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"The real SCF" throughout the years

daver

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Apr 4, 2003
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This harkens back to the late 90's/early 2000s when the West had two great teams for many years in the Avs and Wings facing off in the WCF and beating the crap out of each other before winning easily against an East team.

I think you can argue that the WCF from '96 to '99 was the "real" SCF then again in 2002.

I think the Kings/Hawks in 2014 was the best example of this, and then maybe the Caps/Pens in 2017 or 2018.

Habs/Bruins in 1979 stands out too.
 
To qualify I think it would have the furthest possible round where the teams could ever possibly meet (i.e., two teams in same Conference, 1-2 ranked divisional teams in current or old format).

Therefore, it would not qualify to say "Florida and Tampa Bay in 2021 or 2025" for example even if you believe deep down those were the two best teams. They only meet in the 1st round because they were the 2 and 3 seed in their divisions, one of them could have been the 1st seed and they could have avoided an earlier matchup structurally.
 
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1982: Islanders-Nordiques
1991: Pittsburgh-Boston

And for most years in the 80s, the Smythe Division Final was the real Campbell Conference Final
 
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Original 6 Division vs. Expansion 6 SCF years are a freebie here.

1996-1999 Western Conference Finals always saw the champ face a tougher team in a more competitive series than the Eastern Conference team in the Stanley Cup Finals. Go passed the Devils strong teams in 2000/2001 (split result) and then right back to that in 2002 with Detroit facing Carolina.

There are plenty of subtle/debatable ones. Like I don't see 2016-2018 as some slam dunk as it's not like the advancing team stormed through the next two rounds unchallenged.
 
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I don't think you can say that 1997 was like this at all.

The Flyers were favorites going into the finals, I would assume they'd also be the same against Colorado had they won (in any case it would have been close).

Also the Rangers though in retrospect it's easy to see all the issues, still were having a good reputation as a mid nineties powerhouse.

Yes, in the year after with the east series being Buffalo vs Washington, it was more clear that either of Detroit or Dallas would be the favorite, and in 2002 it was obvious again, but 1997 is the complete opposite and can't be lumped with the other sweeps of the time.
 
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seventieslord said:
1994 Rangers/Devils?

With apologies to Canucks fans and with the fact that the finals went to 7 games very much in mind...
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Is that based on the Canucks regular season? They picked up alot of steam after beating the flames in round 1.

They lost one game in the next 2 rounds if I remember correctly.
 
For Detroit, each of 1996, 1998, and 2002 the West finals felt like the real finals. I will agree with the above that 1997 didn't feel that way because Philadelphia felt threatening while neither East finalist in any of those three seasons seemed like a credible threat.

Of course as mentioned the East Division finals post expansion decided which team was going to beat St. Louis for the Stanley Cup.

Toronto beating Boston in the 1938 semi-finals saw the league's best team beat the league's second best team in the semi-finals, with just the lowly Americans and even worse Blackhawks battling it out to take their beating in the finals. Whoops.
 
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1979 would be my top selection, Boston was that one infamous “too many men” call away from eliminating the Canadiens who went on to pretty easily handle the Rangers in the Finals.

More recently, I’d nominate 2021 as the Islanders wouldn’t have struggled against the Canadiens and even if Vegas had managed to not choke away the series, they still lose to either Tampa or NY, maybe pushing it to 7 at best.
 
dr robbie said:
Caps v Pens all 3 of 16, 17, and 18

Probably all the late 60s bracket that always made an expansion team play against a O6 juggernaut (so Black Hawks v Montreal in 68, Boston v Montreal in 69, Chicago v Boston in 70, etc.)
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Theres no way a CF that went 7 games was supplanted by a divisional game. Tampa was up in 17 and 18 of both CF series 3-2. "Real SCF" talk is glazing BS.
 
