Could the 1996 St.Louis Blues have won the Cup if...?

[The Panther]

Gretzky, Al MacInnis, and recently Mike Keenan (not the most objective of sources) have all gone on record as saying they think the '96 Blues could have won the Cup if Grant Fuhr hadn't gone down to Nick Kypreos's gravity-defying fall on top of him in Toronto.

This claim has always struck me as a bit far-fetched, in that St. Louis just wasn't a great team all season. But, let's imagine these 2 things happen:
1) They get by Detroit in game 7 overtime, and...
2) Grant Fuhr is healthy and ready to go for round three.

The first thing obviously could easily have happened, but as memory serves I don't think Fuhr was ready as soon as May. But anyway, in this imaginary scenario, could they realistically have won it all? In case you forgot, they would have had to have then defeated Colorado (eventual Cup winner, of course) and then Florida in the Finals.

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[bobholly39]

I mean anything "could" have happened of course. But to me - Colorado was unstoppable that year. Roy was on a mission, so was Sakic and the entire team.

And I think Colorado even had another gear to channel if they needed it

 

[vikash1987]

I don't think history would've changed. It wasn't as if goaltending was the issue with Casey. Also, Colorado was better up and down the lineup, and would've won in 5 or 6.

 

[Mallow]

People seem to forget that it was a really weak season in the Western Conference.

Only three teams (Detroit at .799, Colorado at .634 and Chicago at .573) that made the playoffs were above .500, and the Blues were one of those fringe teams that got in. I'm not sure that they would have had the offense to keep up with Colorado, especially after that weird series with Detroit (where they somehow pushed it to double-OT of G7 despite having less than 25 shots on goal in 5/7 games in the series). Hard to think they would have the firepower to keep up with the eventual Cup champs.

As a side note, it still amazes me that a 33 year old Grant Fuhr played 79 games that regular season.

 

[Doctor No]

As a side note, it still amazes me that a 33 year old Grant Fuhr played 79 games that regular season.

It wasn't like they were spot-starting their #2 (Jablonski, Racine, Casey) either - Fuhr started the first 76 consecutive Blues' games that season, only stopping when he suffered a knee injury against Detroit March 31:

1995-1996 St. Louis Blues Goaltender Game-by-Game Performance

That's one of my favorite team game log charts, for what it's worth. One additional piece of trivia: to my knowledge (and I'm sure of it), Bruce Racine holds the National Hockey League record for greatest number of goaltender games played without ever starting a single one (eleven).

 

[KMart27]

They did take a 62 win Detroit team to double OT game 7. If you can get through that, beating Colorado isn't out of the question. So often though we see a team pull off a major upset in the playoffs and then the next round we see reality return. They certainly would have the playoff experience to keep going. I'd put it 60% Colorado wins. I'm quite confident St. Louis would have beat Florida.

 

[The Pale King]

The Blackhawks that year are my big "what if". Could have had a 2-0 lead on Colorado heading back home were it not for Belfour's food poisoning. Jeff Hackett gave up 4 goals in a five minute span in his spot start, but it should be noted Probert also completely melted down. A veteran team with years of playoff disappointments behind them... could have been a final push to put them over the top. Would have been very interesting to see an ancient Bernie Nicholls continue his great play that spring.

Although getting past Detroit would have been a challenge, as they played them poorly in the regular season (1 point in six games).

 

[Cursed Lemon]

I'm pretty sure the key to the Blues winning the Cup was Gretzky being able to locate Brett Hull's stick.

 

[quoipourquoi]

Anything is possible. But Jon Casey having 5 fantastic games out of 12 in the playoffs doesn’t mean Grant Fuhr is going to both replicate and exceed that performance.

They went 6-8-4 with Gretzky, had a -29 goal differential to Colorado’s +86, and had a worse penalty kill and much worse powerplay.

Florida had comparable special teams, but one of the hotter goaltending runs of the last 50+ years.

With respect to Grant Fuhr, I’d lean Colorado or Florida in a short series, assuming Fuhr gets them past Detroit. It’s cool that Gretzky always has faith in his former Oilers teammates being the difference between defeat and victory (1993 and 1996), but I think the Blues get their clocks cleaned by the Avalanche and Panthers.

 

[JMCx4]

... let's imagine these 2 things happen:
1) They get by Detroit in game 7 overtime, and...
2) Grant Fuhr is healthy and ready to go for round three. ...

Have you heard the old saying that starts with: "If a frog had wings ..."? That Blues team did NOT have the wings.

 

[c9777666]

The Blackhawks that year are my big "what if". Could have had a 2-0 lead on Colorado heading back home were it not for Belfour's food poisoning. Jeff Hackett gave up 4 goals in a five minute span in his spot start, but it should be noted Probert also completely melted down. A veteran team with years of playoff disappointments behind them... could have been a final push to put them over the top. Would have been very interesting to see an ancient Bernie Nicholls continue his great play that spring.

