Best teams to never win the Cup
- Thread starter These Are The Days
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I fully expected the Blues to get to the SCF in 2001 when Colorado lost Peter Forsberg due to injury. But Roy was the difference in that series and the Blues opted to go with Brent Johnson after Roman Turek faltered. In the four games that Turek started, St. Louis outshot Colorado 152-109 but the Avs had the 3-1 series lead (if I'm counting correctly, Turek had a .872 sv% in his games while Roy countered at .937). St. Louis swept Dallas in round 2 as well, so they looked pretty dangerous. I suppose three of the WCF games went to OT, so it might have been closer than it looks in retrospect.
JMCx4
Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
Now I'm sorry I mentioned the Blues in this thread. I'm getting that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach again, the one I get every year when playoff time rolls around.
agentblack
Registered User
pittsburgh penguins 2000-01 season!!.Mario came back and team had Mario,Jagr,Straka,Kovalev,Lang....
I could think of more then a few teams that were better than them. Even though Mario was back, they wouldn't have beaten anyone in the west, and NJ pretty much owned them in the ECF.
double5son10
Registered User
And a defensive core of Kasparaitis, Boughner, Janne Lakkaunen and a very young Andrew Ferrence. With a rookie Johan Hedberg in net. Not exactly a collection that screams "best teams".
I’ll give you the 1999 Sabres and 1987 Flyers as being very, very good teams that could/should have won the Stanley Cup in those years. But I’m going to argue that the 1993 Maple Leafs were superior to the ‘99 and ‘02 Toronto squads.
The ‘85, ‘86, ‘88, and ‘04 Flyers - in my opinion - don’t belong on this list, either.
The 2002 Maple Leafs should have gone to the finals. Who can argue against a team with Mats Sundin, Curtis Joseph, Bryan McCabe, Alex Mogilny, Gary Roberts, and Darcy Tucker?
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The (4) Ranger teams from 70 to 74. A Cup Finals and (3) Semi-Final defeats. Brad Park, the GAG line, Eddie Giacomin, a lot of talent on those teams. They deserved 1 Cup out of that.
How bout the 74-75 French Connection Buffalo Sabres?
How bout the 74-75 French Connection Buffalo Sabres?
K Fleur
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The 1988 Flyers were not even close to winning a Cup. They finished 38-33-9 for 3rd in the Patrick. In the playoffs, they blew a 3 games to 1 lead to Washington in the Patrick semi-finals. There was discord on the team, along with injuries to Tim Kerr, and subpar seasons from Pelle Eklund, Ilikka Sinisalo, Ron Sutter and Brad Marsh. Combine this with the team revolting against the soon to be fired Mike Keenan, the seeds were sown for the Flyers downturn of the late 80's and early 90's
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NyQuil
Big F$&*in Q
There’s a reason why the Leafs never won a series after beating the Sens.
Those were old school playoff rivalry series.
If the Sens had won any of them, I suspect the same thing would have happened to them.
The sweep is the exception and just an overall choke.
a79krgm
Registered User
1. 1975 Buffalo Sabres - So much talent, French Connection in their prime, solid defense led by Korab, Guevremont, Fogolin and Schoenfeld. If they only had goaltending. -- or maybe if Roger Crozier could have played all the games. Gerry Desjardins was the worst.
2. 1938 New York Americans -- The Amerks finally beat their arch rival Rangers in the 1st round only to narrowly lose to Chicago in the next. The Blackhawks finished the year with a dismal 14-25-9 record and went on to win the Cup. The Amerks were coached by Red Dutton led by "Sweeney" Schriner, Nels Stewart, Loren Carr and Tommy Anderson.
2. 1938 New York Americans -- The Amerks finally beat their arch rival Rangers in the 1st round only to narrowly lose to Chicago in the next. The Blackhawks finished the year with a dismal 14-25-9 record and went on to win the Cup. The Amerks were coached by Red Dutton led by "Sweeney" Schriner, Nels Stewart, Loren Carr and Tommy Anderson.
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The Flyers have a few teams on this list. The 79-80 team that had the 35 game unbeaten streak but lsot to the Islanders thanks to an offsides goal earlier in the deciding game and the 86-87 team that went 7 games with the powerhouse Oilers despite missing their best goal scorer (Tim Kerr).
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The 1986-87 were the greatest "team" to never win a Cup IMO. They took the Oilers (at their peak) to Game 7 without Kerr and with Howe and McCrimmon playing severely injured. Not to mention, rookie Hextall won the Vezina.
Here's two fun facts from that series that most fans are not aware of...
1. After game 7, Wayne Gretzky asked Bob Clarke if he could come into the Flyers room and talk to the players. Gretzky told the Flyers to hold their heads up high because they were the greatest team he had ever faced in his life (his words).
2. Paul Coffey, who became a Flyer at the end of his career, became good friends with Flyers equipment manager Turk Evers. Coffey told him that going into Game 7, the Oilers were scared to death of the Flyers, because they have no off button and were relentless.
Here's two fun facts from that series that most fans are not aware of...
1. After game 7, Wayne Gretzky asked Bob Clarke if he could come into the Flyers room and talk to the players. Gretzky told the Flyers to hold their heads up high because they were the greatest team he had ever faced in his life (his words).
2. Paul Coffey, who became a Flyer at the end of his career, became good friends with Flyers equipment manager Turk Evers. Coffey told him that going into Game 7, the Oilers were scared to death of the Flyers, because they have no off button and were relentless.
Kyle McMahon
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1. 1975 Buffalo Sabres - So much talent, French Connection in their prime, solid defense led by Korab, Guevremont, Fogolin and Schoenfeld. If they only had goaltending. -- or maybe if Roger Crozier could have played all the games. Gerry Desjardins was the worst.
2. 1938 New York Americans -- The Amerks finally beat their arch rival Rangers in the 1st round only to narrowly lose to Chicago in the next. The Blackhawks finished the year with a dismal 14-25-9 record and went on to win the Cup. The Amerks were coached by Red Dutton led by "Sweeney" Schriner, Nels Stewart, Loren Carr and Tommy Anderson.
Interesting choice with the Americans. They were only a .500 team, but had a surprising number of Hall of Famers that you don't typically associate with them. I actually had no idea that Hap Day and Hooley Smith played for the Amerks until I looked it up. Also had long time Ranger Ching Johnson in his final season.
Raccoon Jesus
Todd McLellan is an inside agent
I will never understand people constantly crapping on the 2014 Kings. It's truly bizarre. It seems like the only franchise's fans that give that team respect is Chicago. Kings were basically the only thing that stopped the 'dynasty' talk. Otherwise, you're looking at a Hawks team with 4 Stanley Cups in 6 years including a threepeat.
So, my nominee would be the 2014 Hawks. That team was a 2010s woodchipper.
Jinsell
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- May 11, 2007
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Outside of that one comment about the 2014 Kings being stiff playing, I've never heard anyone really crap on them. In my mind, they were a great team who put the Hawks' dynasty on hold.
Not to really disrespect to the New York Rangers, but for many league observers the 2014 Stanley Cup Final was the Western Conference Final. I mean, yes, the Rangers had a chance in the Final, but the Kings seemed heavily favoured in my opinion at least.
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