Doug Wilson: Sharks GM and longtime Blackhawk recalls his tying goal to help Team Canada upset the Soviet Union and eventually win the 1984 Canada Cup

WE STARTED OFF SLOW IN THE 1984 Canada Cup. We didn't play as well as we could have for the first couple of games and it was taking us a few games to get going. Obviously, there's a lot of pressure. You felt like the whole country of Canada was watching you and pulling for you.

The first couple of games, we needed to come together as a team. There was something unusual about our team. The guys from the Islanders and the guys from Edmonton really didn't get along because the torch had been passed. The Islanders had won four Stanley Cups and had their dynasty and now the Oilers had just won the Stanley Cup. Then when it came to the Canada Cup, all of a sudden you're having guys who are, I don't want to say bitter enemies, but had really battled, and now you're trying to merge them into one team.

It was hot easy. All of sudden when the team came together, you had the John Tonellis and the Bob Bournes and Mike Bossys, and then you have the Wayne Gretzkys and Mark Messiers and Kevin Lowes and all of that, it was a fascinating group that took a while to come together. But once it did come together, it played hard for its country.

Out team was kind of a combination of both the Oilers and Islanders. There were other great players, too, people that I had idolized, like Larry Robinson. It was a combination of a lot of different people that maybe competed against each other for many years and came together. It was really a great hockey team. Mike Bossy was in the room. Robinson and Gretzky. Michel Goulet, Ray Bourque, Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson. Peter Stastny was with us. John Tonelli. It was quite a team.

After starting out slow, we began to build some momentum with each passing game. We got past some really good teams--let's face it, every team was really good. We lost to the Soviets, and a lot of people began doubting whether we could win this tournament.

But we regrouped and ended up facing the Soviets in the semifinals in Calgary. There was a great build-up before that game. This was a great rivalry going back to the 1972 series. It was going to be best on best. Both teams played at such a high speed and at such a high level. I think that was the last time the famous KLM Line of Vladimir Krutov, Igor Larionov, and Sergei Makarov was together. And by then, the Soviets had switched from Vladislav Tretiak to Vladimir Myshkin in net.

That was the game I'll never forget. There was such a great spark in the building that night. I don't think I've ever seen a group of fans that were more emotional for a game.

Those fans were a little tense after the Soviets took a 2-1 lead in the third period. But I was fortunate that night: I scored the tying goal with six minutes left on a pass from Gretz.

We had been pressing, getting chances, but not putting it in. The play that led to the tying goal started off in the far corner of the ice. We had some pressure on them. We just couldn't tie the score. We kept the puck in their zone a couple of times. Then the puck came back to the point and I just fired it through. It wasn't a slapshot. I was just to get it off as quick as possible because I knew there was traffic in front. I think it was Bobby Bourne who was standing in front of the net and he did a great job screening the goalie. The puck round its way through and the next thing you know flags are being waved and the place is just going crazy.

The game went into overtime. This was just great, great hockey. The two best going at it.

In overtime, the Soviets had a two-on-one and Coffey broke it up and came back the other way with the puck. He let a shot go and Bossy deflected it in. It wasn't the most beautiful goal, but it was beautiful to us. Of course, we were overjoyed, celebrating and everything. It was just a game based on emotion. I remember their bench afterward. There were tears, there were emotions that you really didn't see from the Soviet teams. That's how big of a game this was to both teams.

We went on to play Sweden in the Canada Cup finals in a best-of-three tournament. We won the first game easily and we were up, 50, in the second game and almost blew it. We hung on for a 6-5 win. That game was pretty typical of the whole tournament for us: A struggle right to the end.

Playing in that tournament was a tremendous experience for me, just to be part of the great journey with the whole group and to see how great players prepare and how great players accept challenge. To play with players I had great respect for, having struggled a little bit in the beginning of the tournament, build, and play out best game when it mattered against the Soviet Union kind of revealed the character of the entire group.

