Hockey's Biggest "What if"?

[c9777666]

What if the Rangers had won the 1950 Stanley Cup?

Would a 44 year drought ending in '94 have felt different than 54 years? Would '1950' chants have been the same as '1940? Like, does another 10 years add more or less legend to the Curse?

Is there a curse of 1950? How much does the '94 Cup resonate if the drought is shorter? A 44 year drought would have been 2 years longer than when DET's 42 year dry spell ended in '97

 

[ted2019]

The two I don't think I've seen here so far:

What if Larry Bertuzzi had ruled in favor of the Rangers in the Lindros Affair?

What if Peter Pocklington and Harold Ballard had traded cities (probably wasn't a real thing, but Pocklington talked about it in his book)?

Flyers don't get the new building built. The Flyers still have a superstar in Forsberg, but the Legion of Doom doesn't happen.

 

[ted2019]

What if the Flyers beat the Red Wings in the 97 finals? Is Lindros held in more endearing terms in the hockey community that kept him out of the HOF for far too long.

What if Tim Kerr and half the 84-85 Flyers aren't injured and they beat the Oiler dynasty that year?

What if Ron Hextall can carry an much less talented Flyer team to the upset in 7 games?

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

I'll add another.

What if the 70s Bruins dont give away all of their good young prospects?

Ken Dryden
Bernie Parent
Mark Howe
Rick MacLeish
Reggie Leach
Ivan Boldirev
Al Secord

All drafted by the Bruins, and all traded away before getting an NHL game or at most a cup of coffee

 

[Tarantula]

I'll add another.

What if the 70s Bruins dont give away all of their good young prospects?

Ken Dryden
Bernie Parent
Mark Howe
Rick MacLeish
Reggie Leach
Ivan Boldirev
Al Secord

All drafted by the Bruins, and all traded away before getting an NHL game or at most a cup of coffee

It is quite a list of names, and a few on that list came back to burn the Bruins as well!

 

[bobholly39]

What if the Flyers beat the Red Wings in the 97 finals? Is Lindros held in more endearing terms in the hockey community that kept him out of the HOF for far too long.

What if Tim Kerr and half the 84-85 Flyers aren't injured and they beat the Oiler dynasty that year?

What if Ron Hextall can carry an much less talented Flyer team to the upset in 7 games?

It probably helps Lindros a lot. His resume is really lacking overall. I think everyone recognizes he was arguably a top 3 (top 1-2?) prospect of all time - and everyone generally recognizes how amazing his actual playing ability was when in his best years. But for all that, he still has very very little to show for it.

No major individual trophies outside of a shortened season
No Cups
Barely any 'almost full' seasons played
The only actual playoff success ended in a 4 game sweep.

If you take Forsberg. He's generally thought of as much higher than Lindros. How is his legacy impacted if he missed 5 extra game to injury in 2004 (so no trophies) - and if Patrick Roy shat the bed in both the 1996 and 2001 Stanley Cup Finals and Colorado loses both, instead of winning.

Individually - Forsberg's career changes very little. But it starts to resemble Lindros more. No trophies. No cups. I think he'd be looked at way less fondly than he is now.

Considering how Lindros almost surely wins the Smythe if they win the cup in 1997 - i think it's doubly significant.

 

[Normand Lacombe]

What if Tim Kerr and half the 84-85 Flyers aren't injured and they beat the Oiler dynasty that year?

There would a statue of J.J. Daigneault outside the Wells Fargo Center today. If the Flyers had won, perhaps they ride that momentum to another SCF appearance in 1988 for another showdown with the Oilers. Not wanting to upset the chemistry of a Cup winning team, Clarke delays in giving away McCrimmon out of spite, a healthy Kerr scores over 50 goals again and Kennan isn't fired until about 1990.

