The 2006 Carolina Hurricanes

GMR

Registered User
Jul 27, 2013
6,064
5,038
Parts Unknown
I don't know about weakest Cup winner post-expansion, but they're my pick for weakest Cup winner of the 2000s. I have the 2004 Lightning ahead of them. That's their closest competitor. The other teams in the decade were a lot better.

If we're counting the last 10 years, the 2019 Blues and 2012 Kings might be weaker. Carolina did finish first in the East. Some of the other Cup winners slumbered through the regular season and got hot in the playoffs. Carolina can at least say they were consistent throughout.
 

c9777666

Registered User
Aug 31, 2016
19,892
5,875
Everyone talks about the Buffalo injuries, but let's say that game 5 OT goes the other way- are we sure they would have beaten EDM if that series ends with the Sabres winning in 6?

Plus, how many of those defensemen would have returned had they made it past CAR?
 

MadLuke

Registered User
Jan 18, 2011
9,408
5,064
Carolina did finish first in the East

Played all year long in the southeast maybe helped that quite a bit.

That said they finished first while adding great veteran during the season Mark Recchi in march, Weight in January.

Staal, Stillman, prime Cullen, Brind'amour, Williams, Recchi-Weight-Whitney, Ladd is not a bad playoff top 9.

The D too, that team took a while to remake the playoff, Recchi/Weight quit obviously being a big factor but still.
 

Surrounded By Ahos

Las Vegas Desert Ducks Official Team Poster
Sponsor
May 24, 2008
26,144
80,546
Koko Miami
Played all year long in the southeast maybe helped that quite a bit.


They actually had a much worse record against the Southeast than the rest of the league.

0506canes.png
 

HisIceness

This is Hurricanes Hockey
Sep 16, 2010
40,106
70,024
Charlotte
That team still remains my favorite sports team ever and frankly it's not close. I've still got the Oct 3rd 2005 SI magazine that predicted them to finish 28th out of 30 teams.

I watched damn near every game that season. What occurred to me early on was how resilient they were. At one point early in the season they came back from 2 goals down in Toronto to tie the game, they lost in OT but the next night they blanked a Washington team that featured a rookie Ovechkin and IIRC was off to a good start. They gave Ottawa their first loss of the season, they had an incredible 8-6 home win against the Flyers before Halloween, they had two seperate 9 game winning streaks, they beat Detroit (a battle of the two best teams in the league at the time) on National TV in a game that featured some wild saves from Martin Gerber towards the end. I mean they were clicking and played a style of play that was fun to watch for a league that was coming off a lockout and had "opened up" the offense with the new rules.

The team itself wasn't "stacked" per say, but they were still very good on paper. Ray Whitney, Stillman, Cole, Brindy, Wesley, Wallin, Commodore, Williams, Hedican, Kevyn and Craig Adams etc. These were all dudes who could play. Then there was Eric Staal who had an incredible jump into his 3rd season as a pro after being in the AHL during the lockout. Guy was on fire throughout the whole season and he was must-see TV. 100 point season as a 21 y/o is damn good. The goaltending, everyone thinks of Cam Ward but Martin Gerber did a great job holding down the fort too. Peter Laviolette did a great job balancing that team out and letting them play to their strengths, he also encouraged team bonding days, where they would do obstacle courses or invite the dads on a road trip (still a thing today), one of his quotes was building a team was like building a snowball and letting it roll downhill, it picks up speed and becomes impossible to stop.

I used to get into arguments with people who called them "weak" or whatever but now I just don't really give a shit. It is what it is and those people aren't going to take the memories away from me or my faded, outgrown champions shirt.

I grew up watching ACC sports, the Charlotte Hornets, the Atlanta Braves and the Carolina Panthers. It wasn't until 2002 that I really got into the Canes and they slowly became my favorite team. To this day it still shocks me somewhat that aside from the 1995 Atlanta Braves, the only other major-league champion in this region (GA and the Carolinas) is this rag-tag group of guys from Raleigh (and yes I am aware of the Atlanta MLS team). Most people thought that it would be the Carolina Panthers that would win a Superbowl for the Carolinas, nope, Stanley Cup.
 

member 157595

Guest
I used to get into arguments with people who called them "weak" or whatever but now I just don't really give a shit. It is what it is and those people aren't going to take the memories away from me or my faded, outgrown champions shirt.

