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Will there be a Cinderella team this year? if so, who?

I wonder if we’ll ever see a Cinderalla team actually come out of nowhere and win the whole thing at some point in time (I don’t consider the 2012 Kings a Cinderella team).

Vancouver in 94 and Oilers in 06 were a bounce or two away. Calgary in 04 was literally just an overtime goal away from winning it in Game 6.

It’s strange how it has just never happened in a sport that relies on so many bounces, hot steaks, and luck, but there have been several close calls. I guess Montreal in 1986 was the closest?
 
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I've seen it a few times where a Cinderella team goes on a deep run almost solely because their goaltender goes absolutely god mode. Maybe even seemingly out of nowhere. Giguere's run in 2003, for example, came completely out of the blue, as far as my personal observation went because I didn't really know anything about the Ducks before the playoffs started.
 
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TropicOfNoReturn said:
I think context is important...Panthers won the Presidents Trophy in 2022, and the Stanley Cup in 2024. They were obviously a very good team and a contender in 2023.
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I suppose it's how you define a "cinderella" run - come on, wouldn't being a WC2 do it?! I think recent history has coloured people's perceptions of that 2023 run, but I would definitely see it as cinderella run. We got in on the last day, no one gave us a chance against the Bruins, the Leafs or the Canes. It was only against Vegas that people starting backing us, only for us to get walked over...

As for this year, I would say if the the Habs or the Blues went on a run.
 
I don't really think there will be a cinderella team this year but if I had to pick a couple, I would say the Wild and Habs.
 
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Gil Gunderson said:
I wonder if we’ll ever see a Cinderalla team actually come out of nowhere and win the whole thing at some point in time (I don’t consider the 2012 Kings a Cinderella team).

Vancouver in 94 and Oilers in 06 were a bounce or two away. Calgary in 04 was literally just an overtime goal away from winning it in Game 6.

It’s strange how it has just never happened in a sport that relies on so many bounces, hot steaks, and luck, but there have been several close calls. I guess Montreal in 1986 was the closest?
Click to expand...

The 2012 Kings and 2019 Blues were Cinderella teams because, at the time, they were dismissed as having no chance. Of course, in retrospect we can see they were better than we realized and had rosters that were built for the playoffs. I'd say that's the case for every team that goes far. If we actually want to evaluate it, we'll find concrete reasons why a team does well in the playoffs.

Unfortunately, too often fans dismiss a team as lucky, or fluky, or some other superstitious excuse, because it's easier than admitting our prediction sucked.
 
Lshap said:
The 2012 Kings and 2019 Blues were Cinderella teams because, at the time, they were dismissed as having no chance. Of course, in retrospect we can see they were better than we realized and had rosters that were built for the playoffs. I'd say that's the case for every team that goes far. If we actually want to evaluate it, we'll find concrete reasons why a team does well in the playoffs.

Unfortunately, too often fans dismiss a team as lucky, or fluky, or some other superstitious excuse, because it's easier than admitting our prediction sucked.
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St. Louis maybe, but that 2012 LA team was a well oiled machine that made it clear from the first game of the playoffs that they were a real problem and their place in the standings didn’t actually reflect them as a team.
 
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Lshap said:
The 2012 Kings and 2019 Blues were Cinderella teams because, at the time, they were dismissed as having no chance. Of course, in retrospect we can see they were better than we realized and had rosters that were built for the playoffs. I'd say that's the case for every team that goes far. If we actually want to evaluate it, we'll find concrete reasons why a team does well in the playoffs.

Unfortunately, too often fans dismiss a team as lucky, or fluky, or some other superstitious excuse, because it's easier than admitting our prediction sucked.
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50/50 on St. Louis I guess.

But that LA team was predicted by many to be a cup contender in the 2011 offseason after they got Mile Richards. They started slow and made a coaching change and got Jeff Carter at the deadline. I don’t aee them as a typical 8th seed.
 
nhlfan9191 said:
St. Louis maybe, but that 2012 LA team was a well oiled machine that made it clear from the first game of the playoffs that they were a real problem and their place in the standings didn’t actually reflect them as a team.
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LA was actually leading the division the last 2 two weeks of the season that year and completely fell off a cliff to close out the season losing the division by 2 points. If they would have played half decent like they did at the TDL when they picked up Carter, they would have finished 3rd overall and the whole playoffs would have changed.
 
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