Potential awards winners/team situations that were mentioned part season but look funny now

[Big Phil]

I remember Bryan McCabe getting a lot of Norris love a couple of months into the season in 2005-'06. I am a Leafs fan, and to be honest I didn't get it. He was getting a lot of power play success early in the year and he was racking up the points. It helped him get an Olympic spot on Team Canada but at the end of the season he finished a distant 9th in Norris voting.

Both the Penguins in 2009 and the Islanders in 1980 were playing .500 hockey before a coaching change for the Pens, and then a trade for the Isles changed that. Hard to believe that in February the idea of these two teams winning the Cup would have looked almost impossible.

Saku Koivu was leading the NHL in points right about until early December or so in the 1996-'97 season. I remember thinking, "Wow, usually Mario and Gretzky have surpassed every by this time in the year." Koivu got injured and ended up with 56 points in 50 games.

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[VanIslander]

Brian Campbell made a sensational open-ice hit that went viral and suddenly he was 5th in Norris voting, 2nd team all star in a contract year in which he scored a lot of assists and cashed in contractwise.

What a joke!

Thankfully my Sabres saw his INFLATED value and traded his *** at the trade deadline, was not the fool to give him a big contract that year.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

As late as February 29th, 2004 (it was a leap year), Robert Lang was the NHL's leading scorer. He had a two point lead on eventual Art Ross / Hart winner Martin St. Louis. No disrespect to Lang, he had a good career, but he might have become the worst Art Ross winner in history.

 

[GlitchMarner]

When McCabe went down that season, the Leafs went 0-7-1 or something in the games he missed and effectively ended their playoff chances.

 

[Austerlitz]

I always felt that Koivu never again reached the heights he was at in 1997, before that knee injury. He was dynamic.

 

[quoipourquoi]

Pascal Leclaire looked like a shoo-in for the Vezina Trophy in 2008 until the Blue Jackets became sellers at the trade deadline.

He (22-13-4) and Tim Thomas (20-14-4) were the leaders in save percentage in late-February, but Leclaire had 9 shutouts - 5 coming in his first 11 games.

The 29-26-9 Blue Jackets went 5-10-3 after the deadline after moving Adam Foote and Sergei Fedorov. Had backup goaltender Fredrik Norrena not been 7-13-5 with an .896 and 0 shutouts at the deadline, maybe the Blue Jackets make a run and we end up with a strange winner.

 

[MS]

Brian Campbell made a sensational open-ice hit that went viral and suddenly he was 5th in Norris voting, 2nd team all star in a contract year in which he scored a lot of assists and cashed in contractwise.

What a joke!

Thankfully my Sabres saw his INFLATED value and traded his *** at the trade deadline, was not the fool to give him a big contract that year.

???

Campbell was a top-end defender in the league for about another 8 years after that season and a key cog in a Cup winner two years later. Outstanding player and Buffalo made a huge mistake letting him go.

 

[tarheelhockey]

???

Campbell was a top-end defender in the league for about another 8 years after that season and a key cog in a Cup winner two years later. Outstanding player and Buffalo made a huge mistake letting him go.

Yeah it’s weird thinking anyone from Buffalo would be happy about those sweet cap savings post-2008.

 

[VanIslander]

Campbell was a top-end defender in the league for about another 8 years after that season and a key cog in a Cup winner two years later.

Lol. Key?

4th dman on Chicago in terms of minutes played, 6th in dman points on the team that postseason. A year later the Blackhawks parted ways with him.

I was relieved when he was shipped out of Buffalo. He was as valuable as a Mike Green, to cite another guy overrated by some fans.

 

[sr edler]

Brian Campbell was a solid defenseman. I have no idea why the Sabres would have felt they were above or too good for him.

 

[MS]

Lol. Key?

4th dman on Chicago in terms of minutes played, 6th in dman points on the team that postseason. A year later the Blackhawks parted ways with him.

I was relieved when he was shipped out of Buffalo. He was as valuable as a Mike Green, to cite another guy overrated by some fans.

His minutes were managed early in those playoffs coming off injury. He was clearly their #3 defender, and probably the best #3 defender in the NHL at that point. Was a +11 in those playoffs to lead the NHL. And Chicago only traded him because of their massive salary cap issues.

It's a bizarre case to single out as 'glad we escaped him in UFA'. Like, if you look at the post-2005 modern NHL cap era, Zdeno Chara is the guy who had the best career after changing teams as a high-priced UFA, but Campbell is probably in the top 3. He received Norris and/or All-Star votes in 7 of the next 8 years after signing in Chicago and was a key core cog on his teams for the length of that time. And was on a completely different level defensively from Mike Green.

