Which team has had the toughest road to winning the Cup?

[Big Phil]

In other words which teams had to play the hardest teams in order to win the Stanley Cup? Here's the options.

1980 Islanders: In the first round they played a lowly Kings team but followed that up with Boston (105 points), Buffalo (110 points) and the league leading Philadelphia (116 points). Hard no matter how you look at it.

1971 Habs: Played the untouchable Bruins, Minnesota and then finished off Chicago probably the 2nd best team all year. 20 games in 3 series.

1967 Leafs: Beat Chicago in the first round who were far and away the best team, and then beat Montreal in the Cup finals the twotime defending Cup champs.

1992 Penguins: Had to beat Washington (2nd in points) Rangers (1st in points) and a tough Bruins team followed by Chicago in the Cup finals

1970 Bruins: Beat two of the NHL's best in NYR and Chicago followed by a good Blues team in finals

1945 Leafs: Beat the impossible Habs then Detroit

1983 Islanders: Beat tough team like Washington, average team in NYR and then 1st overall team Boston followed by favourite in the finals Edmonton


Or others, please specify HM: '95 Devils (hate them but still........)

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[BM67]

The 95 Devils, 52 points, had to face a Boston team, 57 pts, that had Oates, Bourque and Neely, that they had faced in the second round of the 94 playoffs, in the opening round, with Boston having home ice.

They then had to face the Penguins, 61 pts, with Jagr, Francis, Stevens and Murphy, who again had home ice.

They then faced Philadelphia, 60 pts, with Lindros, Leclair, Renberg, Brind'Amour and Desjardins, who again had home ice.

Then came the mighty Detroit Red Wins, 70 pts and the President's Trophy, with Bowman, Coffey, Fedorov, Yzerman, Lidstrom, Vernon, Konstantinov, and a handfull of others, again without home ice.

 

[rmchahn]

My vote has to go to the 1971 Habs. In the quarter-finals against the Bruins and in the finals against the Blackhawks, they were down 3 games to 2 and came back to win both series in 7 games, both 7th games on the road. They also won the semi-finals against Minnesota on the road in 6 games.

After going down 3 games to 2 in the finals, there was a disagreement between Henri Richard and his coach Al MacNeil, Richard calling MacNeil "the worst coach I ever played for". Despite the adversity, they came back to win the final two games and the Stanley Cup.

 

[hockeyismylife]

I know they didn't win it, but the 2003-04 Flames played the 1, 2, and 3 seeds in the west and the 1 seed in the east. They played what has to be close to a playoff record 26 games.

 

[Habs 4 Life]

1971 Habs

The Oilers would have been #1 if they would have won last season

 

[Chili]

1971 Habs

That Bruins team was one of best ever, proven by their cup wins the year prior, the year after and the way they smashed the record book in the regular season.

The Hawks had a great team that year and like the Bruins a very intimidating arena.