Big Phil
Registered User
- Nov 2, 2003
- 31,703
- 4,147
Red Wings in 99 and 03 have to qualify. Both defending champions. Both roll through the regular season. 99 team acquires Chelios, Clark, and Ranford as an insurance. They have Avs on the ropes. Then Osgood is injured, and they suffer complete mental collapse.
In 03 they acquire Joseph and IIRC Schneider. Fedorov has (his last) great season, thoroughly outplaying the rest of his HOF teammates. Some rookie named Zetterberg joins the Two Kids and a Goat line. Then Giguerre happens. Sad.
Thought of the 1999 Wings. They were probably everyone's pick to threepeat. Basically if you've won two in a row you are the favourite until someone says you aren't (similar to Pittsburgh this year). That being said, they were 7th in points in the regular season. They didn't exactly light up the league that year, or even their otherwise mediocre division. They lost a ton of games that year - 32. No doubt they could have turned it up in the playoffs, but to be on this list you have to impress a lot in the regular season.
I'll agree the 2000 Stars and 2001 Devils can be teams easily on this list. It is a hard list to crack but I think there could have been room for the Devils.