1988: Toronto takes up Edmonton's offers to trade Gretzky. The people of Edmonton go ballistic, but Toronto welcomes one of its natives sons with open arms. When combined with Toronto's early 1990s lineup, the combination proves incredible.
1992-93: OTL until semis. Toronto destroys Los Angeles in five games, setting up the first Montreal-Toronto Cup final since 1960. Toronto wins, which infuriates Montreal.
1993-94: Stung by the loss to their long-time rival, Montreal takes a gamble and looks for a second goaltender to back up Roy, and trade Mathieu Schneider to a defense-challenged New Jersey, in return for Martin Brodeur. This looks bad early on as Schneider hauls the mail and Brodeur gets a slow start, but doesn't stay that way for long. Brodeur alongside Roy turn about to be the best goaltenders in the NHL, and the team racks up a whopping 14 shutouts during the regular season. Montreal Rips Boston to pieces in four games, to the delight of the Montreal fans, and beats New Jersey in the semis, but loses narrowly to the New York Rangers in the finals. Toronto beats New York 4-2 to get their second Stanley Cup in a row.
1994-95: The trade for Mark Recchi turns about to be a good idea, and Kirk Muller doesn't go anywhere. Montreal makes the playoffs and dusts the defending Cup champions in round one, but is beaten by Philadelphia in the semis. Jose Theodore doesn't get much ice time with Brodeur and Roy, but great things are to come from him. It's turning into good times for Canadian teams, however, as Vancouver makes its miracle run (OOC: a year later than OTL, but who cares) narrowly getting past Chicago but then beating Detroit and Phileadelphia for the fourth Canadian Cup in succession.
1995-96: Patrick Roy and Mario Tremblay get into a massive fistfight after a massive regular season loss to Detroit. Roy immediately wants out unless Tremblay is shown the door, but the Canadiens realize that it's better to keep Tremblay than Roy. Roy ends up at Vancouver (instead of Colorado as in OTL) and he is traded for Pavel Bure. Pierre Turgeon's arrival is welcome news for Montreal's offense, and Montreal's front lines - Bure, Recchi, Saku Koivu, Damphousse, Turgeon - is a deadly combo. Brodeur has to face a only average defense, but with the monster front lines it didn't much matter anyways. Montreal rips off an amazing 355 goals in a season, with Bure topping the points board with 121. Montreal beats the Rangers easily but has two tough series against first Pittsburgh and then Florida. They win the conference, and then beat Detroit to win the Cup in a brutal 4-3 series. Montreal is a mess afterward, but the job is done.