Doug McKay

There have been a number of great players who have played well over 1000 NHL games but never won a Stanley Cup. Names like Harry Howell, Mike Gartner, Borje Salming, Gilbert Perreault, Brad Park, and Marcel Dionne headline that list.

While those players enjoyed incredible careers, you have to wonder if they'd trade all of that for what Doug McKay has.

McKay, a native of Hamilton, Ontario, played in only one NHL game in his entire hockey career, but it just happened to be at the right place at the right time. He got called up by Detroit in game 3 of the 1950 Stanley Cup finals. The 20 year old rookie just helped the Indianapolis Capitals capture the AHL championship and Detroit figured he could give them a little boost.

Although he travelled with the team for the rest of the series, he never played again. But when Detroit's Pete Babando scored in overtime in game 7 the Wings emerged as the victors and the Stanley Cup champions. Because McKay appeared in the series he earned the right to have his named engraved on Lord Stanley's Grail.

It was McKay's first and last game. He remained in the Wings' farm system for a couple more years before going to Stratford Ontario where he retired from pro hockey but continued to play senior hockey. McKay would go on to become a successful coach, earning two Turner Cup championships in the IHL.

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Detroit Red Wings Greatest Players

Sid Abel Gary Aldcorn Larry Aurie Pete Babando Doug Barkley Marty Barry Gary Bergman Mud Bruneteau Roger Crozier Alex Delvecchio Alex Faulkner Viacheslav Fetisov Danny Gare Warren Godfrey Bob Goldham Ebbie Goodfellow Danny Grant Dominik Hasek George Hay Paul Henderson Flash Hollett Gordie Howe Willie Huber Syd Howe Red Kelly Petr Klima Joey Kocur Vladimir Konstantinov Igor Larionov Reed Larson Tony Leswick Joey Kocur Vladimir Konstantinov Mike Korney

Igor Larionov Reed Larson Tony Leswick Ted Lindsay Carl Liscombe Harry Lumley Len Lunde Parker MacDonald Bruce MacGregor Frank Mahovlich Dale McCourt Bucko McDonald Billy McNeill Johnny Mowers John Ogrodnick Jimmy Orlando Marty Pavelich Bob Probert Marcel Pronovost Mickey Redmond Dutch Reibel Leo Reise Jr. Earl Robertson Terry Sawchuk Enio Sclisizzi Glen Skov Brad Smith Normie Smith Black Jack Stewart Joe Turner Norm Ullman Bugsy Watson Benny Woit Steve Yzerman

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Mike Korney

Mike Korney was a well travelled minor leaguer. He was a defenseman by trade who also played considerable time at right wing throughout his career. He was an imposing figure at 6'3" and 200+ pounds of pure muscle. Although he was not really noted for his physical play, he was as strong a player as there was in his day.

George Pesut, who often prepared for the hockey season with "Captain Kornball," said "Naturally everybody wanted him to fight, and on a lot of night's Mike was just a gentle giant, or too tired from his escapades the night before, or cleaning out the bar in a bar room brawl and a little too tired to continue on the ice. If you ever got him mad watch out! In junior his favorite trick was just picking the player up in mid air, and body slamming them against the glass with his incredible strength."

Just how strong was he? George shares this great story:

"I use to organize the ice for all the pro's in Saskatoon before we went to camp,and we had about 40 guys just from Saskatoon who played in the NHL back in the 70's.One thing that I can always remember from those skates in august each year was something Mr. Kornball use to do. I have never seen anybody able to do this feat with that little round disc! He use to line up five pucks at the blueline and skate in from the redline and wrist the biscuit over the net with one hand, and it was not a wobbly shot! That's one for the Ripley's Hockey Hall of Fame!"

The Dauphin Manitoba native spent his first professional season of 1973-74 split between 4 teams in 4 leagues. Most of that season was spent in London England where he was one of the top players with London Lions. He also appeared in his first two National Hockey League games with the Detroit Red Wings.

Year two of pro hockey was his best from an NHL standpoint. Due to a plethora of injuries, Korney was able to get into 30 games with the Wings, and chipped in 8 goals and 10 points. However he continued to rack up those frequent travel miles as he actually played with 5 teams in 1974-75. Each of his minor league stops were brief.

