Favorite team that didn't win the Cup?

Dennis Bonvie

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Dec 29, 2007
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Connecticut
2002 Hurricanes.

Rode Irbe to the finals and actually won game one in Detroit. OT goal by Francis, of course. Was hoping for a miracle.
 

marcsson68

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Jan 23, 2018
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There are several that come to my mind:

- the 2006 Oilers
- the late Nordiques
- the late North Stars against Pittsburgh
- the Flyers in the Lindros era

for very different reasons.
 

blogofmike

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Dec 16, 2010
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1990-91 L.A. Kings --

The Kings were 5 - 2 - 1 vs. Edmonton (a .500 club) that season. Should have been no problem. Instead, Gretzky got Tikkanen-ed into submission, the Kings inexplicably lost three overtime games in a row (games 2, 3, and 6), and L.A. was out. (Banged-up Edmonton went on to lose to Minnesota's power play.)

I remembered Gretzky being removed from a game early because of a puck to the side of the head. In hindsight it seems probable Gretzky was concussed by a hit before that happened.

Gretzky Sees Clearly Now : Kings: After being knocked out of Game 3, he will line up tonight against Edmonton in Game 4.
 

hacksaw7

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Dec 3, 2020
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Rangers in 92 weren't the same after the strike but I get what you're saying. Having to play 7 games against a far inferior Devils team in Round 1 didn't help the Rangers much. But the Penguins were defending champs and deserve credit. That long Richter shot in Game 4 was a killer.

93 Lemieux was a beast and yeah to this day I don't get how an Isles team WITHOUT Turgeon beat them. Rangers played almost the same team in 94 and destroyed them in a 4 game thrashing. Hockey is weird sometimes.

This is how. A great coach on his way out working his last bit of magic.

al-arbour1.jpg
 

CharlestownChiefsESC

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Sep 17, 2008
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Here's one that I'm surprised wasn't on here. The 2010s Boston Bruins. Now I know they won in 2011, but made it back in 2013 after beating Toronto in game 7 they ran over the Rangers and Penguins and were the better team vs the Hawks. Remember in game 1 they had a 3-1 lead in the 3rd that they blew, and had a chance to go back to Chicago up 3-1 in game 4 but lost in ot after coming back to tie the game 3 times. In 2014 they ran over evreyone and were the odds on favorites heading into the playoffs after beating Detroit easily in round 1, the wheels fell off after blowing a 3-2 series lead and a series that could have ended in 5. And last year in 2019 after the big favorites in Tampa went down early it was the Bruins to lose. After losing game 5 on a controversial call, they won game 6 only to lose the cup on home ice on game 7.
 

McGarnagle

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Aug 5, 2017
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Here's one that I'm surprised wasn't on here. The 2010s Boston Bruins. Now I know they won in 2011, but made it back in 2013 after beating Toronto in game 7 they ran over the Rangers and Penguins and were the better team vs the Hawks. Remember in game 1 they had a 3-1 lead in the 3rd that they blew, and had a chance to go back to Chicago up 3-1 in game 4 but lost in ot after coming back to tie the game 3 times. In 2014 they ran over evreyone and were the odds on favorites heading into the playoffs after beating Detroit easily in round 1, the wheels fell off after blowing a 3-2 series lead and a series that could have ended in 5. And last year in 2019 after the big favorites in Tampa went down early it was the Bruins to lose. After losing game 5 on a controversial call, they won game 6 only to lose the cup on home ice on game 7.

It's hard to pick which year i want to go with.

2009, 2012, 2013, 2014, or 2019.

2009 might've been my favorite team in some respects- the franchise was dead in the water for a long time, and they grew from the ruins of the Thornton trade into a 1-seed. And they don't even get beat by another contender like Pittsburgh, Washington, or Detroit. They get knocked out by frigging Carolina. That really sucked and was really hard to take after such a fun season.

2012 was another fun year. They had like a 14 game winning streak at some point and were on fire, but injuries to Horton kinda slowed them down, and they drew a really bad match-up with Washington in the first round and got bounced in OT again.

2013 was a really fun ride with a crappy ending, but I'm at peace with losing to the Blackhawks because I do think they were a better team. Still, if Daugavins doesn't f*** up the empty net in triple OT, who knows what happens in the rest of the series.
2014 is the year they should've won it all though. Going into the playoffs, nobody had any business challenging them and they went ice cold and hit a million posts against Montreal of all teams. That hurt too. They'd have run over the Rangers and Kings if they get through the second round.

As for 2019, everything fell right for them in the first round with all the top seeds getting knocked off. They weren't favorites going into the playoffs but after round 1, they probably were. And should've beaten St. Louis soundly if they don't headhunt Grzelcyk in game 2.

