‘Broadway Bernie’ brought scoring (and Messier) to Rangers

Welcome to another edition of Blueshirts Briefs, a series profiling individuals who worked a short shift for the New York Rangers.

Bernie Nicholls doesn’t have a Stanley Cup ring and isn’t in the Hockey Hall of Fame, but his place in NHL lore is secure. He had one season that was one of the best by any player in NHL history.

The Haliburton, Ontario native spent 18 seasons with six clubs, starring in Hollywood and on Broadway, notching nearly 500 goals and over 1,200 NHL points, and was part of the most important trade in New York Rangers history.

The Blueshirts paid a hefty price to acquire Nicholls on January 20, 1990, sending Tomas Sandstrom and Tony Granato in exchange for the Kings’ No. 2 center, who at the time was 28 years old and had 27 goals and 48 assists for 75 points in 47 matches for Los Angeles.

Granato and Sandstrom were both 25, and Sandstrom was enjoying a fine season in New York, having notched 19 goals and 19 assists for 38 points in 48 games. Granato was off to a slow start with the Rangers (seven goals in 37 matches) after posting 36 goals in 78 contests as a rookie the season before.

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Nicholls made an immediate impact for the Rangers with 12 goals and 25 assists for 37 points over the team’s final 32 games. In the playoffs, he scored in each of the first three matches of a five-game victory over the New York Islanders in the Patrick Division Semifinals and a hat trick in the opening contest of a five-game loss to the Washington Capitals in the Division Finals.

In his only full season with the Rangers, 1990-91, Nicholls notched 25 goals and 48 assists for 73 points in 71 games. His points total ranked first among all Rangers forwards and second on the team behind defenseman Brian Leetch’s 88. In the playoffs, he potted four goals and helped on three others in a five-game loss to the Capitals in the Division Semifinals.

On October 4, 1991, Nicholls was part of a franchise-altering trade. He and forwards Steven Rice and Louie DeBrusk were sent to the Edmonton Oilers for Mark Messier and future considerations. (The deal was completed on November 12, 1991, when the Blueshirts acquired defenseman Jeff Beukeboom for blueliner David Shaw.)

Nicholls played 95 games for the Oilers, notching 28 goals and 61 assists for 89 points before getting traded to the New Jersey Devils for Zdeno Ciger and Kevin Todd midway through the 1992-93 season. The trade appeared lopsided in favor of New Jersey, but Nicholls disappointed, scoring just five goals in 23 games and then going pointless with a minus-5 rating in a five-game playoff loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Division Semifinals.

However, in 1993-94, he recorded 19 goals and 27 assists for 46 points in 61 games, and then went off in the postseason. Had had three helpers in New Jersey’s four-game sweep of the Buffalo Sabres in the first round, and notched two markers and three apples in a six-game win over the Boston Bruins.

That series

Then came the Rangers in the Conference Finals, a series still widely regarded as one of the most thrilling and competitive in NHL history.

The Rangers had the league’s best regular-season record at 52-24-8, including a 6-0 mark against the Devils, whom they outscored 24-9.

However, Nicholls and his teammates proved the postseason is a different beast, winning Game One in stunning fashion with a game-tying goal in the final minute and a one-timer by Stephane Richer in double overtime (one of three contests in the series that required a fifth period).

Nicholls recorded his second assist in the opening game at Madison Square Garden on the tying goal by Claude Lemieux with 43 seconds remaining.

Nicholls became public enemy number one in Game Three when he cross checked Alex Kovalev across the neck and then shot a puck into Kovalev’s face.  While not penalized in the game, he was suspended for Game Four, a 3-1 Devils win.

Nicholls notched power-play and short-handed goals in New Jersey’s 4-1 win at the Garden in Game Five, giving the Devils a 3-2 lead with the series shifting back to the Meadowlands for Game Six. In that one, Nicholls assisted on Lemieux’ goal for a 2-0 lead before Rangers goalie Mike Richter stood on his head and Messier took over the game, assisting on Alexei Kovalev’s tally late in the middle period and scoring a natural hat trick in the third to save the season.

The Rangers won their first Stanley Cup since 1940, winning Game Seven on June 14 at the Garden against the Vancouver Canucks. Exactly one month later, Nicholls signed as a free agent with the Chicago Black Hawk.

Welcome to the NHL

Nicholls was selected in the fourth round (73rd overall) of the 1980 Entry Draft by the Kings after starring for the Kingston Canadians of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, where he posted 99 goals and 132 assists for 231 points in 133 games.

In 1981-82, he potted 41 goals and helped on 30 others for the New Haven Nighthawks of the American Hockey League. He made his NHL debut that season in a November loss to the Flames in Calgary but returned for good after being called up in February.

Nicholls recorded an assist in his first game back, a home win against the Flames oddly enough. His first two NHL goals came on March 9 in Denver in the Kings’ 2-0 win over the Colorado Rockies. Both markers came in the first period, the first a short-handed tally at 5:35 on Glenn “Chico” Resch.