Korney got into the Wings lineup 27 times in 1975-76, mostly as a defenseman and receiving little ice time. He did get a goal and 8 points in that time, but split the rest of the season between the AHL and the CHL. In mid season he was actually traded in a 6 player swap with Philadelphia, although he never would play for the Flyers.

Korney never got into a single NHL game in 1976-77, but Korney must have enjoyed staying in one city for an entire season. Korney had played the entire year with the Kansas City Blues, a farm team of the St. Louis Blues, even though he wasn't under contract to the St. Louis organization. He spent the following year bouncing once again between three teams and three leagues but was rewarded for his resilience in the summer of 1978.

In typical Korney-fashion, Mike attended the Blues training camp and made a good impression. However waiver draft complications meant that the Blues would risk losing him for nothing since they did not intend to protect him. So the Blues moved Korney to the Montreal Canadiens, only to have the New York Rangers claim Korney two days later.

It worked out well for Korney as he picked up a NHL pay check for 18 games with the Rangers. He also, of course, spent a spattering of time between to minor league teams in an injury plagued season.

Korney spent one more year in professional hockey, spending the entire 1979-80 campaign with the AHL Syracuse Firebirds.

Korney retired at the turn of the decade, scoring 9 goals and 19 points in 77 NHL games and collecting 1000s of travel miles! He opted to return to western Canada once he gave up the professional game, but he never gave up the game. He became a player coach with the senior league Cranbrook Royals. He splayed and coached for two years, capturing the Allan Cup in 1982.

Mike has become an expert helicopter pilot and who spent time in the Persian Gulf.

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Len Lunde

This is Len Lunde. He was a solid second or third line checker with some play making ability. His professional hockey career would last 18 seasons, taking him all over the world, but only 321 times did he participate in a NHL game. Given how hard it was to crack a NHL line up in the days of the Original Six, this was no small feat.

The Campbell River, BC born Lunde was a dominant scorer in junior, starring with the Edmonton Oil Kings in the mid 1950s.

A prospect of the Detroit Red Wings, Lunde would remain in Edmonton for the first two years of his professional career, playing with the WHL Edmonton Flyers. Though hockey would take Lunde far, far away beginning in 1958, Edmonton had become his home. One day, long after retiring as a hockey player, he would play a big role in the Edmonton Oilers success in the 1980s.

After an impressive 1957-58 season with the Flyers, where he scored 39 goals in 67 games, Lunde got his shot at the NHL. Lunde joined the Red Wings for four years starting in 1958-59. He proved to be a steady utility player who helped the Wings reach the Stanley Cup finals in 1961. He was far from spectacular though. His goal scoring totals in his four seasons in Detroit were 14, 6, 6 and 2.

In the summer of 1962 he was traded to the Chicago Black Hawks. He found a nice home on a checking line with Eric Nesterenko and Ron Murphy, scoring 28 points.

The following season Lunde began a long career in the minors. Aside from brief appearances with Chicago and Minnesota in the NHL, Lunde starred with teams like the Buffalo Bisons (AHL), Portland Buckaroos (WHL) and Vancouver Canucks (WHL).

When the Canucks joined the NHL in 1970, Lunde returned to the league. Unfortunately for him, he only was able to participate in 20 games.

The Canucks had brought in Finnish hockey legend Lasse Oksanen to training camp in September, 1970, introducing Lunde to a few Finnish contacts. Lunde spent the 1972 and 1973 seasons playing in Finland with Ilves Tampere, while also coaching the Finnish national team.

Lunde loved his time in Sweden, but he had to make a tough decision that was best for his family. At the time there was inadequate English schooling in Finland, so he returned to Canada after getting an offer to play hockey with the WHA Edmonton Oilers.

Although he scored 26 goals in 71 games with the WHA Oilers, he hung up the blades after that season. He honed his coaching skills by spending the next two years developing a hockey program for Native Canadians on a reserve near Edmonton.

Calls from Europe continued to entice Lunde. He returned to Europe, specifically Sweden this time, where he coached and also acted as a scout for the Edmonton Oilers, now of the National Hockey League. The Oilers were one of first teams to really exploit Europe in the early 1980s. Lunde played a big role in finding and monitoring many of them, including Esa Tikkanen, Risto Siltanen and Jari Kurri.

Tired of all the travel, Lunde settled down in 1983. He returned to Edmonton and got into the leasing business.

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