There is no such thing as a weak Stanley Cup champion. There are only salty, bitter, loser fans. Every single one of those Cup teams were composed of warriors that sacrificed absolutely everything they had. Some Cup teams may have been better than other Cup teams and it doesn't mean shit. Only one team wins the Cup per year and no one can ever take that title away from the the players, organization or fans.

Not to quote Herman Edwards, but you play to win the game. Any even semi-competitive hockey player in history would rather be a member of the "worst" Cup winner (whatever that means) in history than the best ever runner-up.
 

quoipourquoi

Goaltender
Jan 26, 2009
10,123
4,126
Hockeytown, MI
They actually had a much worse record against the Southeast than the rest of the league.

View attachment 376940

Gotta love the criticism of the Southeast Division back then. They sent over 3 finalists in 4 seasons, but they’re still garbage people.

2004 Tampa Bay was 33-14 outside of the division, and people acted like they were a #1 seed who got all their wins over Washington and Florida.
 

member 157595

Guest
Gotta love the criticism of the Southeast Division back then. They sent over 3 finalists in 4 seasons, but they’re still garbage people.

2004 Tampa Bay was 33-14 outside of the division, and people acted like they were a #1 seed who got all their wins over Washington and Florida.

MORE LIKE THE SOUTHLEAST DIVISION, RIGHT GUYS?

No question that many people made fun of that division because of the geographical location of some of the teams. Which, of course, is bullshit because that has nothing to do whatsoever with the actual quality of the team on the ice.
 

vadim sharifijanov

Registered User
Oct 10, 2007
28,584
15,946
MORE LIKE THE SOUTHLEAST DIVISION, RIGHT GUYS?

No question that many people made fun of that division because of the geographical location of some of the teams. Which, of course, is bullshit because that has nothing to do whatsoever with the actual quality of the team on the ice.

tbf, on top of geographical bias i think people (sometimes unfairly) dismiss that division because over the last twenty years, each team has gone through some kind of ownership crisis, financial apocalypse, AND on-ice bottoming out.

atlanta > was never competitive and moved to winnipeg

florida > drafted in the top four 7/14 years to start the 21st century (after which, the southeast division ceased to exist) and consistently draws the lowest attendance in the league, alan cohen tried to sell the team for like five years before viola took over

tampa > high high, low lows: two cups/three finals, four bottom 3 finishes; crazy ownership drama where people went to jail

carolina > several bottom outs, many spells of attendance woes, owner reportedly ran into money problems five years ago and there were relocation rumours, apparently some things about the eventual sale are fishy and unresolved two years later

washington > have been a model franchise for a long time, but prior to the ovechkin era bottomed out in both the standings and attendance, were the subject of relocation discussions

because basically at every point at least one of the teams is in turmoil, it can sometimes feel to outside observers like all the teams are in turmoil always.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DaveG and Franck

vikash1987

Registered User
Mar 7, 2004
1,302
564
New York
I’d challenge the “only one Hall of Famer” point. Personally, I don’t think that should be a very relevant factor in assessing the caliber of the Hurricanes or other post-Lockout Cup teams. Unless, of course, the HoFer earned his stripes and/or played a huge role as a superstar in that playoff run itself.

For that matter, you could make the case that Recchi was borderline and not quite a HoFer back in 2006. In which case, it’s conceivable that Canes could’ve just as easily gone without any HoFers on their roster.

The 2019 Blues come to mind, though it’s premature to say. Maybe Tarasenko will get in. Who knows.

This is pre-Lockout, but back in 2002, when they played the Red Wings, Carolina also had just one (Ron Francis), in stark contrast to Detroit’s 9 or 10 (if you include Datsyuk). And yet they made it a series: they won Game 1, they took Game 3 to triple OT, etc. The reason Detroit won was less because of the number of HoFers and more because of the performances of those HoFers in that run. They all led and delivered.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DaveG

JackSlater

Registered User
Apr 27, 2010
18,041
12,661
I used to get into arguments with people who called them "weak" or whatever but now I just don't really give a shit. It is what it is and those people aren't going to take the memories away from me or my faded, outgrown champions shirt.

I'd say that you've adopted the only reasonable way to look at it. Opinions regarding the strength of a team don't matter when there are actual games played to determine the champion. I've had teams I support lose when I considered them the best in the league several times and teams that I follow win when I considered them not the best by any stretch, and the latter is certainly preferable. Winning is the goal.

