Best NHL team to not win a cup

[tony d]

The 1996 Detroit Red Wings.

 

[TheMule93]

Who wasn't healthy last year besides Bishop (and not to denounce him at all but Vasilevsky played probably better anyway)?

Iirc Stamkos didn't play until game 7, which he was probably rushed back for

And he is, you know, their 1C. Stralman also injured.

In the previous year the triplets were all banged up really bad by the time they made it to the finals, and they were the line that carried em all year.

Bishop was also hurt

 

[Paralyzer008]

Best team to not leave the first round? Maybe the 05-06 Red Wings.

58-16-8 under Mike Babcock

Prime Lidstrom coming off 80 points, Datsyuk/Zetterberg/Shanahan/Lang/Holmstrom/Williams/Schneider all over 50 points.

Niklas Kronwall and Johan Franzen's career beginnings.

Steve Yzerman's final season.

Manny Legace was an absolute turd in the playoffs, Oilers managed to win to start the Cinderella run.

 

[Lou is God]

2010 Capitals, best record since the lockout and Halak stopped them from getting out of the 1st round

Capitals might have had better teams in the 80s that didn't win a cup

 

[CanadienShark]

2011 Nucks was my first thought.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

2010 Capitals, best record since the lockout and Halak stopped them from getting out of the 1st round

Feels bad, man.

 

[PensBandwagonerNo272*]

Feels bad, man.

They've had plenty of other opportunities to succeed in the playoffs.

 

[Baemon Severson*]

01 Devils were v good

 

[1specter]

Ottawa,the year hasek got injured at the Olympics...****ing Olympics

I hated the 05-06 Sens. It was a harsh reality as a Leafs fan that Ottawa was on the rise as a superpower team while the Leafs were trending towards being old and bad. I remember that season the Leafs and Sens played each other 8 times, and the Leafs only won one game (the last one ironically, where the Sens had the chance to knock the Leafs completely out of playoff contention). Lost every other game, with multiple blowouts. Heatley-Spezza-Alfie torched the Leafs all year long.

If Hasek was healthy, I think the Sens go all the way, or at least a lot farther than they did. It's weird how the roles reversed the following year and they knocked out Buffalo when Buffalo was supposed to be the favourite.

 

[b in vancouver]

Hands down it was the 1971 and 1973 Bruins.

That'd be my choice.
The pens team was pretty amazing also, though.

 

[SAK11]

Iirc Stamkos didn't play until game 7, which he was probably rushed back for

And he is, you know, their 1C. Stralman also injured.

In the previous year the triplets were all banged up really bad by the time they made it to the finals, and they were the line that carried em all year.

Bishop was also hurt

Pretty standard stuff for a long playoff run. I wouldn't put these recent Tampa teams as the answer to this question. They weren't by far the best team in hockey by any means. I felt they played up to their potential and I had them losing the two series' they lost the last two years before they started [as many did].

As a Sens fan it had to be the Hasek year for us.

As a whole, the 95/96 Red Wings were ridiculous- 62 wins, 27 points better than the 2nd place team, +144 goals for vs goals against. Colorado and them matched up so evenly, though, everyone knew that was the real finals that year.

 

[Hurricane28]

Flyers have gotten very unlucky with Cup opponents

Montreal dynasty in the 70s.

Oilers dynasty and Islanders 4 straight in the 80s

1st of two straight Cups from detroit in 1997

Beginning of Chicago dynasty in 2010

 

[DamonDRW]

Flyers have gotten very unlucky with Cup opponents

Montreal dynasty in the 70s.

Oilers dynasty and Islanders 4 straight in the 80s

1st of two straight Cups from detroit in 1997

Beginning of Chicago dynasty in 2010

this! I always thought they had a bad luck with opponents in their finals. Don't like Flyers but cannot deny it...

 

[DANOZ28]

for several years i picked sharks to win.

 

[Edmonton East]

2000-2001 Devs were incredible.

1st in GF, 5th in GA.