Although getting past Detroit would have been a challenge, as they played them poorly in the regular season (1 point in six games).

could have had a 3-1 lead if Roenick gets that OT Penalty Shot and the refs award him a chance to end it

 

[FerrisRox]

Anything is possible. But Jon Casey having 5 fantastic games out of 12 in the playoffs doesn’t mean Grant Fuhr is going to both replicate and exceed that performance.

They went 6-8-4 with Gretzky, had a -29 goal differential to Colorado’s +86, and had a worse penalty kill and much worse powerplay.

Florida had comparable special teams, but one of the hotter goaltending runs of the last 50+ years.

With respect to Grant Fuhr, I’d lean Colorado or Florida in a short series, assuming Fuhr gets them past Detroit. It’s cool that Gretzky always has faith in his former Oilers teammates being the difference between defeat and victory (1993 and 1996), but I think the Blues get their clocks cleaned by the Avalanche and Panthers.

I think whatever team got to the Final out of the West would have won the Stanley Cup.

I don't see the Panthers putting up much of a fight against the Blues at all.

 

[FerrisRox]

Would have been very interesting to see an ancient Bernie Nicholls continue his great play that spring..

Are you sure you don't mean Denis Savard?

Savard that playoff had his last big hurrah as an NHL player after the Hawks re-acquired him. He posted 18 points that spring in 16 playoff games.

Nicholls, who at 33 was just as 'ancient' as Savard only had 12 points and just one goal.

 

[The Pale King]

Are you sure you don't mean Denis Savard?

Savard that playoff had his last big hurrah as an NHL player after the Hawks re-acquired him. He posted 18 points that spring in 16 playoff games.

Nicholls, who at 33 was just as 'ancient' as Savard only had 12 points and just one goal.

That's the 94-95 season you're thinking of. Savard did have a great post-season run that year, while Nicholls led the team in the regular season with 51 points in 48 games. He would have likely led the 95-96 team in scoring too had he not missed twenty games (60 points in 59 games).

'Ancient' is probably too harsh a word for Bernie but he had roughly 1000 regular season games and another 110ish in the playoffs under his belt by that point. That's a lot for a guy who wasn't known for putting in a ton of work in the off-season (and I don't mean that as a slight, Nicholls is one of my all-time faves).

 

[The Panther]

My feeling is that Blues' almost taking down of Detroit was more due to Detroit's sudden lethargy in games two to five than it was anything great The Blues were doing. So, yeah, I expect St.Louis would have gone down to Colorado, which just seemed to be peaking that spring.

St.Louis's core was weirdly thin... except at the top end, which was old... except for Pronger (who was too young):
- Gretzky (old)
- Corson (not old at 29, but basically done as an impact player)
- Hull (getting older and slower, but still great)
- MacInnis (should have been getting old, but still had 7 great season ahead!)
- Pronger (too young)
- Zezel (getting old)
- Anderson (old)
- G. Courtnall (old... though still had one more good season ahead in '97-'98)
- Fuhr (getting older, but still great)
- Noonan (getting old)
- Leach (getting old)
- MacTavish (ancient)
- Kravchuk (okay!)
- Huddy (ancient)

If they could have made Pronger five years older and everybody else five years younger, they might have had a contender!

Strange but true: Grant Fuhr is only 1 year and 11 months older than Brett Hull.

 

[c9777666]

I think whatever team got to the Final out of the West would have won the Stanley Cup.

I don't see the Panthers putting up much of a fight against the Blues at all.

FLA lost to a young team with a blend of veteran experience and a generational goalie.

I don’t think they lose to basically a team of 30 somethings that lacked the young core COL mostly had (other than Pronger, 1996 STL was basically nothing but old guys).

a team that beat PHI/PIT would not put up a fight against a team with basically no youth and only 3 skill players?

plus, the East was better in 1996- the West was shallow.

 

[HF007]

People say this team was disappointing but they took a really good team to game 7 OT

 

[Voight]

I'd take Roy over a past his prime Fuhr in a playoff series 7 days a week and twice on Sunday.

 

[shadow1]

Maybe they could've gotten past Detroit, but I doubt they'd have won the cup.

Fuhr was having a big rebound year, but he was slowing down in the second half; he was 9-10-8 with a .887 SV% in his final 30GP. Not that I blame him, they rode him into the ground.

 

[Nerowoy nora tolad]

I'd take Roy over a past his prime Fuhr in a playoff series 7 days a week and twice on Sunday.

Id take Fuhr every day over the clown that destroyed a coaches office over not getting credit for a win and quit on his teammates mid-season.