Most skilled game type Stanley Cup winners since 1990
- Thread starter SnowblindNYR
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Michael Farkas
Celebrate 68
Yeah, the 2016 and 2017 Penguins fit your bill. Speed, skill, multi-line puck carriers all over the lineup (1C, 2C, 3RW, 1RD).
I did a video way back, briefly, about how the Penguins generated speed behind the puck, they had guys over top of the puck, and they just continued to flip the ice with weakside rotation plays all day long.
The 2008 Red Wings were a buzzsaw, but I'm not sure that they fit the mold of these Avs teams and Pens teams. If you think the Lightning were grindy, then the '08 Red Wings were Super Deluxe Grind haha
I did a video way back, briefly, about how the Penguins generated speed behind the puck, they had guys over top of the puck, and they just continued to flip the ice with weakside rotation plays all day long.
The 2008 Red Wings were a buzzsaw, but I'm not sure that they fit the mold of these Avs teams and Pens teams. If you think the Lightning were grindy, then the '08 Red Wings were Super Deluxe Grind haha
MadLuke
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- Jan 18, 2011
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What about the 91 and 92 Lemieux pens ? The highlights of those are quite the skill competition level of show by time.
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Michael Farkas
Celebrate 68
Also fun. Except maybe the last three games of the Patrick Division Semifinal when the Pens basically played a 1-1-3 to come back from 3-1 down to beat Washington. But that kind of stuff maybe should be lost to the sands of time haha
I was going to include them and by the time I made the post forgot, lol. I started thinking of post-lockout teams.
Were the 2008 Wings really all that grindy? I remember them putting on a defensive clinic on the Pens but it felt like more in terms of passing than forecheck and grinding.
Michael Farkas
Celebrate 68
They were always in your space. They're always touchin folks...for coming out of the wide open years where teams like Buffalo dominated, this was a big contrast...it was like there was always six guys out there because of their spacing, they're picking guys offensively, they owned both creases/slots...they were a battleaxe...
Maybe them beating the Pens and destroying them in games 1 and 2 clowded my judgment a bit because they did me a solid, lol.
Michael Farkas
Celebrate 68
Heh (*grumble grumble*)...yeah, there was just no counter-punching that team. They could throw a haymaker and you still couldn't catch'em in the front, they were already guarding already protecting...ugh, man, screw them haha
ShelbyZ
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- Apr 8, 2015
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I've always thought the Wings getting grittier after their super skilled yet super soft 2006 team got upset in the first round was what helped push that team over the edge.
By the time the 2008 playoffs rolled around, Draper and Maltby (and their enforcer according to Mathieu Schneider, the powerplay) had been joined by Dallas Drake, Darren Helm and the returning Darren McCarty at the bottom of the forward ranks and they also had Kopecky (who got hurt right before the end of the RS) and Aaron Downey (who was pretty much replaced by McCarty) during the regular season.
What about the 2002 Red Wings? Technically their 4th line was Robitaille-Larionov-Holmstrom
I always felt they were a puck possession team that kept possession with passing and skill rather than by a heavy forecheck like the Kings and Panthers. I guess they can still be grindy.
frisco
Some people claim that there's a woman to blame...
Here's a vote for the 1992 Penguins. Even in the games they trapped to beat Washington after being down 3-1 they scored 14 goals in those three comeback games.
They went globetrotters on the Bruins in the ECF winning the last two in Boston by a combined 10-2 score with three or four tic-tac-doe goals and the Lemieux marker where he toyed with Bourque all the way down the ice
They led the regular season in Goals For and won their last 11 playoff games. Chicago (and the Rangers in Round Two) tried to be physical and grind them but there was just too much talent there in the Finals.
Also, a big tough team with Lemieux, Stevens, Tocchet, Francis, Jagr, Loney, Samuelsson(s), Loney all well over 210 pounds and between 6-1 and 6-6.
The Wings that won back-to-back in 97-98 are right there, too.
My Best-Carey
They went globetrotters on the Bruins in the ECF winning the last two in Boston by a combined 10-2 score with three or four tic-tac-doe goals and the Lemieux marker where he toyed with Bourque all the way down the ice
They led the regular season in Goals For and won their last 11 playoff games. Chicago (and the Rangers in Round Two) tried to be physical and grind them but there was just too much talent there in the Finals.
