: Dan Maloney

Debuts
The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1988–89 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):
 * Don Sweeney, Boston Bruins
 * Stephane Quintal, Boston Bruins
 * Sergei Pryakhin, Calgary Flames
 * Paul Ranheim, Calgary Flames
 * Theoren Fleury, Calgary Flames
 * Ed Belfour, Chicago Blackhawks
 * Jeremy Roenick, Chicago Blackhawks
 * Randy McKay, Detroit Red Wings
 * Tim Cheveldae, Detroit Red Wings
 * Martin Gelinas, Edmonton Oilers
 * Mike Modano*, Minnesota North Stars
 * Eric Desjardins, Montreal Canadiens
 * Jyrki Lumme, Montreal Canadiens
 * Mike Keane, Montreal Canadiens
 * Eric Weinrich, New Jersey Devils
 * Paul Ysebaert, New Jersey Devils
 * Tom Fitzgerald, New York Islanders
 * Tony Granato, New York Rangers
 * Mike Richter*, New York Rangers
 * John Cullen, Pittsburgh Penguins
 * Mark Recchi, Pittsburgh Penguins
 * Curtis Leschyshyn, Quebec Nordiques
 * Joe Sakic, Quebec Nordiques
 * Rod Brind'Amour*, St. Louis Blues
 * Trevor Linden, Vancouver Canucks
 * Bob Essensa, Winnipeg Jets

Last games
The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1988–89 (listed with their last team):
 * Mark Napier, Buffalo Sabres
 * Hakan Loob, Calgary Flames
 * Lanny McDonald, Calgary Flames
 * Doug Halward, Edmonton Oilers
 * Tomas Jonsson, Edmonton Oilers
 * John Anderson, Hartford Whalers
 * Ron Duguay, Los Angeles Kings
 * Craig Hartsburg, Minnesota North Stars
 * Dennis Maruk, Minnesota North Stars (The last active player to have been a member of the California Golden Seals/Cleveland Barons franchise.)
 * Bob Gainey, Montreal Canadiens
 * Billy Smith, New York Islanders
 * Marcel Dionne, New York Rangers
 * Anton Stastny, Quebec Nordiques
 * Mel Bridgman, Vancouver Canucks
 * Bengt Gustafsson, Washington Capitals

Firsts
Ron Hextall, Philadelphia Flyers, First goaltender to score a goal in post-season.

Broadcasting
This was the first season of the league's new Canadian national broadcast rights deals with TSN and Hockey Night in Canada on CBC. Saturday night regular season games continued to air on CBC, while TSN televised selected weeknight games. Coverage of the Stanley Cup playoffs was primarily on CBC, with TSN airing first round all-U.S. series.

This was also the first season of the league's new U.S. national broadcast rights deal SportsChannel America. While SportsChannel America agreed to pay more than double what previous rightsholder ESPN paid for the previous three years, SportsChannel America was only available in a few major markets. Notably absent though were the Detroit, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis markets. In this first year of the deal alone, SportsChannel America was available in only 7 million homes when compared to ESPN's reach of 50 million. Whereas the previous deal with ESPN called for up to 33 games per regular season and only one nationally televised game a week, SportsChannel America televised 80–100 games and up to three nights a week.