- Jul 30, 2016
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From Purgatory to A Cup: Teams that should've rebuilt/retooled, but didn't, then ended up winning it all
- Thread starter blundluntman
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frisco
Some people claim that there's a woman to blame...
MadLuke
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- Jan 18, 2011
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I imagine lot of talks around the Pens before they started winning cups again in 2016-2017.
But I guess they were always in reality real contender (there was competing talk the if Malkin-Crosby are both healthy they are a contender versus the window is closed and it is a mirage), it was just fans exaggerating negatively like the pre-2018 caps.
In this era it is hard to be always be playoff bound without being a real contender, making the playoffs comfortably is quite hard, if we made a list of teams last summer certain of making the playoff in 2025, how many in that list would have been not real contender... Not a lot of space between a will make the playoff comfortably but will not compete for the cup in modern NHL hockey.
But I guess they were always in reality real contender (there was competing talk the if Malkin-Crosby are both healthy they are a contender versus the window is closed and it is a mirage), it was just fans exaggerating negatively like the pre-2018 caps.
In this era it is hard to be always be playoff bound without being a real contender, making the playoffs comfortably is quite hard, if we made a list of teams last summer certain of making the playoff in 2025, how many in that list would have been not real contender... Not a lot of space between a will make the playoff comfortably but will not compete for the cup in modern NHL hockey.
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Wee Baby Seamus
Yo, Goober, where's the meat?
2019 St. Louis?
Miss the playoffs for the first time in 7 years in 2018, with a sense that they had stagnated and needed overhauling.
Instead they make one trade, for O’Reilly, start the season calamitously, and end up winning the cup with almost the exact same roster as missed the year prior.
Miss the playoffs for the first time in 7 years in 2018, with a sense that they had stagnated and needed overhauling.
Instead they make one trade, for O’Reilly, start the season calamitously, and end up winning the cup with almost the exact same roster as missed the year prior.
BigBadBruins7708
Registered User
Yeah, this is the one for me. They looked to be firmly in the "make the playoffs, maybe in a round" each year purgatory
MadLuke
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the blues win felt like such a special case that could be an exception that confirm the rules a bit like the 2012 8th place Kings winning it all.
That said not so easy coming up with teams that did that without winning the cup either, constant playoff tend to have contender windows or will make a big move at some point (a la Weber leaving the Preds)
That said not so easy coming up with teams that did that without winning the cup either, constant playoff tend to have contender windows or will make a big move at some point (a la Weber leaving the Preds)
I mean the Pens I guess are the poster boy for this. The talks got much louder as the years went on. You can probably discount the cup hangover in 10 and injuries in 11. But after getting manhandled in 12, and blowing it in 13 and 14 after stacking the team the bottom fell out in 15, they barely made the playoffs and were beaten pretty easily by the Rangers. Myself and many others thought at that point that they got the 1 cup time to tear it down and well we all know what happened.
The only other 1 I could think of is maybe Detroit in the early 00s. They lost to the Avs 2 straight years and then lost to a much lesser La team in 01. Many people were screaming rebuild after that but they went shopping and it all worked out.
The obvious 1 would have been the Bruins had they won in 19 or 23. Maybe more so 19.
The only other 1 I could think of is maybe Detroit in the early 00s. They lost to the Avs 2 straight years and then lost to a much lesser La team in 01. Many people were screaming rebuild after that but they went shopping and it all worked out.
The obvious 1 would have been the Bruins had they won in 19 or 23. Maybe more so 19.
MadLuke
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But they were without a real and serious contender before 2002.
In the 2000 and 2001 season they had the more points in the nhl, a team filled with recent multiple cup winners, not really a good enough to make the playoff but not much more affair.
NyQuil
Big F$&*in Q
I think people were starting to feel that way about the Caps right before they won the Cup.
