MadArcand
Whaletarded
The 2006 Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup with a blueline consisting of :
Bret Hedican
Aaron Ward
Mike Commodore
Frantisek Kaberle
Nicklas Wallin
Glen Wesley
... and a rookie goalie with 28 NHL games in net prior to the playoffs, who three seasons later has a career .897 save %.
I still don't know how it's possible. On paper, that defense/goaltending was bottom-5 in the league at the time. Logic says it isn't possible to win a Stanley Cup with a 36 y/o Bret Hedican as your #1 defender, but apparently you can.
Bret Hedican
Aaron Ward
Mike Commodore
Frantisek Kaberle
Nicklas Wallin
Glen Wesley
... and a rookie goalie with 28 NHL games in net prior to the playoffs, who three seasons later has a career .897 save %.
I still don't know how it's possible. On paper, that defense/goaltending was bottom-5 in the league at the time. Logic says it isn't possible to win a Stanley Cup with a 36 y/o Bret Hedican as your #1 defender, but apparently you can.
MadArcand
Whaletarded
Oh please. Yes, defense was sub-par in performance (18th in regular season), but the offense easily made up for that (3rd best in league).
The following teams had IMO worse goaltending: Boston, Toronto, Philla, Pens, Thrashers, Lightning, Caps, Avs, Oilers, Canucks, Columbus, Hawks, Blues, Kings, Yotes. Anything but bottom 5.
And bottom-5 D? Not in performance, and definitely not on paper. Bruins, Isles, Thrashers, Caps, Wild, Columbus, Hawks, Blues and Yotes were definitely significantly worse on paper.
Nalyd Psycho
Registered User
Gotta go old school.
'38 Blackhawks.
Barely made the playoffs, then won the cup. Only cup winner outside the modern era with only 1 hall of famer. ('94 Rangers is the most recent team with 1 HHoFer, but Leetch is just waiting to be eligible.)
'38 Blackhawks.
Barely made the playoffs, then won the cup. Only cup winner outside the modern era with only 1 hall of famer. ('94 Rangers is the most recent team with 1 HHoFer, but Leetch is just waiting to be eligible.)
brianscot
Registered User
The Nick Fotiu thread made me remember that the 1980-81 Rangers had a great playoff run.
After a 74 point regular season, they knocked off the LA Kings (tied for 4th best overall regular season) and then the St. Louis Blues (2nd overall best regular season).
Fred Shero left after 20 games and the team went from horrid to respectable under Craig Patrick.
The Isles steam rolled them 4 - zip in the semis, but Hedberg and Nilsson looked like, well, Hedberg and Nilsson that spring.
Overachieving usually equals a hot goalie and after using 5 during the regular season, Steve Baker sizzled.
After a 74 point regular season, they knocked off the LA Kings (tied for 4th best overall regular season) and then the St. Louis Blues (2nd overall best regular season).
Fred Shero left after 20 games and the team went from horrid to respectable under Craig Patrick.
The Isles steam rolled them 4 - zip in the semis, but Hedberg and Nilsson looked like, well, Hedberg and Nilsson that spring.
Overachieving usually equals a hot goalie and after using 5 during the regular season, Steve Baker sizzled.
DaveG
Noted Jerk
The defense was average at best, but that's still as bad as it was at that point too, middle of the pack. It wasn't until the following couple seasons that the age on Hedican and Wesley really started to show. The team was about middle of the pack in goals against. Gerber was solid that season in the regular season, Ward's playoff performance is still inexplicable but he's also not nearly as bad as his career stats would indicate.
And yet that team is an utter collection of Superstars compared to the 2002 Canes:
Stillman, Staal, Cole, Recchi, Whitney, Brind'Amour, Williams, Whitney, Cullen, Weight, Ladd, Vasicek
vs
Kapanen, Francis, O'Neill, Cole (as a rookie), Brind'Amour, Battaglia, Gelinas, Vasicek, Jaro Svoboda
no contest. The 2006 Canes had more offensive depth available on the 3rd and 4th line then the 2002 Canes even had on the 2nd line. They finished 3rd in goals scored that season and were in the hunt for the top seed in the Eastern Conference all season. Hardly a fluke team.
That 2002 Canes team has to be, by far, the biggest overachieving team this decade. Probably the most overachieving team since the 96 Panthers. And to think they nearly took a 2-1 lead in that series against one of the most loaded teams I've ever seen in Detroit in the Cup Finals.
Love how you have that "coaching" in quotations, seriously. That team won in spite of Maurice, it was all about Francis and Brind'Amour's leadership at that point. Ronnie may as well have been the head coach as well as the captain because it was obvious that he and Brind'Amour were the driving force behind that team.