Carolina felt like a thematically appropriate winner for the 2006 season to me, as a sort of random collection of players that came together and provided a surprising result after the lockout. I do not think that it was a great team (though it was a very good team) and I do think that Buffalo wins the Stanley Cup if healthier but who cares about that. Carolina felt experienced and was a tough out that played a smart game consistently. Sort of like a typical NCAA basketball team that has a lot of juniors and seniors who won't be NBA stars but who are battle tested in the NCAA and play well together (plus with Staal as a hot shot freshman lottery pick).
 

member 157595

Guest
tbf, on top of geographical bias i think people (sometimes unfairly) dismiss that division because over the last twenty years, each team has gone through some kind of ownership crisis, financial apocalypse, AND on-ice bottoming out.

atlanta > was never competitive and moved to winnipeg

florida > drafted in the top four 7/14 years to start the 21st century (after which, the southeast division ceased to exist) and consistently draws the lowest attendance in the league, alan cohen tried to sell the team for like five years before viola took over

tampa > high high, low lows: two cups/three finals, four bottom 3 finishes; crazy ownership drama where people went to jail

carolina > several bottom outs, many spells of attendance woes, owner reportedly ran into money problems five years ago and there were relocation rumours, apparently some things about the eventual sale are fishy and unresolved two years later

washington > have been a model franchise for a long time, but prior to the ovechkin era bottomed out in both the standings and attendance, were the subject of relocation discussions

because basically at every point at least one of the teams is in turmoil, it can sometimes feel to outside observers like all the teams are in turmoil always.

There were plenty of reasons to question those teams, but there's no question that many (not all) of the cynics had an additional bee in their bonnet due to the geographical location of those teams. That's all I am saying.

I've never been a fan of one of those teams; in fact, I don't really watch NHL hockey anymore, but I did watch at that time.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DaveG

JianYang

Registered User
Sep 29, 2017
17,753
16,111
I think that team had incredible forward depth and a very solid goaltending tandem. The defense was underwhelming but healthy for most of the run if I'm not mistaken and Laviolette was really coming into his own as a coach early on in his career.

They also were probably only the third most talented team in that conference and had no right beating a Buffalo team that was without 4 of their 6 defensemen by the end of the series.

Living in NC when the run happened and being an 18 year old Sabres fan, I was definitely devoting more time to watching hockey at that time then any point in my life haha and I didn't miss a Hurricanes game all season. I think the main things that stood out were Brindamour playing lights out two-way hockey, a cast of savvy vets that showed up in the big moments (Stillman, Whitney, Recchi, Weight, etc.), and two young forwards having great seasons in Staal and Justin Williams. I also remember Gerber being quite the goalie but Ward just ended up being the young up-and-comer who took them over the hump.

Definitely too deep and experienced to definitively call them the worst post-05 Cup champion but I would say the case can certainly be made. I don't think the 2009 Penguins are necessarily better than them.

Did they even go back to Gerber after losing the first two games of the playoffs?

I think they went to ward for game 3 against Montreal, which also happened to be the same game where Justin Williams knocked Koivu out of the series with a high stick to the eye that went undetected.

I could be wrong but I don't recall Gerber starting another game afterwards.
 
  • Like
Reactions: buffalowing88

djboos22

Aho (insert pun)
Jan 17, 2011
2,661
506
Palm Bay, FL
Did they even go back to Gerber after losing the first two games of the playoffs?

I think they went to ward for game 3 against Montreal, which also happened to be the same game where Justin Williams knocked Koivu out of the series with a high stick to the eye that went undetected.

I could be wrong but I don't recall Gerber starting another game afterwards.

Gerber started against the Sabres and earned a shutout. He started the next game, but was pulled and Ward made 15/15 saves in relief for the W.
 

buffalowing88

Registered User
Aug 11, 2008
4,271
1,712
Charlotte, NC
Did they even go back to Gerber after losing the first two games of the playoffs?

I think they went to ward for game 3 against Montreal, which also happened to be the same game where Justin Williams knocked Koivu out of the series with a high stick to the eye that went undetected.

I could be wrong but I don't recall Gerber starting another game afterwards.
They did. As stated in the post directly above, he came back in and did some work in games that aren't credited to him. I mean, Ward definitely solidified his spot as the playoffs went on, but Gerber was nothing to scoff at.
 

tarheelhockey

Offside Review Specialist
Feb 12, 2010
84,977
137,333
Bojangles Parking Lot
They did. As stated in the post directly above, he came back in and did some work in games that aren't credited to him. I mean, Ward definitely solidified his spot as the playoffs went on, but Gerber was nothing to scoff at.