Also, a big tough team with Lemieux, Stevens, Tocchet, Francis, Jagr, Loney, Samuelsson(s), Loney all well over 210 pounds and between 6-1 and 6-6.
The Wings that won back-to-back in 97-98 are right there, too.
My Best-Carey
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Crosby2010
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- Mar 4, 2023
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I've got to go 1991 or 1992 Pens here. And to be honest I am not sure which one. Those Pens teams could be physical if they had to, and if they had to they could play defense, but in reality they were 18th and 20th in goals against. This was a team that won by scoring and out skilling the other team. Mario, Jagr, Francis, Recchi, Mullen, Stevens, Coffey, Murphy................this team could move the puck. 1992 was the same but no Coffey and Recchi, and Tocchet was added, but you had a more mature Jagr. I don't know, Mario scored iconic goals in both playoff runs. Jagr for sure in 1992. Honestly, both teams scored 3.95 GPG in each postseason. How do you choose? Both played a firewagon style type of game. Mario was about as good as he ever was at this point.
1996 Avs are a team not mentioned yet that deserve some love too. 2 of the 5 top scorers in the NHL. 2nd in goals all season. They had Roy so they could afford to play a firewagon style if they wanted to and they had the players to do it.
1996 Avs are a team not mentioned yet that deserve some love too. 2 of the 5 top scorers in the NHL. 2nd in goals all season. They had Roy so they could afford to play a firewagon style if they wanted to and they had the players to do it.
JianYang
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- Sep 29, 2017
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I think the 2021 lightning were the last "superteam"
They could play any kind of game that you wanted, and if you wanted a track meet, then they could bring the track meet to you as well as anyone.
But I think they also knew that playing efficiently and sound without the puck is the best way to survive the grind, and they could suffocate the game as well as anyone too.... so they opted for that route as much as possible.
They could play any kind of game that you wanted, and if you wanted a track meet, then they could bring the track meet to you as well as anyone.
But I think they also knew that playing efficiently and sound without the puck is the best way to survive the grind, and they could suffocate the game as well as anyone too.... so they opted for that route as much as possible.
vadim sharifijanov
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my memory is bowman went out of his way to make the 92 team more defensive than the 91 team. recchi and coffey out, tocchet and a second samuelsson in.
but ultimately that was just injecting some D and size to the top six of a team that was very asymmetrical to its bottom six. the grind and defence was always there in the bottom two lines: errey, loney, bourque, gilhen, hrdina, and old trottier.
VanIslander
20 years of All-Time Drafts on HfBoards
*sigh*
The '98 Wings.
Yzerman led the playoffs in assists and points, 7 Wings had 5 or more goals, Kozlov had the most game-winning goals; none of the series went 7 games and they swept the finals.
That's why Mr. Os"merely"good won the cup in net.
The '98 Wings.
Yzerman led the playoffs in assists and points, 7 Wings had 5 or more goals, Kozlov had the most game-winning goals; none of the series went 7 games and they swept the finals.
That's why Mr. Os"merely"good won the cup in net.
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Crosby2010
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The Wings employed a left wing lock system those years. Not boring hockey per se, but not the explosive offensive hockey they could have done either. Didn't help that it was in the dead puck era.
It would shock you, and it did me a bit too, to realize the GAA in the 1991 playoffs for the Pens was 2.71 vs. in 1992 for it being 2.92. I think more or less it was the same style of team. It has been mentioned that Bowman did change the style for the remainder of the Caps series when they were down 3-1, but overall this team played based on their offensive prowess. In general Bob Johnson could run a tight ship defensively too, as he was the one who knocked out the 1986 Oilers. But when you have Mario and co. on your team whether in 1991 or 1992 you don't necessarily forget defense, and I am not saying they did, but you don't handcuff guys like that offensively.
VanIslander
20 years of All-Time Drafts on HfBoards
And yet 7 Wings scored 5 or more goals!
That's why they repeated as champs, not because Osgood - ugh - was in net.
That's why they repeated as champs, not because Osgood - ugh - was in net.
MadLuke
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- Jan 18, 2011
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3.41 goals per games tell the story better than numbers of 5 goals scorer, Dallas the next year will win it scoring 2.78, Detroit the year before 2.90, they scored quite a bit in 1998, the most of any dpe winner by a good amount.
It took the 2010 Hawks to score like that again.
It took the 2010 Hawks to score like that again.