 

[brachyrynchos]

What if Detroit's Jim Nill didn't get called for hooking a Maple Leaf 5:13 into the 2nd period (4/2/88)? That penalty led to a powerplay goal (6:27) by Gary Leeman and began Toronto's comeback from being down 3-0, Toronto went on to score 4 more and ended up winning their last game of the season 5-3.
That victory (and Minnesota losing 4-1 to Calgary) put the Leafs in 4th place in the Norris, earning them a playoff berth just ahead of Minnesota by one point. What's interesting is that one point (Toronto-52 North Stars-51) was the difference between getting into the playoffs or....the 1st overall pick.
So if Jim Nill didn't get called for Hooking 5:13 into the 2nd period, Mike Modano would've been a Maple Leaf?

 

[miscs75]

What if Mike Bossy's back didn't give out when he was 30?

What if the Islanders didn't become a complete mess when it comes to management/ownership in the 90s?

 

[DowntownBooster]

What if the WHA didn't cease to exist in 1979 but continued on as a going concern. Prior to the NHL accepting New England, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Quebec into the league there was talk of the WHA expanding into Europe. On January 26, 1979, prior to a game against the Cincinnati Stingers, Wayne Gretzky signed a 21-year contract that would have kept him a member of the Edmonton Oilers until 1999. The NHL record books would have looked drastically different today had the WHA lived on with Gretzky an Oiler for the remainder of his career.

 

[Pominville Knows]

What if the WHA didn't cease to exist in 1979 but continued on as a going concern. Prior to the NHL accepting New England, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Quebec into the league there was talk of the WHA expanding into Europe. On January 26, 1979, prior to a game against the Cincinnati Stingers, Wayne Gretzky signed a 21-year contract that would have kept him a member of the Edmonton Oilers until 1999. The NHL record books would have looked drastically different today had the WHA lived on with Gretzky an Oiler for the remainder of his career.

Would have been great to have two championships going on to this day: The Stanley Cup and the AVCO Trophy. I have never bought into it cheapening the field, its not like the Stanley Cup champions is filled to the brim with NHL All-Stars, instead having bums like Brooks Orpik and Gilbert Dionne on them.

 

[streitz]

Gilbert Dionne on them.

What a random player to complain about lol.

 

[Kyle McMahon]

What if Detroit's Jim Nill didn't get called for hooking a Maple Leaf 5:13 into the 2nd period (4/2/88)? That penalty led to a powerplay goal (6:27) by Gary Leeman and began Toronto's comeback from being down 3-0, Toronto went on to score 4 more and ended up winning their last game of the season 5-3.
That victory (and Minnesota losing 4-1 to Calgary) put the Leafs in 4th place in the Norris, earning them a playoff berth just ahead of Minnesota by one point. What's interesting is that one point (Toronto-52 North Stars-51) was the difference between getting into the playoffs or....the 1st overall pick.
So if Jim Nill didn't get called for Hooking 5:13 into the 2nd period, Mike Modano would've been a Maple Leaf?

Just crazy what kind of ripple effects the most innocuous events can have.

Fast forward 19 years. Mike Modano, still a member of that same franchise that drafted him, sets up the tying goal then scores the winner in the dying minutes of the third period of Game 82 of the 2006-07 regular season. Why did it matter? Dallas' opponent that day, the Chicago Blackhawks, would have moved up to 6th-last in the NHL standings had they even managed a single point. At the time, only the bottom-five teams in the league could get the first overall pick in the draft lottery. Had Chicago hung on to get a point that afternoon against Dallas, they would not have picked 1st overall in June, and Patrick Kane would presumably have never ended up in the Windy City.

 

[c9777666]

Just crazy what kind of ripple effects the most innocuous events can have.

Last day of the 1996 season- Boston's Sandy Moller scores one of his 27 career goals against Pittsburgh. That goal completely altered the entire Eastern Conference playoffs.

Had the Penguins won or merely tied the Bruins, they would have been the 1 seed over the Flyers as long as they got a point. Boston, meanwhile, would have stayed the 6 seed instead of jumping to 5.