Elias, Mogilny, Sykora, Arnott, Holik, Gomez, Brylin, Madden, McKay, etc

Stevens, Nieds, Rafalski

Marty.

No, not the highest profile team. But they had so much depth.

 

[JackSlater]

I looked at teams that were essentially dynasty teams that lost in the midst of their dynasty. The 1986 Oilers were mentioned already, and I would add the 1953 Detroit Red Wings. In a 70 game season Detroit's goal differential was +89. Second place was +7, and every other team was a negative.

 

[Amadeus]

The Ottawa team with Redden, Chara along with Spezza, Alfie and Heater was amazing!

 

[TheMule93]

this! I always thought they had a bad luck with opponents in their finals. Don't like Flyers but cannot deny it...

Yeah injuries are standard, but the team winning the cup is never the one missing their top players, or playing with their top players at 50%

 

[Seath The Scaleless]

Ottawa,the year hasek got injured at the Olympics...****ing Olympics

Ottawa could not score beyond game 1 vs. Buffalo. 7 goals in the remaining 4 games...

But with Hasek in net, perhaps game 1 does not turn into a 7-6 home run derby.

 

[613Leafer]

The 95-96 Red Wings were the best team to never win the Cup.

62–13–7 (131 Points). They are really the last team to reach 60 wins. I wonder why in the NHL it's so hard to see teams get 60 wins, hell even 50 wins; just last season there were only two teams to reach 50 wins (Capitals and Stars), while in NBA it is a common occurrence every season. To put in perspective, in the NBA's history, there have been close to 70 teams to reach 60 wins. While in the NHL, there have only been two to ever crack 60 wins in it's entire history - The '76 Canadiens and the '95 Red Wings. You have to appreciate what those teams did in their day, winning in the NHL isn't easy. That's why we see alot of sub-45 win teams in the NHL.

There's more "luck" and randomness involved in hockey. Games are often won by a goal or two, so a hot goalie, a cold goalie, hitting a post, a weird bounce/deflection going into the net, the impact of special teams and # of penalties in a game, etc can all drastically change the outcome of a game, regardless of how well the team that lost the game actually played overall.

 

[Rebels57]

Not the best team to never win the Cup, but the 2004 Flyers were pretty damn stacked and came up 1 goal shy of facing Calgary in the Finals.

I don't remember all of the line pairings so I will just assemble a depth chart

Head Coach - Ken Hitchcock

LW - John LeClair
LW - Simon Gagne
LW - Patrick Sharp
LW - Donald Brashear

C - Jeremy Roenick
C - Keith Primeau
C - Alexei Zhamnov
C - Michal Handzus

RW - Mark Recchi
RW - Tony Amonte
RW - Sami Kapanen
RW - Branko Radivojevic

D - Kim Johnsson
D - Joni Pitkanen
D - Danny Markov
D - Vladimir Malakhov
D - Marcus Ragnarsson
D - Mattias Timander

The D doesn't wow you on paper but it played great. What really hurt that unit was Eric Desjardins, the Flyers #1 Defensemen for many years by that point, fracturing his arm and than having a set-back while having a catch with his son when he was closing to returning in the playoffs. GM Bob Clarke also made the mistake of trading two depth defensemene, Eric Weinrich and Chris Therien, at the trade deadline to St. Louis and Dallas. When Kim Johnsson sustained an injury later in the playoffs, it forced Sami ****ing Kapanen of all people to play Defense. All of this working against them, they still came up just 1 goal short of the Finals.

 

[Daximus]

2011 Canucks
2007 Sens

Current Tampa team. Those stacked Sabres teams..

 

[rhinoshawarma]

2005-2006 red wings, lost to the oilers in the 1st round

 

[dasaybz]

Ottawa could not score beyond game 1 vs. Buffalo. 7 goals in the remaining 4 games...

But with Hasek in net, perhaps game 1 does not turn into a 7-6 home run derby.

That's one of the best games I've ever seen.

 

[Devils090]

2001 Devils