Toughest road to winning a cup?

[SnowblindNYR]

Was just thinking that if Dallas wins the cup they would have gone through Vegas, Colorado, Edmonton, and Florida/NY. Would that be toughest road? What were some of the tough roads?

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[Dale53130]

Even if they came up short, the '91 North Stars.

1. Chicago (1st overall), GF (8th), GA (1st)
2. St. Louis (2nd overall), GF (4th), GA (3rd)
3. Edmonton (defending champions)
4. Pittsburgh (7th overall), GF (2nd), GA (18th)

Pittsburgh being in 7th (and the Oilers being 11th overall) is very misleading. Pittsburgh, not unlike the North Stars, had a lot momentum down the stretch.

Their regular season record was 27-39-14, and vs those teams, 6 wins, 12 losses, and 4 ties.

In those two regular season victories (both 5-1) vs the Oilers, Edmonton was without Mark Messier. In their 3 regular season match-ups vs the Pens, Pittsburgh was without Mario Lemieux. If either of them play, do the North Stars even make it into the playoffs?

 

[SnowblindNYR]

Even if they came up short, the '91 North Stars.

1. Chicago (1st overall), GF (8th), GA (1st)
2. St. Louis (2nd overall), GF (4th), GA (3rd)
3. Edmonton (defending champions)
4. Pittsburgh (7th overall), GF (2nd), GA (18th)

Pittsburgh being in 7th (and the Oilers being 11th overall) is very misleading. Pittsburgh, not unlike the North Stars, had a lot momentum down the stretch.

Their regular season record was 27-39-14, and vs those teams, 6 wins, 12 losses, and 4 ties.

In those two regular season victories (both 5-1) vs the Oilers, Edmonton was without Mark Messier. In their 3 regular season match-ups vs the Pens, Pittsburgh was without Mario Lemieux. If either of them play, do the North Stars even make it into the playoffs?

View attachment 875801

I know there were no shootouts and 3 on 3 but how embarrassing is it for the league that a team that's 12 games under .500 made the Final and actually won 2 games.

 

[Crosby2010]

1980 Isles always immediately come to mind. First round was the Kings, and they weren't elite, but did have the Triple Crown line. Then the Bruins with 105 points, the Sabres with 110 and then the Flyers with 116 points and a 35 game unbeaten streak and who were still very much the "Broad Street Bullies"

2014 Kings also come to mind although ironically the easiest opponent would have been the Rangers in the final. Three straight Game 7 wins on the road prior to the final. Also coming back from a 3-0 deficit.

 

[FerrisRox]

I know there were no shootouts and 3 on 3 but how embarrassing is it for the league that a team that's 12 games under .500 made the Final and actually won 2 games.

Why would that be embarrassing to the league?

 

[SnowblindNYR]

Why would the be embarrassing to the league?

Because that's fluky as all he'll and shows how random the playoffs are. Plus it shows how few good teams there are.

 

[Gorskyontario]

Islanders 1980.
Ironically their 81 and 82 cups were some of the easiest.
Then 83 was hard again.

I know there were no shootouts and 3 on 3 but how embarrassing is it for the league that a team that's 12 games under .500 made the Final and actually won 2 games.

Their record is deceiving. The 1991 northstars were loaded with veteran playoff guys, who had been with the stars even since 81, or 84. Then getting guys like Propp, who had played in 4 finals.

Bobby Smith Hockey Stats and Profile at hockeydb.com

Statistics and Records of Bobby Smith, a hockey player and coach from North Sydney, NS born Feb 12 1958 who was active from 1975 to 1993.

www.hockeydb.com

Not your typical third line center.

 

[Michael Farkas]

Well, they only won 4 of their first 23 games adjusting to yet another new coach in Bob Gainey. Took a while to find the right lines and get their defensive structure in place...their PK was like 88% down the stretch, he got Modano out of center and moved him to the wing, Dahlen - who was frequently rumored to every team in the league - was cemented in the lineup and got hot down the stretch...

I understand that the first 23 games are games that count too...but with the whole San Jose split thing involved, a new coach, and all that...it's not as bad as it looks. It certainly isn't "embarrassing" to the league...most of the league made the playoffs, so you get what you get with that...