JackSlater said:
Toronto beating Boston in the 1938 semi-finals saw the league's best team beat the league's second best team in the semi-finals, with just the lowly Americans and even worse Blackhawks battling it out to take their beating in the finals. Whoops.
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Blame the stupid 1930s playoff format for this. I think they did it for 9-10 years.
 
JianYang said:
Is that based on the Canucks regular season? They picked up alot of steam after beating the flames in round 1.

They lost one game in the next 2 rounds if I remember correctly.
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That's true, they were hot. I don't know for a fact, I just get the sense that neither western contender would've been considered a worthy matchup for the eastern winner.
 
daver said:
This harkens back to the late 90's/early 2000s when the West had two great teams for many years in the Avs and Wings facing off in the WCF and beating the crap out of each other before winning easily against an East team.

I think you can argue that the WCF from '96 to '99 was the "real" SCF then again in 2002.

I think the Kings/Hawks in 2014 was the best example of this, and then maybe the Caps/Pens in 2017 or 2018.

Habs/Bruins in 1979 stands out too.
Click to expand...
2001- 7 game series was "winning easily against the East?"

I'm curious as to what is winning a hard fought series in your mind.

7 game series, all games going to double OT?
 
seventieslord said:
That's true, they were hot. I don't know for a fact, I just get the sense that neither western contender would've been considered a worthy matchup for the eastern winner.
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Fair enough. But I dont think new jersey had quite made a name for themselves yet, either. I dont think they would have been the same level of favourite that the Rangers were.
 
JianYang said:
Fair enough. But I dont think new jersey had quite made a name for themselves yet, either. I dont think they would have been the same level of favourite that the Rangers were.
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Personally, I don't care if it's 1 v16, if the series goes 7 games, that's a legit series

That means it all came down to 1 gsme where puck luck and random chance are a huge factor, a goalie stands on his head...

1996, 2002...1968 to 1970....yeah, rhey weren't the actual finals
 
The Macho Man said:
Theres no way a CF that went 7 games was supplanted by a divisional game. Tampa was up in 17 and 18 of both CF series 3-2. "Real SCF" talk is glazing BS.
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You mean 2016 not 2017. I thought about Pens/Bolts in 2016. That was a series that, like the Panthers/Leaf series this year, should not have gone 7 games but it was the most closely contested high level series that year so there is an arguement. I do not think the Caps/Pens series that year should be included. The 2018 Bolts/Caps series felt a bit of the same as 2016; again closely contested but the Caps shut them down in the last two games.

The Pens/Caps 2018 had huge narrative attached to it which added a shine to it. If that series went to a Game 7, I am not sure you could have scripted a higher level of a history of futility to overcome in NHL history. The pressure on the Caps would have been huge. That OT goal by Kuzneznov is one of the biggest non-SCF OT goals in NHL history.
 
I remember seeing people saying this alot about the meetings between Chicago and LA in 2013 and 2014.

You'd think one of the Tampa-Florida meetings would qualify but I don't think they both were top 2 teams in the league at the same time. 2022 was probably the closest we got to peak Tampa facing peak Florida with Florida having their most points ever in a season and went past the first round for the second time in franshiche history. Tampa obviously was back to back champs. We can't say it was the real final because the clear best team in the league was obviously the Avs.
 
Matsun said:
I remember seeing people saying this alot about the meetings between Chicago and LA in 2013 and 2014.

You'd think one of the Tampa-Florida meetings would qualify but I don't think they both were top 2 teams in the league at the same time. 2022 was probably the closest we got to peak Tampa facing peak Florida with Florida having their most points ever in a season and went past the first round for the second time in franshiche history. Tampa obviously was back to back champs. We can't say it was the real final because the clear best team in the league was obviously the Avs.
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Pfft.

And you call yourself a hockey fan?

Obviously the real SCF took place in the first round between TB and TML. Because if TML beat TB and TB beat Florida then that means TML would have beat Florida which means......I don't know...this HFBoards logic is tough to work through....

😏
 
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