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That’s Hall of Famer Larry Robinson who was draped all over him inside the blue paint. Did I mention MacT was no stranger to “the dirty areas”. Indeed he thrived there.

The videos are all about the goals, of course, but the predominant “mental replay” conjured by this old goalie is of the player in a defensive role, killing penalties, fearlessly throwing himself in front of shots. I’ve never seen a more committed group in that mode than the PK unit of MacTavish with Kelly Buchberger, Lowe and Craig Muni. It was as if the other team had to beat five goalies, not just one.

As the years went along the Hall of Famers left the Oilers in increasing numbers — Paul Coffey in 1987, Wayne Gretzky in 1988, Jari Kurri in 1990, Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson and Grant Fuhr all in the fall of ’91. As they departed MacTavish took on an ever-growing role on the leadership front, becoming an assistant captain in 1990.

He also took on a leadership role in the community. Tackling his past head-on, he became the honorary chairman for Operation CheckStop, an anti-drunk-driving initiative. In his words: ”I didn’t want to be hypocritical and come out and tell these kids: ‘don`t drink’ when I had done it. So I thought about it for a while. I told them straight out, ‘I’m not condemning alcohol, I’m not going to tell you not to drink. Just don`t mix the two.’ That’s what I said. And that’s something I really believe in, so it wasn’t hard to get it across to them.”

When the last of the old guard, Kevin Lowe, was traded to New York Rangers in 1992, he was promoted to the captaincy. He wore it well, even as the club around him had deteriorated right out of contention. By the deadline of 1994 MacTavish himself was traded to those same Rangers; that spring he was among seven members of the 1990 Oilers to win another Cup in what was dubbed by some as Edmonton East. MacT’s own-zone faceoff win in the last 1.6 seconds of SCF Game 7 was the very last action of a 3-2 thriller.