As for Buffalo, they've made the playoffs twice in 11 years since that trade and haven't won a playoff series. The return they got for Campbell was marginal and helped them little, and they haven't had a defender score 50 points since he left.

 

[tony d]

The Phoenix Coyotes were tied for 1st overall on Dec.13 1998. They fell off after that and finished 4th in the West.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

re: brian campbell, i think the answer lies somewhere in between.

yes, he was a good player after he signed with chicago. he was a very good #3/4 in their 2010 cup run and was useful in 2009 to shoulder the offensive load that gave keith and seabrook the room to flesh out their all round games without being counted on to do all the scoring. obviously he did a lot of good for the young guys on that team because they brought him back to close out of his career in 2017 and then hired him after he retired to work with their young defencemen, with boqvist apparently being his specific main assignment.

and yes, campbell had probably his best year after chicago traded him to florida, when he finished second to karlsson in defencemen scoring and led florida to its only playoff appearance between when bure was there and when jagr showed up. he led the league in icetime and probably should have received more than the single stray hart vote that he got (i'm not saying a lot more, but he was talked about as a dark dark horse hart guy that year and probably could have gotten another three or four fourth/fifth place votes.)

but.... buffalo in no way shape or form should have re-signed him. campbell got one of the most insane contracts ever, eight years at $7+ million per. for reference, dan boyle had signed a six year, $6.66 million extension. timonen was on a six year, $6.33 from the year before. it had the largest cap hit of any defenceman contract between chara's UFA deal in 2006 and the weber offer sheet in 2012. if buffalo knew what campbell's salary expectations were, which they should have given that they were negotiating an extension with him that year, and if they knew how desperate some teams would be for UFA help on d that summer (redden got six year, $6.5 million per that summer, hainsey and meszaros both broke five years and $20 mill), they were right to trade him, even though they were in a playoff race, knowing that that campbell/miller/vanek core had no future. the real mistake was signing ehrhoff to that extremely long deal the previous summer and waiting too long to cut bait on the rest of that core.

as for the return, that's pretty good for a rental. a first round pick that turned into tyler ennis, a guy who played 400 games for buffalo and led them in scoring a couple of times, plus a young player (steve bernier) that they would soon flip for a 2nd and 3rd round pick.

 

[FerrisRox]

I remember Bryan McCabe getting a lot of Norris love a couple of months into the season in 2005-'06. I am a Leafs fan, and to be honest I didn't get it. He was getting a lot of power play success early in the year and he was racking up the points. It helped him get an Olympic spot on Team Canada but at the end of the season he finished a distant 9th in Norris voting.

I don't think anyone outside of Toronto was taking Bryan McCabe very seriously for the Norris trophy that year. He was mediocre - at best - defensively and if he wasn't on the power play he wasn't much of a threat to put up points.

I'm actually surprised to hear he was top ten in Norris voting. I don't even think he was the best defenseman on the team that year.

 

[FerrisRox]

Brian Campbell made a sensational open-ice hit that went viral and suddenly he was 5th in Norris voting, 2nd team all star in a contract year in which he scored a lot of assists and cashed in contractwise.

What a joke!

Thankfully my Sabres saw his INFLATED value and traded his *** at the trade deadline, was not the fool to give him a big contract that year.

Yes, they cleverly avoided paying him those big free agent dollars so they could have the bucks to bring in Christian Ehrhoff and Ville Leino instead.

Geniuses!

 

[Neutrinos]

McCabe had finished 4th in Norris voting and was a 2nd Team All-Star in '04, so I don't know why it would be surprising that he would be in consideration again during the '06 season

He finished with 68 points in 73 games

 

[FerrisRox]

McCabe had finished 4th in Norris voting and was a 2nd Team All-Star in '04, so I don't know why it would be surprising that he would be in consideration again during the '06 season

Because he wasn't a very good defenseman?

 

[Big Phil]

I don't think anyone outside of Toronto was taking Bryan McCabe very seriously for the Norris trophy that year. He was mediocre - at best - defensively and if he wasn't on the power play he wasn't much of a threat to put up points.

I'm actually surprised to hear he was top ten in Norris voting. I don't even think he was the best defenseman on the team that year.

I remember Brian Leetch his old and brief teammate talking about him in 2005-'06 and touting him as a Norris-caliber guy. I didn't get it personally.