I know it's a controversial thing to say, because 2006 Gerber was not 2006 Playoffs Ward... but, it's not crazy to imagine that Canes team still making a deep run with Gerber in net. He was a solid starter at the time and was near the top of the league in winning percentage behind that team.

If I have to give up Ward to get a healthy Gerber and Erik Cole (the 4o-goal, penalty killer version of him) I probably make that trade. My guess is they don't play as many Game Sevens with that lineup.
 

Michael Farkas

Grace Personified
Jun 28, 2006
13,350
7,830
NYC
www.HockeyProspect.com
I recall protesting them not going back to Gerber...I didn't think young Ward was very good during the season and I had a lot of time for Gerber...

Maybe it was already said (sorry, I didn't read page 1) but didn't Wardo lose his job, Gerber came in and got a whitewash, and then somehow they went back to Ward again or something...? I seem to recall it being real topsy-turvy and I was unhappy on Gerber's behalf...
 

buffalowing88

Registered User
Aug 11, 2008
4,271
1,712
Charlotte, NC
I know it's a controversial thing to say, because 2006 Gerber was not 2006 Playoffs Ward... but, it's not crazy to imagine that Canes team still making a deep run with Gerber in net. He was a solid starter at the time and was near the top of the league in winning percentage behind that team.

If I have to give up Ward to get a healthy Gerber and Erik Cole (the 4o-goal, penalty killer version of him) I probably make that trade. My guess is they don't play as many Game Sevens with that lineup.
Oh, I don't think it's controversial at all. I personally thought Gerber was the better goalie. I think he had a higher ceiling/lower floor, but in the playoffs, you go with the hot hand and Ward turned that into a very respectable career in Carolina.

I didn't even get into Cole because that's a tough thing to even quantify in terms of his impact. I look at Cole like I look at Tim Connolly, a supremely important player who just got ravaged by injuries right when they would have excelled. A healthy Cole would have made that SCF a much easier series. He was a first-liner that year in terms of talent.
 

buffalowing88

Registered User
Aug 11, 2008
4,271
1,712
Charlotte, NC
I recall protesting them not going back to Gerber...I didn't think young Ward was very good during the season and I had a lot of time for Gerber...

Maybe it was already said (sorry, I didn't read page 1) but didn't Wardo lose his job, Gerber came in and got a whitewash, and then somehow they went back to Ward again or something...? I seem to recall it being real topsy-turvy and I was unhappy on Gerber's behalf...

If I recall, Gerber had some tough games with Montreal and even though the team wasn't being destroyed by any means, they went with Ward. Gerber had 35+ regular season wins I think and was a very good player who would later show up in the playoffs to relieve Ward, but that Montreal series changed the dynamic.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DaveG

MadLuke

Registered User
Jan 18, 2011
9,408
5,064
I recall protesting them not going back to Gerber...I didn't think young Ward was very good during the season and I had a lot of time for Gerber...

Me I remember that Gerber did so poorly, I would have liked from him to not be that bad so he would have kept is starting role and the Habs would have won, Ward was way too hot.
 

VictoriaJetsFan

Registered User
Mar 24, 2013
4,168
2,098
I remember that team fairly well. They were generally very impressive. That forward depth was insane. Staal and Brindamour as your 1/2 centre punch is outstanding. A very high character group.

Cam Ward as the Tim Thomas of his decade.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DaveG and djboos22

tarheelhockey

Offside Review Specialist
Feb 12, 2010
84,977
137,333
Bojangles Parking Lot
If I recall, Gerber had some tough games with Montreal and even though the team wasn't being destroyed by any means, they went with Ward. Gerber had 35+ regular season wins I think and was a very good player who would later show up in the playoffs to relieve Ward, but that Montreal series changed the dynamic.

Gerber entered the playoffs with a bad flu, was medicated, lost a bunch of weight during those Montreal games, etc.

He really shouldn’t have played, but they didn’t want to throw Ward in there.
 

Sentinel

Registered User
May 26, 2009
12,758
4,588
New Jersey
www.vvinenglish.com
Carolina is not all that dissimilar to the previous Cup winner, 04 Tampa. Several HOVG stars in Lecavalier, Richards, and Khabibulin, with solid depth and defense, veteran leadership from Andreychuk, etc.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DaveG

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

-->