BOS was at 89 points going into the last day. Had they stayed at 89, they would have been tied with the Capitals with the same record and who knows how that goes in terms of tiebreakers. A tie gets them 90 points and they would have finished with one less win than Montreal.

Instead of what we ended up with (PHI/TB, PIT/WSH, MTL/NYR, FLA/BOS), the East quarters would have been:

Pittsburgh/Tampa Bay
Philadelphia/Washington
NY Rangers/Boston
Florida/Montreal

 

[c9777666]

Forget 1997. What if Detroit/Philadelphia clashed in the 1995 Cup Finals?

Different rosters- DET had Primeau/Coffey/Sheppard, no Russian Five, no Grind Line, no Shanahan.

Flyers- Peak Lindros. Legion of Doom had come into their own, Renberg was healthier, less of a goalie carousel (Hextall was in '95 the undisputed #1 guy, Garth Snow didn't see a lot of ice time).

DET would have had home ice advantage unlike 1997, BUT the still played at the old Spectrum, which might have provided more of a home ice advantage than the first year brand new then-named CoreStates Center.

 

[FerrisRox]

I'll add another.

What if the 70s Bruins dont give away all of their good young prospects?

Ken Dryden
Bernie Parent
Mark Howe
Rick MacLeish
Reggie Leach
Ivan Boldirev
Al Secord

All drafted by the Bruins, and all traded away before getting an NHL game or at most a cup of coffee

Al Secord certainly had more than a cup of coffee in Boston.

 

[FerrisRox]

Flyers- Peak Lindros. Legion of Doom had come into their own, Renberg was healthier, less of a goalie carousel (Hextall was in '95 the undisputed #1 guy, Garth Snow didn't see a lot of ice time).

Snow didn't see any time at all. The 1995 Flyers had Ron Hextall as their starter and Dominic Roussel as their back up. Snow spent the bulk of the 1994-95 season in the AHL with two games at the NHL level for the Nordiques.

 

[Rpenny]

What if the nhl made Wayne enter the draft in 79 and the Rockies get him? How much does that change history

 

[Iron Mike Sharpe]

What if Marc Tardif had not jumped to the WHA & played as Guy Lafleur's left wing through the Dynasty years?

 

[Reindl87]

What if the Penguins don't break up after the 2001 season.
- They stay relevant and a playoff Team with the core of Jagr Lemieux, Kovalev, Straka and so on for a few more seaons
- Jagr possibly wins a few more Art Ross trophies instead of his down years in Washington, maybe he more or less stays with Pittsburgh for his entire career
- Crosby and Malkin don't end up on the Pittsburgh and quite possibly don't end up on the same team. Obviously a huge change of hockey history for more than 15 years.

 

[Mandar]

For me, its always gonna be.....what if Bobby Orr had 2 healthy knees for his entire career......

 

[Reindl87]

What if Team Sweden didn't commit oe of the biggest joke Jobs in the 2002 quaterfinals against Belarus. We were robbed of one of the biggest games in hockey history. Still makes me mad and sas.

 

[iamjs]

What if the Penguins stuck with Ken Wregget after game 1 of the '96 Eastern Conference Final instead of going back to Barrasso?
What if Martin Gelinas' goal in the 2004 Cup Final was ruled as a goal?
What if Denis Lemieux was dealt to Detroit despite telling his agent to "tell Detroit, bull****"?

 

[frisco]

What if the Penguins stuck with Ken Wregget after game 1 of the '96 Eastern Conference Final instead of going back to Barrasso?

Wregget was a solid backup but let in 5 goals on 25 shots in Game One. Once Barrasso was healthy you've got to go back to him. And he had a very good series--.932 over the last six games. They lost but it really wasn't goaltending. In Game Three, Florida outshot Pittsburgh 61-28. I knew they were in serious trouble at that point.

My Best-Carey

 

[Merya]

What if zska had played a full season in NHL in the 80s. (disregardring the distance and culture)