Ah, the 1996 semis between the Panthers and Pens. Oh how I dread this series. There are a few moments in hockey history where as a fan you are watching from a neutral standpoint and you are thinking to yourself "Oh Please God no...……." this was one of those times. Because it was something that you knew was going to be bad for the game even as it was happening. Once in a while you get that lump in your stomach when seeing things unfold. Recently it was watching the 3rd period of Game 7 between Vegas and San Jose after that horrible major penalty call that resulted in San Jose scoring all of those goals and winning in overtime. As I was watching that I knew right at that moment that Vegas had better win this or else the domino effect for the game of hockey and the NHL would be bad. Well, 1996 had that same sort of feel. Before I get into that I will say that I agree this was what helped popularize the trap and get rid of the bandwagon hockey we loved so much, the natural flow of the game, the talented teams thriving etc. It wasn't the only reason, but it was one reason. Here are others:
- Penguins losing in 1993. It wasn't a "trap" per se, but a far, far less talented team beats them and the Habs who were relying more on Roy than their offense never play the Pens and end up winning the Cup.
- Florida coming in back in 1994 and playing .500 as an expansion team which was unheard of, using a defensive game to do it
- Devils winning the Cup, although they could score and did have more talent than other teams
- Lastly, the Panthers beating the Flyers and then the Pens in 1996. Even though they got swept by the Avs in the final the writing was on the wall. Teams realized they could be successful if they didn't have a star-studded team by basically waterskiing their more talented opponents, and the NHL allowed it.
Look, there are times in sports when an underdog wins and it isn't always a bad thing. For a Patriots fan in the NFL you still have nigthmares about David Tyree's catch and it hurts to not have that perfect record in 2007. But that Super Bowl was legendary, it gave us some good memories and the Giants won again in 4 years so they weren't horrible either. Even last year's Super Bowl wasn't the offensive fest we were expecting, but it wasn't sloppy. Good defense isn't always boring, or bad, and I can respect that, but I never thought the 1996 Florida Panthers were doing it the right way where you just shrug and say "Well, they wanted it more." The 2010 Capitals lost because a hot goalie thwarted them, as did the 2010 Pens. But they were still not boring games, they were still generating tons of scoring chances. As a neutral fan, that was good hockey to watch.
The 1996 series was NOT good hockey to watch. You saw Mario and Jagr and it wasn't thinking that "Oh well, they just can't penetrate" it was just based on the fact that you could understand where Mario was coming from when he would complain about the holding. If anything this series might have been why he retired in 1997. Imagine the Pens win the Cup in 1996, or at least make the finals and lose to the Avs but it is a pretty even series. I don't think he retires in 1997. First time I thought of that. But it wasn't pretty seeing him frustrated like that.
We were robbed of a lot of things from 1996. It would have been a wicked Cup final for the ages. But instead starting in 1996-'97 so many teams switched over to the trapping method and they could since the NHL was allowing hooking and holding all of the time. I can appreciate a team playing defense, and playing great all around, but there were times when you just knew a talented team lost because the other team was just hanging on for their life and did it in such an ugly way.
A couple things, the Pens were missing Ron Francis which would have made a difference. Secondly, while the Penguins generally outshot the Panthers in each game it was Game 3 that was insane with the Panthers getting 61 shots on net. How that happened or why that happened that game I don't know. I looked up the boxscore and the Pens had a lot of penalties, so maybe it was because of the power plays and such but it was double what the Panthers got any other game more or less.