When the Los Angeles Kings won the Stanley Cup this year, it marked a rare double for Jeff Carter & Drew Doughty.
By winning Olympic Gold Medals earlier in Men’s Hockey for Canada at the Winter Games in Russia, Carter & Doughty became just the 7th & 8th players in history to turn the double in one season.
In 2010, Canada won Gold at the Olympics in Vancouver, which set the stage for Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook & Jonathan Toews to post the double when the Chicago Blackhawks beat Philadelphia for the Stanley Cup.
And before that, in 2002 at Salt Lake City, Canada took gold in hockey, which set the double path in motion for Brendan Shanahan & Steve Yzerman as the Detroit Red Wings beat Carolina for the Cup.
But from my viewpoint, the most amazing double was the first one, turned in by Ken Morrow in 1980.
Unlike the other 7 to turn the trick, Morrow, while solid, was a far from a star or superstar.
He also wasn’t from Canada, nor a professional at the time of the Olympic triumph. Morrow was a member of the ” Miracle on Ice ” Americans who stunned Russia then beat Finland for the Gold.
Morrow followed that by being a member of the 1980 New York Islanders Stanley Cup team.
How good was 24 year old Ken Morrow, barely out of amateur hockey, to crack a defence corps with the Potvin brothers, Persson, Langevin, Lorimer & Lane ?
Need more ?
In his Olympic Gold-Stanley Cup run, Morrow underwent the relatively new procedure of arthroscopic surgery performed on his knee, yet played only days afterward as the Islanders won their first Cup.
Drew Doughty and Jeff Carter completed a remarkable feat, no question.
But to me, the tale pales in comparison to the first to do it, Ken Morrow in 1980
I’m Fred Wallace