 

[Big Phil]

The 1999 Avs got off to a terrible start to the season. 0-4-1 and then 4-8-1 at times. It wasn't until mid January that they finally got above .500. Hard to believe, because they finished off excellent and overall were 4th in points. I just remember a lot of hand-wringing going on as if they were on the decline.

 

[MXD]

My take on Campbell? Solid citizen, but if he's your best D-Men, you know which part of your team you have to improve on.

 

[sr edler]

McCabe had finished 4th in Norris voting and was a 2nd Team All-Star in '04, so I don't know why it would be surprising that he would be in consideration again during the '06 season

He finished with 68 points in 73 games

McCabe couldn't cut it with HV71 in the SEL during the 04–05 lockout. Tomas Kaberle was a good defenseman. Bryan McCabe was a good power play specialist.

 

[FerrisRox]

I remember Brian Leetch his old and brief teammate talking about him in 2005-'06 and touting him as a Norris-caliber guy. I didn't get it personally.

One thing I have always found funny living in Toronto and, for a long time, working in the sports media in Toronto is the little "bubble" that many Maple Leaf fans live in.

There's something unique about that fan base where you have a lot of fans that consider themselves big Leaf fans but at the same time they are not very big NHL fans. So you get this strange paradox where they know a lot about their team and they don't know very much about the rest of the league. It leads to strange and often erroneous opinions of the values of their players and, of course, the value of players on other teams.

Because a lot of the local media, particularly the Toronto Sun, shamelessly pump the tires of Leaf players a lot of the fans that fall into the aforementioned category think the team is often populated with top players in the league. Even when the team was going a decade without a playoff spot the local media is often fawning over them and exaggerating their value and their worth.

So for example, Bryan McCabe, who was mentioned in this thread... When he was traded the Leafs had to add a draft pick to him in order to get Mike Van Ryn. I remember when that deal happened, the local radio stations were overwhelmed with people that didn't understand how they didn't get way more for Bryan McCabe and... why did the Leafs have to add a draft pick to McCabe... and also... who was Mike Van Ryn?

 

[Hockeyholic]

The Ottawa Senators started the 07-08 season on fire. There was talk if they would surpass the Wings points record from 95-96. They then proceeded to fall of a cliff after Christmas. Paddock's employment was terminated. They were absolutely embarrassed in a 4 game sweep by the Pens. At the start of that season I thought Ottawa was neck and neck with Detroit as top cup contenders.

 

[LeBlondeDemon10]

One thing I have always found funny living in Toronto and, for a long time, working in the sports media in Toronto is the little "bubble" that many Maple Leaf fans live in.

There's something unique about that fan base where you have a lot of fans that consider themselves big Leaf fans but at the same time they are not very big NHL fans. So you get this strange paradox where they know a lot about their team and they don't know very much about the rest of the league. It leads to strange and often erroneous opinions of the values of their players and, of course, the value of players on other teams.

Because a lot of the local media, particularly the Toronto Sun, shamelessly pump the tires of Leaf players a lot of the fans that fall into the aforementioned category think the team is often populated with top players in the league. Even when the team was going a decade without a playoff spot the local media is often fawning over them and exaggerating their value and their worth.

So for example, Bryan McCabe, who was mentioned in this thread... When he was traded the Leafs had to add a draft pick to him in order to get Mike Van Ryn. I remember when that deal happened, the local radio stations were overwhelmed with people that didn't understand how they didn't get way more for Bryan McCabe and... why did the Leafs have to add a draft pick to McCabe... and also... who was Mike Van Ryn?

The worst I have heard and seen with this was the John Taveras signing. Toronto fans were already counting themselves as SC favorites. I get the excitement. I get that they came close to beating Boston one year. But I just don't see signing one player as the answer to all their issues. Especially when their issues were defence and toughness.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

The Ottawa Senators started the 07-08 season on fire. There was talk if they would surpass the Wings points record from 95-96. They then proceeded to fall of a cliff after Christmas. Paddock's employment was terminated. They were absolutely embarrassed in a 4 game sweep by the Pens. At the start of that season I thought Ottawa was neck and neck with Detroit as top cup contenders.

What a roller coaster! The Sens won 13 of their first 14 games (including 8 in a row). Then after an unremarkable 3-2 stretch, they lost 7 straight (3 in shootouts). Then they won six in a row.

From there, they were a losing team (21-29 with 5 of those losses coming in OT/SO).

How many teams in NHL history had an 8 game win streak and a 7 game losing streak in the same season? Or two 6+ game win streaks and a 7 game losing streak?