Strongest Teams That Didn't Win a Cup

[LordNeverLose]

I believe to finish it all off we need a "Weakest team to not win cup" thread.

The Leafs

 

[TeddyBare]

Are the sedins the entire team?????

 

[SnowblindNYR]

2011 Canucks but by the time they got to the final they pretty badly injured. By the time they got to game 7 they were a total shell of themselves. Not even sure their game 7 roster would have made it out of the first round.

They barely made it out of the 1st round as is.

 

[SovietWings]

Funny coincidence, but the winner of the cup all three of those years was Patrick Roy.

Really nice hockey trivia. Funny thing is, he did play personally only against one of those teams.

 

[McBaevid]

2011 Canucks is the right answer

 

[vdB]

2011 Canucks by farrrrrr

 

[Benedict Kovalchuk]

They barely made it out of the 1st round as is.

Boston barely made it out of the 1st round that year themselves. I don't see your point.

 

[DoubleGold]

2008 Pens.

Edit: '93 Pens too.

 

[oconnor9sean]

86 Oilers
93 Penguins
2000 Blues

Agreed with the '00 Blues. Those late 90's western conference battles were insane.

Dallas, Colorado, St. Louis and Detroit all had arguably their strongest period of teams in their franchise's history.

 

[lebdafor norris]

Alright, so now we've recently had:
Strongest team to not win cup thread
Strongest team to win cup thread
Weakest team to win cup thread

I believe to finish it all off we need a "Weakest team to not win cup" thread.

2014-2015 Buffalo and 2017-2018 Las Vegas.

 

[BLNY]

Mid 90s Wings that took a couple of years to figure out out.

1986 Oilers. One lapse and they miss out on being the second team to win 5 in a row.

1970-71 Bruins. Four guys with over 100 points. Some rookie named Dryden foiled their plans.

 

[Whale Mingo]

2011 Canucks by farrrrrr

93 Pens by fartherrrrrrr

 

[icekoob]

As much as I hated them back then the 2010 Canucks would have gone far if it wasn't for the Hawks..

 

[kunekune]

Avs 03-04 easily.

 

[VoluntaryDom]

Why am I the only mention of 2012 Preds? They had Radulov and both Kostitsyns. They also had Erat, Fisher, Hornqvist and the Weber-Suter duo.

 

[clydesdale line]

2010 Flyers for me. That team was insane everywhere minus goaltending.

 

[ChiefWiggum]

00-07 Sens teams
05-07 Buffalo Sabres
10-12 Canucks

 

[Buzzo]

2010-11 Canucks is the first that comes to mind, couldn't believe they didn't pull it off, Thomas was just on a whole other level that year

 

[BMOK33]

95/96 Wings by a mile. They looked bad in the first two rounds though and you just knew they wouldn't get past Colorado. Winnipeg and St. Louis both gave them more trouble than they should have

 

[Kurt Cobain]

2001 Devils

 

[Kurt Cobain]

The crazy thing about the 2001 cup is the whole Rob Blake situation, which ended up being the deciding factor in who won the cup. The Devils and Avalanche were the two teams vying for him, yet they Kingd trade within the conference. Then the Kings get eliminated by the Avs that playoff year. It was really stupid on the Kings part, the Devils offered a huge package, but it was mostly futures, but it it did include; two firsts, their 2000 1st and a prospect Brian Gionta. Yet the Kings went and took the Avalanche deal cause Deadmarsh was involved. Who was out of the league in two years. It really was dumb because the Avalanche eliminated the Kings and Blake was a massive factor in eliminating the Kings in the 2nd round. Hind sight is 20-20 but that Devils team would have had; Stevens, Niedermayer, Blake and Rafalski as their top 4 and I can't think of a better top 4 ever. I'll never understand the Kings trading a talent like Blake within the conference.

 

[Kurt Cobain]

We never got to see playoff Hasek... first in 04-05 because of the lockout, then again in 05-06 because of the Olympics' Hasek injury

Up front: Heatley-Spezza-Alfredsson, one of the best lines in the last 20 years. Depth? Mike Fisher was a Selke nominee that year.
At the back: Prime Redden and Chara, both Norris caliber defensemen (Chara was #4 and Redden #5 in voting that year, probably negated some of eachother's votes, source)
In net: Dominik Hasek... nuff said.


They still managed to reach the SCF the next year without Hasek or Chara, and Redden rapidly declining.

The 2003 sens aren't even close.

 

[Kurt Cobain]

1986 Oilers
1993 Penguins
1995 Red Wings
1996 Red Wings
2001 Devils

Those are the top 5.

 

[GrkFlyersFan]

In addition to the obvious ones like the '86 Oilers, '93 Pens, '96 Wings, '16 Caps, I'm gonna throw in a couple you may have forgotten about like the '09 Sharks who won the President's Trophy, had a complete team, just simply choked. Probably the best Sharks team of all-time, even better than the '16 team. They lost in the first round, and that's probably why they were forgotten.

Also a homer vote for the '04 Flyers. I can't believe some of you people assume Ottawa would have won if there was an 04-05 season. I was born in 1989, I've seen two Flyers teams make it to the SCF, but that '04 team was the best one I got to root for. The '04 ECF was the SCF that year.

 

[Kurt Cobain]

In addition to the obvious ones like the '86 Oilers, '93 Pens, '96 Wings, '16 Caps, I'm gonna throw in a couple you may have forgotten about like the '09 Sharks who won the President's Trophy, had a complete team, just simply choked. Probably the best Sharks team of all-time, even better than the '16 team. They lost in the first round, and that's probably why they were forgotten.

Also a homer vote for the '04 Flyers. I can't believe some of you people assume Ottawa would have won if there was an 04-05 season. I was born in 1989, I've seen two Flyers teams make it to the SCF, but that '04 team was the best one I got to root for. The '04 ECF was the SCF that year.

The 2004 Flyers really? I remember Keith Primeau carrying that team. I know it's a home vote but the Flyers had much better teams than that one. 2000 Flyers were definitely better.