Wilson's Career NHL Statistics

Position: Defense Height: 6'1" Weight: 190 pounds
Born: July 5, 1957, in Ottawa, Ontario

Season          Team       GP    G    A   PTS  PIM

1977-78         Chicago     77   14   20   34   72
1978-79         Chicago     56    5   21   26   37
1979-80         Chicago     73   12   49   61   70
1980-81         Chicago     76   12   39   51   80
1981-82         Chicago     76   39   46   85   54
1982-83         Chicago     74   18   51   69   58
1983-84         Chicago     66   13   45   58   64
1984-85         Chicago     78   22   54   76   44
1985-86         Chicago     79   17   47   64   80
1986-87         Chicago     69   16   32   48   36
1987-88         Chicago     27    8   24   32   28
1988-89         Chicago     66   15   47   62   69
1989-90         Chicago     70   23   50   73   40
1990-91         Chicago     51   11   29   40   32
1991-92         San Jose    44    9   19   28   26
1992-93         San Jose    42    3   17   20   40
NHL Totals                1024  237  590  827  830
Playoff totals              95   19   61   80   86

RELATED ARTICLE: Wilson's Sharks are biting again.

PEOPLE WERE WHISPERING THINGS ABOUT three-year plans when Doug Wilson was named the San Jose Shark's general manager in May 2003. Surely, he would need at least that much time to turn around the roster of fading stars with bloated salaries.

The Sharks were in turmoil, having finished in last place, nine games under .500. They had traded their captain, Owen Nolan, and they closed their wallet on Teemu Selanne, who went to Colorado via free agency.

Wilson, in his first year on the job, didn't just bolster the lineup or get the team close to respectability, he got the Sharks back to the top of the Western Conference and back into the play-offs. All the way to conference finals.

Don't expect Wilson to brag about the amazing one-year turnaround. He's so humble, he usually deflects the credit to the players and coaches. He points to everybody who ever helped him learn the game through the years--especially his brother, Murray, who played on four Stanley Cup winners.

"It's a lot of work [being the general manager], but when you do something that you love, you don't consider it work," Wilson says. "I had a lot of mentors that impacted my life and were king enough to share some of their knowledge. You can acquire a lot of knowledge from your experiences or the people you've met. I was fortunate to get a chance to apply that knowledge toward helping an organization have success."

Success as a general manager came years after His success as a defenseman in the NHL. Blessed with exceptional speed and strength, and one wicked slap shot, he joined the Coffeys and Bourques as one of the great defensemen of the 1980s.

One of the Blackhawks' most popular players for 14 seasons, Wilson put together a season for the ages during the 1981-82 campaign. He finished with 39 goals en route to earning NHL First-Team All-Star honors and winning the Norris Trophy as the league's top defenseman. Only Bobby Orr and Paul Coffey have scored more goals in a season among defensemen, and it's bound to stay that way for a long time considering that it's been more than a decade since Kevin Hatcher became the last defenseman to score 30 goals in a season.

"Obviously, it was a very good year," Wilson says. "It was a year where I had to battle through adversity. I had broken my jaw in December. I got hit by a shot in Vancouver and I flew back from the road trip to Chicago, got my law wired. Then I flew back and joined the team. After that, I probably lost 20 pounds. I played six or seven weeks with my jaw wired. It's just another thing of how you're going to deal with adversity. You have to keep on going."

He ended up as the Blackhawks' leading scorer among defensmen 10 seasons in row, and is the franchise's all-team leading scorer among defensemen.

Wilson spent his final two seasons helping the fledgling Sharks find their bite, serving as the team's first captain and it's first All-Star representative. He made San Jose his home, working his way up the ranks until becoming the GM in May 2003.

Sharks' president Greg Jamison says he chose Wilson for the job because he "has all the qualities the Sharks could ask for. He knows what needs to be done to assemble a winner. He understands the importance of finding both talent and the right team chemistry."

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