He finished his Kings career with 758 points (327 goals) in 602 regular-season games and 37 points (16 markers) in 34 playoff matches. His best season for Los Angeles was in 1988-89 when he recorded 70 goals and 80 assists for 150 points. On December 1, 1988, he notched a team-record eight points (two goals) in a 9-3 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

His 70 goals is a Kings’ single-season record, while his 150 points rank third behind Wayne Gretzky’s 168 and 163. Nicholls is one of only eight players in league history to score at least 70 times in one season. He joins Gretzky, Brett Hull, Mario Lemieux, Phil Esposito, Alexander Mogilny, Teemu Selanne, and Jari Kurri.

No. 99, Espo, and Kurri also are former Rangers, but none potted 70 for the Blueshirts.

Gretzky scored more than 70 goals four times, all for the Oilers. The most he scored for the Rangers in a season was 25 in 1997, leading them to the Conference Finals at age 36.

Esposito also was 36 when he posted his single-season best 42 goals for the Rangers in 1979, leading them to an upset of the first-place Islanders in the NHL Semifinals. Esposito scored 76 for the Boston Bruins in 1971.

Kurri potted 71 for the Oilers in 1985. He was 35 when traded to the Rangers in March 1996 and had one goal in 14 matches before notching three to go with five assists in 11 postseason contests for the Blueshirts. He signed as a free agent with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim the following September.

Only four other players have notched 150 points in a season.  Gretzky did it nine times, Lemieux did it four times.  Esposito and Steve Yzerman join Nicholls as players who did it once.

Broadway Bernie

Nicholls was traded to New York the same day the NHL All-Star Game was played. Hall of Fame goalie Rogie Vachon, then the Kings’ general manager, broke the news to him.

“He felt kind of bad,” Nicholls said of Vachon. “He thought he was doing something for his team. But I told him I thought he got the raw end of the deal.”

The Rangers certainly got a lot from Nicholls, who embraced the spotlight of Broadway, earning the moniker “Broadway Bernie.”

Kings owner Bruce McNall didn’t want to lose Nicholls. The two were reportedly close friends and owned racehorses together. But the Kings needed a shakeup and Nicholls was their best trade chip.

“I had to weigh my own personal feelings,” McNall told the Los Angeles Times. “But as the owner, I have to take away the emotional feelings and consider what is best for the team. I hate doing it. There are great things about being the owner of a team. Wonderful things. But there are also some bad things like this. I have to weigh what 16,000 people (a full house at the Forum) want. The first thing is to win. The second has to do with individual players. This could be an unpopular decision. A lot of people are not going to like it.”

Turned out the Kings didn’t make out too badly, either.

Sandstrom, a super pest and borderline dirty player who notched 380 points and 563 penalty minutes in 407 games with the Rangers, had his best season in the NHL in 1990-91, posting career highs in goals (45) and points (89).

Granato recorded three consecutive 30-plus goal seasons for the Kings, including a single-season best of 39 in 1992. The following season, he potted 37 markers and assisted on 45 others for a career-high 82 points.

A fine ‘Mess’ comes to Broadway

Nicholls took two months before he reported to Edmonton, the NHL’s northernmost outpost. Geography was a problem not because of the harsh winters common in Alberta’s capital city, but because his wife, Heather, was in New York and pregnant with twins. On November 29, 1991, she gave birth to a daughter, McKenna, and a son, Flynn. Only then did Nicholls agree to report.

According to the Edmonton Journal, he lost about $270,000 in salary by not reporting immediately. Money well spent, he said.

“I don’t know how anybody would think I could abandon her,” he said. “The doctor ordered that she needed bed rest at 28 weeks and that’s 23 hours a day. Before this pregnancy, we tried to adopt kids twice and it didn’t work out.

“There was no way I could leave her while she was bed-ridden,” said Nicholls, indicating Heather wanted to stay in New York so her doctor can monitor things. “The Oilers said they’d fly a plane out for her but she doesn’t want to pack up and go. She’s not real thrilled about Edmonton.”

His wife wasn’t the only reason Nicholls wasn’t thrilled about going to Edmonton. Despite winning the Stanley Cup in June 1990, the Oilers went into rebuilding mode, something Nicholls initially said he wanted no part of before relenting a bit.

“I said a lot of dumb things after I was traded (about not going to a team that was rebuilding) but I was frustrated,” he said. “I’d just bought a house and I thought New York had a good chance to win. I have nothing against the players in Edmonton or the organization, though. They won five Stanley Cups in the ’80s. Obviously, it’s a good place to play. When I play there . . . if I do play there, I’ll do the best I can.”

Late career

On July 14, 1994, exactly one month after the Rangers won the Stanley Cup, Nicholls assigned as a free agent with the Chicago Black Hawks. He fared well in the Windy City, posting 111 points (41 goals) in 107 games over two seasons.

He signed as a free agent with the San Jose Sharks in August 1996 and had 75 points (14 goals) in 135 matches over parts of three seasons. He retired after the 1998-99 season at the age of 37.