In the end, though I think 2009 and maybe 2012 were the more fun seasons and 2013 the most memorable playoff run, 2014 is really the year that you say they absolutely 100% should have won.
 

buffalowing88

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Aug 11, 2008
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Gotta be the 92-93 Leafs team. My first hockey memories are of them and I was born a Buffalo fan. I still find myself going back to old Youtube videos of that Toronto squad, though, and wondering how close they came. Just a surreal amount of characters and I was only a youngster when my dad took me up the QEW to watch a playoff game that postseason at a nearby bar/restaurant since he couldn't get tickets to the game, obviously. It was like being in the center of the hockey universe and left an indelible impression on me as a kid. Everyone in Toronto was watching that game, it was a bigger deal than anything I can remember.


I would also toss in the 06 Sabres. Purely as a homer, but also because they created a similar feel wherein the entire city was ride-or-die in those final few games.
 

connellc

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Dec 2, 2010
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Gotta be the 92-93 Leafs team. My first hockey memories are of them and I was born a Buffalo fan. I still find myself going back to old Youtube videos of that Toronto squad, though, and wondering how close they came. Just a surreal amount of characters and I was only a youngster when my dad took me up the QEW to watch a playoff game that postseason at a nearby bar/restaurant since he couldn't get tickets to the game, obviously. It was like being in the center of the hockey universe and left an indelible impression on me as a kid. Everyone in Toronto was watching that game, it was a bigger deal than anything I can remember.


I would also toss in the 06 Sabres. Purely as a homer, but also because they created a similar feel wherein the entire city was ride-or-die in those final few games.
 

hacksaw7

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Dec 3, 2020
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I suppose I can't complain since the 2001 Devils were sandwiched by Cup wins in 2000 and 2003. In a weird way, I would trade the 2003 Cup for the 2001 Cup. The 2003 team was the low scoring, boring stereotype that most fans associate with the team from that era. But the 2000-01 Devils led the league in scoring and that was with Jason Arnott / Scott Niedermayer holding out for new contracts for the first 20 games of the season.

2000-01 Devils: 295 GF, 195 GA
2001-02 Red Wings: 251 GF, 187 GA

Just for comparison since the 2002 Red Wings were a powerhouse.

Not as much a low scoring team as you'd think. That 2003 Devils team was disciplined and resilient and the Pat Burns magic usually works in the beginning, this time though he had a team that could seal the deal...and they were 14th in the league in scoring

We also really should've resigned Mogilny in 2001. Having him would've made world of difference in 01-02
 

Brodeur

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Feb 27, 2002
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hacksaw7 said:
Not as much a low scoring team as you'd think.

I suppose for me it's in contrast to the 2000-01 team (295 goals) coming down to 216 goals for the 2002-03 squad. Of the 16 playoff teams, only the Flyers/Ducks scored fewer goals that season. Definitely a weird team to look back in retrospect. Elias and Gomez were like oil and water for most of the season and practically every forward was mentioned in trade rumors.

We also really should've resigned Mogilny in 2001. Having him would've made world of difference in 01-02

I would've loved to have kept Mogilny, but Lou prioritized keeping long term money freed up to possibly retain Holik plus Elias/Sykora were about to finish their cheap bridge contracts. Mogilny's disappointing playoff runs as a Devil (9 goals in 48 games) probably didn't help.

And then there was the clerical error with Rafalski/Madden's qualifying offers in the summer of 2000. Lou had to offer them immediate raises to keep them from hitting the open market, otherwise he would have played hardball like he'd do with Gomez.

Elias:
2000-01: 675K
2001-02: 750K
2002-03: 4.47 mil

Sykora:
2000-01: 675K
2001-02: 3.3 mil

Rafalski:
2000-01: 450K
2001-02: 2.5 mil

Madden:
2000-01: 550K
2001-02: 1.5 mil

Those four guys combined made a paltry 2.35 million in 2000-01 but that jumped up to 8.05 million the following season.

As part of the 2000 deadline trade, Vancouver picked up around a million dollars of Mogilny's 5.2 mil salary for 2000-01. Lou probably didn't have the budget to keep Mogilny (he'd get 4 x 5.5 mil with Toronto) with other guys needing raises. Luckily Holik turned down Lou's offers.

Although I was a little bittter about the Arnott trade since Nieuwendyk was making 5 mil and was older than Mogilny.
 
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alko

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Oct 20, 2004
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No love for 2002/2003 Senators? They had issues with money, but the won Presidents Trophy. Very tight East Conference finals, where 4 of 7 games including last one) were 1-goal games.
Hossa, Alfredsson, Tod White, Havlat, Bonk, Spezza, Chara, Redden... That was the season, they definitely deserved a Stanley Cup.
 

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