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GIN ANTONIC
Registered User
I'm not. That playoff run might have even trumped the 06 win. Don't get me wrong, I'll take the cup over a 2nd place finish any day of the week. But the fact that they were such underdogs in every series was great. Plus the beating of the Leafs was epic since i live in Toronto. 06 team didn't overachieve IMO, it was stacked on offense. Cam played out of his mind and the d was responsible. How 02 happened is as bizzare as it comes for me.
ArGarBarGar
What do we want!? Unfair!
- Sep 8, 2008
- 44,037
- 11,732
2006 Oilers?
Beat out the top team in the league and was able to make it 7 games into the finals.
Beat out the top team in the league and was able to make it 7 games into the finals.
03-04 flames
only one 20 goal scorer during the regular season and only 3 dmen that can be considered top4 with no legit #1dman
rode the coattails of kipper and very defensive system and made it to the scf
plus shean donovan had almost 20 goals. thats crazy
only one 20 goal scorer during the regular season and only 3 dmen that can be considered top4 with no legit #1dman
rode the coattails of kipper and very defensive system and made it to the scf
plus shean donovan had almost 20 goals. thats crazy
Big Phil
Registered User
- Nov 2, 2003
- 31,703
- 4,146
First team I thought of. Hockey was the big loser when a team of Dave Lowry's trapped it's way past a Pens team with Mario, Jagr and Francis which would have set up a classic finals with the Avs.
Also the '79 Rangers could fit that bill although we have to give credit to the often forgotten heroics of Phil Esposito that year. But that team beating the likes of Potvin, Trottier and Bossy amazes me right in their peak
Devil Dancer
Registered User
- Jan 21, 2006
- 18,461
- 5,449
When you take a look now, that team was actually pretty good on paper.
Adam Oates, Michal Pivonka, Dale Hunter, Joe Juneau, Steve Konowalchuk, Peter Bondra, Richard Zednik, Craig Berube, Kelly Miller, Phil Housley, Calle Johansson, Brendan Witt, Chris Simon, Mark Tinordi, Sylvain Cote, Sergei Gonchar, Joe Reekie, Ken Klee, Ulf Dahlen & Olaf Kolzig.
Maybe not Eastern Conference Champions good, but still pretty good.
MXD
Original #4
- Oct 27, 2005
- 50,815
- 16,549
That team will have one HHOF'er and quite a few borderline guys (Bondra, Housley, Kolzig, Gonchar).
Master_Of_Districts
Registered User
I agree in that the team was pretty good on paper.
What's interesting, I think, is the extent to which they relied on Kolzig in making it all the way to the finals.
Over that entire playoffs, Washington was outshot 740-529, which is staggering if you think about it.
Couple that with the fact that the team failed to make the playoffs in both the preceding and following seasons and its suggests that a lot of luck was involved in their run that season.
Come on. If you don't think that was the worst blueline corps ever to win a Stanley Cup, you need to take the blinders off. No-one else is even close, really.
Bottom-5 is debateable, bottom-10 for sure. It was basically Bret Hedican and a bunch of #5-6 defenders. For that group of defenders to win a Stanley Cup - no matter what the offense in front of them was - defies all common logic. They over-achieved to a tremendous extent.
And Cam Ward has been one of the worst starting goalies in the NHL over the course of his career - .897 career save %, which is awful, and had only 28 games NHL experience at the time. His performance in that playoffs was a ridiculous overachievement, and he hasn't done anything close to it since.
MadArcand
Whaletarded
Worst ever? Not sure, but possible (have to say, Tampa's D was nothing special either...). Ward *did* overachieve, sure. But, see, e.g. Vernon had terrible save % almost all his career yet came up big enough in playoffs for not one Cup, but two. It happens.
Bottom line, the 2006 Canes winning the Cup was far less of an overachievement than '96 Panthers making the finals... or many others already mentioned in this thread. That team was one of league's best. '96 Panthers were trap team with no talent and Vanbiesbrouck.
GIN ANTONIC
Registered User
^^^ Defense wasn't great, but they played well together. Hedican, Wesley and Ward, while not big name guys are/were really solid. Wallin was actually servicable and Kaberle had a career season with 44 points. Everything just sorta lined up properly. Add in a bunch of great two way forwards like Brindy, Williams and the Adams family and there you go. I don't see how you call a team that had 113 points in the regular season a fluke in the playoffs. Regardless of how good the d was on paper, on the ice they performed and that's all that mattered.
