Years you thought your team should have won the Cup

[Ishdul]

Shocked you didn't put the 2013 team that went all-in at the deadline.

The 2012 Penguins team was also the betting favourites right before the playoffs.

 

[EpochLink]

Yeah, well Keenan lost those series for the Hawks, especially against Minnesota. Keenan was trying to goon it up... Look at the PIM's from that series, the Stars weren't buying into it and the officials weren't having it which is why the Hawks spent half the series in the box... Of course him playing Millen over Belfour was stupid but that's the type of crap Keenan would do... It's like Keenan approached the game from a bizarre psychological angle... To this day I don't understand what he wished to accomplish by sitting his best goaltender, or even his crazy antics by replacing goaltenders multiple times in a game..

At any-rate, those were skilled hockey teams, however Keenan was just a fool.

Here is a good article about Keenan by Jeremy Roenick..

http://deadspin.com/5958837/mike-keenan-the-nhls-last-great-*******-coach

The 1991-1992 Blackhawks went on an 11 game winning streak to the Finals that year. I remember that run cause the Jets choked another 7 game opening round series against the Canucks.

Hawks SHOULD'VE won game 1 against Pittsburgh, talk about lost opportunity.

 

[Doctor Coffin]

The 1991-1992 Blackhawks went on an 11 game winning streak to the Finals that year. I remember that run cause the Jets choked another 7 game opening round series against the Canucks.

Hawks SHOULD'VE won game 1 against Pittsburgh, talk about lost opportunity.

They surely should have. Maybe it's ingrained pessimism from following the Hawks for several decades, but outside of the first period of the first game, the whole 1992 final seemed like they were trying to hold onto a rope which was slipping out of their hands, fighting an uphill battle, despite winning their previous eleven games. When they shut the Penguins down, they got shut down more. When they scored, the Penguins scored more.

 

[Doctor Coffin]

I will add this, despite Keenan's questionable judgments, Minnesota got away with gooning it up too....

Remember when Chris Chelios got blatantly high sticked, and basically the front of his jersey was covered in blood and there was no call?

That series was a total mess. The officials called the Hawks for everything and Minnesota for nothing, and I think that had to do with the officials not tolerating Keenan's antics...... Sure Keenan got away with that nonsense during the regular season but I don't think the officials or the NHL were going to turn the playoffs into a gong show circus....

Gregson helped set the tone when he made a questionable 5-minute major call on Graham for crashing into Casey as he was being tied up by Wilkinson, I believe, shortly after Roenick scored 13 seconds into the first game. Minnesota scored 2 goals on that powerplay and were off and running. (Gregson was also the referee in game 1 of the 1990 series, which Minnesota won, in which both teams had close to double figures in power-play opportunities)

The whole series was a mess, indeed. But when only two forwards have more than 3 points in a 6-game series, the outcome is not going to be good.

 

[Hawksfan2828]

The 1991-1992 Blackhawks went on an 11 game winning streak to the Finals that year. I remember that run cause the Jets choked another 7 game opening round series against the Canucks.

Hawks SHOULD'VE won game 1 against Pittsburgh, talk about lost opportunity.

Oh I remember quite well, in game one they started out on fire, they were dominating and early they had a 2 or 3 nothing lead but that went bye bye... It's difficult for me to say the Hawks should have won considering they got swept..

I was pretty devastated when the Hawks lost that one, but it wasn't even close.

 

[Hawksfan2828]

They surely should have. Maybe it's ingrained pessimism from following the Hawks for several decades, but outside of the first period of the first game, the whole 1992 final seemed like they were trying to hold onto a rope which was slipping out of their hands, fighting an uphill battle, despite winning their previous eleven games. When they shut the Penguins down, they got shut down more. When they scored, the Penguins scored more.

Good synopsis, Hawks would score 2 goals in a short span but 2 minutes later the Pens would score 3...

I will say this much - Jagr was fantastic..

 

[Elvis P]

2014 only thing stopping the Blackhawks from a second straight title were the Kings (obviously), what an amazing series tho. Theres a reason a fair amount of people consider it to be the "real" 2014 Stanley Cup Finals.

Agreed. It will be interesting to see what the Kings do this year.

 

[Hasbro]

Avalanche: 1999

Matvichuk injured Forsberg and Hejduk in the WCF. Theo Fluery's personal issues come home to roost.

 

[These Are The Days]

There's no way to tell but the Lightning still had everyone coming back in the 2004 lockout. The defense was still the same, Khabibulin was still in net. We will never know the answer of how we would've done in the playoffs.

Last year's SCF was something else. If Cooper and the boys don't sit on a 1 goal lead in Game 1 of the SCF when the Hawks had NO answer for our attack I think we have a completely different series. Who knows if we would've won Games 2 and 3 like we did afterwards but a 3-0 lead against the Hawks still leaves you 4 games to get it done.

And then you add the injuries to Johnson (who couldn't even take a faceoff anymore and we lost EVERY time) to Kucherov and more than likely to Stamkos and all that's left is for the Hawks to go world famous on you and win their 3rd cup of the era.

But... coulda woulda shoulda