 

[The Panther]

Minnesota 1991 was not a good team. They had 68 points and only 70 points the next season, so it's not like they suddenly arrived in spring 1991. They were reasonably good defensively (as will happen when Gainey's in charge) but offensively were pretty poor.

Their 1991 playoff charge is mainly a result of their Power-Play getting hot at the right time. They upset Chicago in round one because Keenan evidently didn't think it was a bad idea to take 50 penalties a game against them, but Minny's PP proved him wrong.

Their most impressive win might have been the one over St. Louis, as they held 86-goal Brett Hull to 3 goals in six games and Adam Oates to just about 1 point per game.

Injured, aging Edmonton completely ran out of gas in game three at the Met Center, and the Stars piled on to end that series in five. (Ranford and Fuhr posting a collective .865 for the series.)

They did well against Pittsburgh for five games. People often forget that the North Stars led that series 2-1 and came close to a game four comeback that would have put them in the driver's seat. But Pittsburgh just had too much offensive depth.

Full marks to that North Stars' club for a great run, but I tend to think of them as one of those "got-hot-at-the-right-time" teams, not as a legit good club.

 

[The Panther]

1988 Edmonton had a pretty difficult road to the Cup, esp. after round one:

-- Winnipeg 77 pts.
Not a great team by any stretch, but Winnipeg was 4th (of 10 clubs) in the West. They actually were having a decent season before a disastrous 2-9-2 stretch to close the season.

-- Calgary 105 pts.
The 1st overall team that season. Not only that, but Calgary had gone 10-4-2 against Edmonton during the preceding two regular seasons.

-- Detroit 93 pts.
A defensively tough team with Yzerman having just hit his peak. The Red Wings were 5th overall in 1988.

-- Boston 94 pts.
Bruins were 2nd in the East and 4th overall.

The wonder of all this is that the Oilers ended up going 16 - 2 in the playoffs...

 

[JianYang]

It didn't quite happen, but travel wise, look at the kings in 93.

Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal.

Not that gretzky was making excuses but he mentioned recently just how exhausted they were by the finals.

Compare that to Montreal's road of Quebec city, Buffalo, and new york prior to meeting LA.... can't get much easier travel wise for the first 3 rounds.

Then the following season, the Canucks had to go through Calgary, dallas, Toronto and new york. Calgary isn't a bad flight, but the other three are awful. Meanwhile, the Rangers stayed in their state for two series and went to DC for the other series prior to vancouver.

 

[HF007]

2004 flames
2014 kings

 

[Hockey Stathead]

Using Hockey Reference's Simple Rating System (regular season average goal differential per game adjusted for strength of schedule).

Not perfect (doesn't account for trades, coaching changes, injuries, only using best goalie, etc), but hopefully gives a decent approximation of the quality of each team.

 

[Sentinel]

2012 and 2014 Kings. I still can't believe they pulled it off both times.

 

[MadLuke]

We don,t think of the 1995 Devils because of the lock-out year, but if those season result were legit, all their opponent were in the Top 6, Red Wings with a good all-time goal differential and a .729 season pts percentage (en route for their record breaking 1996 season).

Faced a good list of legend, peak Jagr-Lindros-Fedorov (Coffey still going and Lidstrom started), last time Oates-Bourque-Neely played in a series together.

 

[Brodeur]

Using Hockey Reference's Simple Rating System (regular season average goal differential per game adjusted for strength of schedule).

Not perfect (doesn't account for trades, coaching changes, injuries, only using best goalie, etc), but hopefully gives a decent approximation of the quality of each team.

View attachment 876264

Interesting, my knee jerk thought was that the 1999-00 Devils had the hardest path of the three NJ Cups although they didn't have a 1995 Detroit level opponent.

Florida (98 points) - 8th out of 28
@ Toronto (100 points) - 7th out of 28
@ Philadelphia (105 points) - 3rd out of 28
Dallas (102 points) - 6th out of 28, defending champions

One of those quirky things where the Devils (103 points) were the lower seed against Toronto but had home ice against Dallas in the finals.

