Playoff Series that were supposed to be great but turned out to not be

c9777666

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Aug 31, 2016
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For every series that exceeded expectations, there is an opposite- those series that turned out to be dissapointating as opposed to what we thought would happen.

To me, the all time series that was supposed to be something great but never was has to be the 1988 Battle of Alberta.

Three of the four CAL/EDM series from 1984-1991 went the distance. This one.....did not.
 

The Panther

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Mar 25, 2014
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That 1988 Edmonton / Calgary series was going to be my answer, too. 1st overall Calgary vs. 3rd overall Dynasty Edmonton, with the two previous series having gone seven games, one win for each club... and in 1988 it's a four-game sweep.

A lot of Cup Finals since the mid-90s have been one-sided sweeps. One team just ran out of gas or was losing the war to attrition when the Finals started. Like Philly / Detroit in 1997.
 

Normand Lacombe

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1994 Islanders-Rangers. With the animosity these two franchises had for each other, I was expecting a tough test for the 1 seed Rangers. With the Islanders winning the season series, I was expecting a 6 or possibly 7 game series with the Rangers coming out on top against a competitive Isles team. Instead, the Rangers swept the Isles in humiliating fashion, scoring a thousand goals on Hextall and sending Al Arbour off with an embarrassing playoff loss in his final season. Chants of 1940 would never be heard again.
 
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c9777666

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Aug 31, 2016
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1994 Islanders-Rangers. With the animosity these two franchises had for each other, I was expecting a tough test for the 1 seed Rangers. With the Islanders winning the season series, I was expecting a 6 or possibly 7 game series with the Rangers coming out on top against a competitive Isles team. Instead, the Rangers swept the Isles in humiliating fashion, scoring a thousand goals on Hextall and sending Al Arbour off with an embarrassing playoff loss in his final season. Chants of 1940 would never be heard again.

It was literally the exact opposite of NYI vs. a 1 seed in '93
 

VanIslander

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Sep 4, 2004
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The 1997 Stanley Cup Finals.

The Flyers were dominant in the first three rounds but the Legion of Doom disappeared in the Finals as only Brind'amour on the powerplay could score in the first two games in Philly, and then at Joe Louis the Wings won game 3 in the first period of a blowout, Lindros' only goal of the series coming with 15 seconds remaining before the sweep was complete in game 4.
 
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hackandslash

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Sep 6, 2019
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Also thought Oilers/Blackhawks in 1992 would be a close, exciting 6 or 7 game series. Hawks smoked them in 4 and that was the last gasp for the mighty Oilers
 

Marc the Habs Fan

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Nov 30, 2002
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I nominate:

2013 Bruins-Penguins ECF
2001 Blues-Stars Western Semis (106 point DAL team shouldn't have been swept if you look at the 2 teams on paper)
1992 Bruins-Habs Adams division final (The Habs were basically in full blown ''we don't want to play for Pat Burns anymore'' mode despite winning the regular season division title and got swept even though BOS didn't even have Bourque in the final 2 games and that was the year Neely barely played)
 
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The Panther

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Also thought Oilers/Blackhawks in 1992 would be a close, exciting 6 or 7 game series. Hawks smoked them in 4 and that was the last gasp for the mighty Oilers
Well, but the '92 team was no longer "the mighty Oilers". Now, they were led by Vincent Damphousse. The last gasp of the "real" Dynasty Oilers was the 1991 game five loss to Minnesota.
 

Big Phil

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Nov 2, 2003
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Montreal/Philly in the 1976 Cup final. Okay, it was still all one goal games in a sweep except for Game 4 and Dryden has famously said that series was exhausting to the point where he said they had to drink their champagne sitting down celebrating. But the two-time Cup champs who had just blasted the Red Army a few months earlier couldn't win a game? I guess that shows you how good those dynasty Habs were.

Came here to post Philly/Detriot in 1997 as well.

NYI/Oilers in 1983. Did anyone expect that to be a sweep? Most figured the Oilers would win.

Boston/Pittsburgh 2013. The funny thing is the Pens were scoring quite a bit in the first two rounds. This looked like a Pittsburgh/Chicago Cup final. But if I would have told you that the Pens score 2 goals the whole series and all of Crosby, Malkin, Iginla, Letang get a combined 0 points no one would believe me.

I thought Anaheim/Ottawa would be a more competitive Cup final too in 2007.
 

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