The #1 Best NHL Team You've Seen in any Playoff year

[Thenameless]

If I had to guess it must have been similar to how I did as a Bucs fan when Warren Sapp went to the Raiders and John Lynch to the Broncos. Our defense was just a shell of its former glory after that.

If you ask me, the 1994 Canucks (another one of the best teams to never win it) had more fabric of a champion than the 2010-2011 Canucks ever did.

One championship is enough to get the monkey off your back. At least the Warren Sapp era did get their one Super Bowl - damn, that team was good on defense.

I agree with your assessment of the Canucks. While the 2011 may have been the Presidents' Trophy winners, the 94 team should have actually beaten the Rangers, with the way that team "gelled" and seemed to get stronger as they went deeper into the playoffs.

 

[These Are The Days]

One championship is enough to get the monkey off your back. At least the Warren Sapp era did get their one Super Bowl - damn, that team was good on defense.

I agree with your assessment of the Canucks. While the 2011 may have been the Presidents' Trophy winners, the 94 team should have actually beaten the Rangers, with the way that team "gelled" and seemed to get stronger as they went deeper into the playoffs.

Well put about getting stronger. The most telling feature of that 1994 Canucks team is how they handled the Leafs in the Campbell Conference Finals. That was a very good Leafs team they put down. Gilmour, Clark, Potvin, Andreychuk? Ohhh man. I gotta go back and watch that. By then the Canucks were simply unstoppable and it took a team with Hall of Famers like Messier, Leetch and Zubov (at least I feel like he should be) and borderline Hall of Famers like Larmer, Kovalev and Richter coached by Mike Keenan to finally knock out a team led by the likes of Linden, Courtnall, Lumme and MacLean. Everyone hypes Pavel Bure but he didn't REALLY get going in the Finals until the series switched to Vancouver. And it's not like they NYR were playing poorly after game 4 either. The Canucks just simply took every punch and did the on ice equivalent of saying said "You hit like a sissy"and delivered their best punches all the way to game 7.

I always felt bad for Mike Gartner and Tony Amonte for getting traded away that year.

 

[Thenameless]

I always felt bad for Mike Gartner and Tony Amonte for getting traded away that year.

Yes, I remember feeling really bad for Gartner as he was an established veteran at the time with not so many years left to play - Amonte was still really young I think. But Keenan and Neil Smith were obsessed with veteran, grit-type players and it ended up working out for them. Noonan, Matteau, and MacTavish all came near the trade deadline that year and drastically changed the make-up of the Rangers.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

I started watching hockey in 2006. The most dominant playoff team I've seen would be the 2013 Blackhawks. They were unstoppable, everyone knew they were getting another Cup. Detroit came close to taking them out but the way they handled the Kings after erased all doubt. After that, I'd say the 2016 Penguins were very dominant.

 

[McFlash97]

I know I'm not picking a truly phenomenal team here but the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 Sabres were ****ing ridiculous. You could give them everything you had and they'd laugh and say "Bruh this isn't even my final form" and proceed to drop 3 goals in 10 minutes. I'll never forget that playoff game against Ottawa that they won 7-6. That game was a track meet and the Sabres just made it look easy. Briere, Drury, Vanek, Pominville, Afinogenov... it's been 10 years and I still have nightmares about those guys. If not for the injuries they suffered on their defense by the 2005-2006 ECF they go to the finals instead of the Canes where they would have DESTROYED Edmonton 4-0 and probably would've outscored the 2:1

That was a bonafide Stanley Cup contender that just dismantled itself seemingly overnight.

Sabres were good, but lets get real, no they wouldnt destroy Edmonton. Edmonton came in waves too and would have won the cup if Roloson wasn't injured and Jussi (who?)Markannen wasn't playing in net for them in the Finals. They still almost won in 7 games.

 

[Black Gold Extractor]

Sabres were good, but lets get real, no they wouldnt destroy Edmonton. Edmonton came in waves too and would have won the cup if Roloson wasn't injured and Jussi (who?)Markannen wasn't playing in net for them in the Finals. They still almost won in 7 games.

While I agree that Buffalo wouldn't have "destroyed" Edmonton (a team that had Chris Pronger averaging almost 31 minutes per post-season game), I think most Oiler fans are too harsh on Markkanen, who played admirably in five of the six remaining games he started. He played poorly in game 2, but given that Ward had a shutout, that was probably the best time to be shaky. In the five remaining games, he made 103 saves on 111 shots for a 0.928 SV%.

If I had to place the blame, I'd blame the Oilers for blowing a 3-0 lead in game 1 (while Roloson was still in net, giving up 4 straight goals, for the record). Sure, there wouldn't have been the Conklin-Smith... thing, but who's to say it wouldn't have played out roughly the same way (only with an OT loss in game 1 rather than a facepalm-inducing regulation loss).

The Oilers could have won with or without Roloson. They just didn't. :/

 

[Big Phil]

I'll say the 1988 Oilers. 16-2 in the playoffs, that is incredible and it has to be put into context as well. Had a 2-0 series lead in every series, swept two of them. Plus look at the teams, it was Calgary who led the NHL in points and Boston who came out of the other side and beat the Habs pretty easily.

1983 Islanders went 16-5 but beat two teams that were very difficult and did it with ease. Beat Boston in 6 games despite the Bruins leading the NHL in points and is the only team who ever beat the Oilers with such ease like they did in the final.

2014 Kings, not that they didn't have close calls because they did but it was who they beat. Perhaps along with the 1980 Islanders they might own the toughest path to the Cup I've seen. First three series went 7 games including coming back from 3-0 against the Sharks. All three teams had well over 100 points and all more than the Kings. The Rangers lost in 5 in the final to them.

 

[double5son10]

1976 Canadiens. That team was on a mission to end the Bullies reign.