More surprising 1993 first-round sweep: Boston/Buffalo or Chicago/St. Louis?

c9777666

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Aug 31, 2016
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In the first round of the 1993 Stanley Cup playoffs, the #2/#3/#4/#5 teams reg. season standings wise all lost.

#4 Quebec and #5 Detroit both fell in memorably hard-fought series against teams close in the standings (Toronto was only 4 points behind Detroit, Montreal and Quebec were only separated by 2 points).

(To a lesser extent, some other 1st round series where the team with home-ice lost each had not-that-huge point gaps- Islanders/Capitals were separated by 6 points and Kings/Flames were separated by 9 points, and given the playoff track records of Washington/Calgary, I don't think those series were seismic upsets. Islanders/Kings winning round 1 was not as surprising as what they did next round)

But #2 and #3 not only lost, they got swept by teams they finished way ahead of!

Boston (2nd overall points-wise to Pittsburgh), 23 points ahead of Buffalo, a team that surged late after Montreal/Quebec had battled for 1st place in the Adams Division all season long.

Chicago, (3rd overall points-wise, #1 in their conference), 21 points ahead of St. Louis, a team that had made the Stanley Cup Finals one year ago.

And neither won a playoff game.

Both lost high-scoring game 1's (Chicago blew a 3-1 lead, wasted a Brian Noonan hat trick, lost 4-3. Boston lost a 5-4 game at home on an OT goal by former Bruin Bob Sweeney), got shutout in game 2, and were ousted on game 4 OT goals (although Brad May's goal is more memorable than Craig Janney's, even with Belfour's post-game fireworks).

Both series had a different feel- Chicago went nearly 3 games without scoring on Curtis Joseph (Noonan's hat trick goal in game 1 was their last goal until game 4!), Boston lost 3 1-goal OT games sandwiched around a Fuhr shutout- but that didn't made one less shocking than the other.

Which of these was the bigger shock?

I'll say Boston/Buffalo only because the Sabres had not won a playoff series since '83 and Chicago/St. Louis had familiarity with each other, plus the Blues had beaten Chicago more recently ('88) and the first round wasn't a bugaboo for St. Louis ala Buffalo.
 
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MadLuke

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Jan 18, 2011
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Also Boston gained a goal a game Neely back in their line up for the playoff, he didn't play much during the regular season.
 

bobholly39

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Mar 10, 2013
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As you said 3 OT games for Boston - so although surprising, OT is so unpredictable, it was still a close series.

Honestly now that i think of it Buffalo went on to be swept in round 2 vs the habs - but also 3 games went to OT

2 rounds - 8 games totals - 6 OT games. That's gotta be a pretty unique statline for a team
 
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Killion

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Feb 19, 2010
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Grant Fhur played well much to my chagrin and charred memory, and then did not play well the next round and Buff lost to a team I hated worse.........

:huh: "Charred memory"?... Fond of Moonshine? Everclear? Mason jar's?.... Suffer from same Spiderman.

Look Maing... Grant Fuhr.... Damn good. Incredible glove, feet. Loved the guy. Wish he was more aggressive clearing the crease... as in viscious, nasty... but ok,..... Amazing athlete, Goalie.
 

Tarantula

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The 80's and 90's have some run on and off memories for me, hockey and beyond, then there has been the last two, a strange run it has been.

I admittedly never gave Fuhr the respect he deserves as a casual fan at the time, and never a fan of the team he was playing for, but he did a great job against Boston, but was not as good against Montreal in the next round.

Mason jars? Strictly for syrup or perhaps the odd one can be found with some distilled mashed corn, not like there isn't thousands of acres being grown here..... might have a long forgotten one somewhere, when that bad cough wouldn't clear........ :naughty:
 
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Killion

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Feb 19, 2010
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The 80's and 90's have some run on and off memories for me, hockey and beyond, then there has been the last two, a strange run it has been.

I admittedly never gave Fuhr the respect he deserves as a casual fan at the time, and never a fan of the team he was playing for, but he did a great job against Boston, but was not as good against Montreal in the next round.

Mason jars? Strictly for syrup or perhaps the odd one can be found with some distilled mashed corn, not like there isn't thousands of acres being grown here..... might have a long forgotten one somewhere, when that bad cough wouldn't clear........ :naughty:

Grant was a Hell of a Goaltending talent. Unbelievably fast Glove, Skates. Watched him real close. Totally impressed. Edmonton enjoying some serious wealth in the crease. Andy Moog another guy who really had it together.
 

Big Phil

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Nov 2, 2003
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I think Chicago vs. St. Louis was the bigger upset. Not that either Boston Garden or Chicago Stadium was easy to play in, but I remember being mildly stunned that the Blues won Game 1 in Chicago but shocked beyond belief that they took both games in Chicago. Honestly, it was still one of those things that despite being down 2-0 and even 3-0 you got the sense Chicago was the type of team that could come back from that.

I just thought the Hawks were on a collision course to return to the final again.
 

reckoning

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Jan 4, 2005
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They were both big upsets, but St. Louis was by far the bigger one.

Buffalo hadn't won a series in a decade, but they took Boston to 7 games the year before. Plus in '93 Lafontaine and Mogilny had those monster years, and they added Fuhr at the deadline.

Chicago rolled through the West in the playoffs the previous season, and looked even better in '93. Chelios would win the Norris, Belfour the Vezina. Roenick was emerging as a leader. St. Louis was somewhat of a no-name team. After Hull, Shanahan and Janney, have many other skaters from that team can you remember without looking it up?

Most experts were picking Boston to win their series. Everybody was picking Chicago to win theirs.
 
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blood gin

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Jan 17, 2017
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One of those Sabres OT winners over Boston was among the weirdest NHL goals I've seen. I think there was some spinning puck near the blue line swatted at by a Sabre. The puck literally bounces over a sprawling Bruins goalie like a tennis ball and into the net
 

streitz

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Jul 22, 2018
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Blues.



I figured that Bruins core was done after 92, wasn't expecting a sweep but I wasn't all that surprised the Sabres won especially with the year Lafontaine, Mogilny and even good old Hawerchuk had that year.
 

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