I was probably too new of a hockey fan to fully appreciate the path of the 1995 team and mix in the quirkiness of the shortened season.

@ Boston (97 point pace) - 6th out of 26
@ Pittsburgh (102 point pace) - 3rd out of 26
@ Philadelphia (100 point pace) - 5th out of 26
@ Detroit (119 point pace) - 1st out of 26

 

[Staniowski]

The '95 Devils are always the first team I think of when this topic comes up. They were a very memorable team, and an important team in the history of the NHL.
Not only did they beat four top teams, but, for the most part, they completely destroyed them.

I had never seen a team like the '95 Devils before. After the 2nd round (I think), I didn't think they would lose another game (i.e. I thought they would sweep both the Semis and the Finals). Of course i was wrong, the Flyers beat them twice in the Semis.

When I was watching, I was thinking about whether any team that came before them in NHL history could've beaten them in those playoffs (as is, without time to adjust). They shocked every team they played; teams couldn't adjust in time.

Then they missed the playoffs the next season!

 

[GMR]

2014 Kings in recent times.

 

[optimus2861]

A few observations from that SRS table:

* 2001 Avalanche were the only team that faced progressively better opponents in each round.
* 2014 Kings truly ran a gauntlet in the first three rounds, remembering as well that they went down 0-3 to SJ in round 1.
* 1996 Avalanche took out the single best statistical team in the group. Strangely it wasn't even that surprising.
* 2007 Ducks had a tougher looking run on paper than I remember. It didn't seem like anyone really gave them much trouble as they went 16-5.

And as was already said, the 88 Oilers tearing through everyone 16-2. I suspect we won't see the like of that again.

 

[vikash1987]

‘95 Devils

 

[vikash1987]

‘95 Devils for me. They didn’t have home ice advantage and were not favored in any of the four rounds they won. Just think of the teams and the individual superstars they beat that playoff year—unreal when you think about it.

 

[The Panther]

A bit off-topic, but what happened to the 1995-96 Devils that they kind of crapped out?:

1994 - 106 pts
1995 - Won Stanley Cup
1996 - 86 pts, missed playoffs
1997 - 104 pts
1998 - 107 pts
Etc.

 

[MadLuke]

.524%, +13 goals was not that different than the previous season (.542 +15), strong division-strong east making the miss the playoff, they had the 12 best record in the whole league.

Was it just that their top 3 scorer (Richer-MacLean-Broten), stopped to be really good, around that time and at the same time,?

 

[Gorskyontario]

A bit off-topic, but what happened to the 1995-96 Devils that they kind of crapped out?:

1994 - 106 pts
1995 - Won Stanley Cup
1996 - 86 pts, missed playoffs
1997 - 104 pts
1998 - 107 pts
Etc.

Ken Daneyko and Scott Stevens played bad on purpose to get Chris Nilan fired. At least that is what Nilan suspects(he made a passing comment about this on a podcast I listened to).

 

[Brodeur]

A bit off-topic, but what happened to the 1995-96 Devils that they kind of crapped out?:

1994 - 106 pts
1995 - Won Stanley Cup
1996 - 86 pts, missed playoffs
1997 - 104 pts
1998 - 107 pts
Etc.

The 1994-95 team was on pace for 89 points, although they got on a roll after getting Neal Broten. Broten was 36 though, so he went from being a point per game to half a point per game the following season. Mix in the Claude Lemieux situation and letting Bruce Driver leave to open up a spot for a young Jason Smith. Years later, Stephane Richer would open up about his bouts with depression. He went from being a 30-40 goals to 20 goals around that time. John MacLean also had a dip in production while the younger guys like Holik/Rolston didn't make the leap until the following year. 1995-96 was a bit of the intersection of the older players drying up and some of the youngers guys not being there yet.

And I always like to point out that 86 points wasn't good enough to qualify for the playoffs in the East that season, but 86 points would have been enough for the #4 seed in the West. Maybe a little bit of extra Cup hangover; Due to the lockout, the Cup was won on June 24 (despite it being a sweep). In 1994 it was handed out on June 14 (game 7) and in 1996 it was handed out on June 10.