The greatest star TRIO with little team support

[VanIslander]

Let's look at teams that had THE THREE STARS but then a gap in talent/performance support.

This is less about three standouts on a dynasty team (Trottier, Bossy, Potvin) since Smith and Goring are arguably not so far behind, hence the dynasty)...

This is more about three players who were great but others not so much.

Like Lemieux, Jagr, Nedved in the 1996 playoffs. My Caps shut down Mario & Mario Jr in the first three games of the first round, up 2-1 in the series and went to 4OT in Game 4, one of the longest games of NHL history. Washington had great checkers on the star duo but third star for the Pens was the hero scoring his 5th goal of the series in the 4th OT to tie up the series. Pittsburgh would ride the trio to Game 7 of the Conference Finals where another great defensive team in Florida were victorious because the trio of Pens had no other offensive support.

Lemieux 11g 27p
Jagr 11g 23 p
Nedved 10g 20p

No other Pens forward had more than 5g, 9p.

(two dmen had double digit assists but only one goal each)

Click to read more...

 

[VanIslander]

Kariya, Selanne and goalie Guy Hebert were often the three stars for an expansion team that otherwise was pretty low in talent, hence the exceptional play of the trio often ended in losses anyway.

 

[sr edler]

I don’t know if I would go so far calling Gunslinger Nedved a "star", more like a "player with above average capability to put up a reasonably high amount of points if put in the right circumstances".

 

[Nick Hansen]

There were a couple of years where St Louis, Stamkos and Lecavalier really drove the Lightning before Hedman blossomed.

 

[MadLuke]

There were a couple of years where St Louis, Stamkos and Lecavalier really drove the Lightning before Hedman blossomed.

That season do seem to fit the bill:
2009-10 Tampa Bay Lightning Roster and Statistics | Hockey-Reference.com

Not specially good goaltending either to help.

I thought about the french connection at Buffalo but when they were good they did seem to have good teams also timing wise.

The Bobby Hull jets ?

Had a trio of 100 pointers and not much else ?

 

[BraveCanadian]

Paging ImporterExporter to let us know it was Jagr's fault.

I think the early 93-94 Leafs kind of fit the bill -- Gilmour, Andreychuk, Potvin and a pile of pluggers.

 

[mrhockey193195]

Oates, Neely, Bourque in the mid 90s for the Bruins?

 

[BraveCanadian]

Oates, Neely, Bourque in the mid 90s for the Bruins?

Good one.

 

[crobro]

Hull Oates and Stevens

Triple crown line

Maruk Gartner Walter

Savard Larmer Secord

 

[koyvoo]

^ yup. Triple crown line is a good call here.

 

[BraveCanadian]

^ yup. Triple crown line is a good call here.

Definitely.. Savard Larmer and Secord is another good one.. one line teams..

 

[reckoning]

Maybe Sittler, Salming and McDonald on those mid-to-late-70s Leaf teams? They also had Palmateer who was very good for a couple of seasons, and Turnbull who had moments of greatness, but was usually inconsistent.
But after Sittler and McDonald, the rest of the forwards were a bunch of muckers and grinders (Maloney, Williams, Boutette, Butler, etc.)

 

[Canadiens1958]

Doug Bentley, Max Bentley,Bill Mosienko with the post WWII Hawks

 

[VanIslander]

The following I recall distinctly:

The year before Toronto brought in Nieuwendyk, Roberts and Nolan to provide veteran secondary scoring, the Leafs of 2002-03 were a 3-man band:

Mogilny 33g 79p
Sundin 37 g 72 p

No other Leaf had more than 16 goals!

Belfour had 37 wins and a career-highest 0.922 save % as the 37 year old became a Vezina finalist.

 

[VanIslander]

Doug Bentley, Max Bentley,Bill Mosienko with the post WWII Hawks

Yeah, for one season, 1946-47, the year after HHOFer Clint Smith's career-high 26-goal season and the year before Max went to Toronto.

Chicago went 19-37-4 that season (after a winning record and playoff berth the year before) and heralded in the darkest days of Blackhawks history which would see them in the basement with the worst NHL record for 9 of 11 seasons (the only playoff appearance over that stretch was due to Al Rollins' headstand-excellent Hart-runner-up netminding).

 

[Nerowoy nora tolad]

Maybe Sittler, Salming and McDonald on those mid-to-late-70s Leaf teams? They also had Palmateer who was very good for a couple of seasons, and Turnbull who had moments of greatness, but was usually inconsistent.
But after Sittler and McDonald, the rest of the forwards were a bunch of muckers and grinders (Maloney, Williams, Boutette, Butler, etc.)

I think youd be grossly underestimating Palmateer but thats just me

 

[VanIslander]

The 3 'H' stars of the worst Rangers team ever: Hextall, Heller, Hiller.

The Rags' lowliest season ever was 1943-44 when they won a mere 6 games in a 50-game schedule (the ravages of war).

Just two seasons earlier they had the best record in the league thanks to six HHOFers and Jim Henry's solid 2.90 goals against netminding; in contrast, the nobody rookie goalie who played every game of '43-'44 had a terrible 6.24 goals against average over the 50 games and would be out of the NHL forever a year later.

The only star forward remaining in 1943-44 was HHOF right winger Bryan Hextall, Sr. who put up similar numbers to his previous four seasons, each of which he had been an NHL all star. He scored 54 points, the third highest total of his career and most assists ever, leading the squad in goals and assists.

Defenseman Ott Heller put up career-best scoring with 35 points (in his 13th NHL season), one shy of doubling the 18 he had as a 2nd team all star three years earlier.

Dutch Hiller had a career-high 40 points, 2nd in team goals, 3rd in assists (behind Hextall and Heller). The left winger had helped the Rags win the cup back in '40 and would later end his career with some clutch goal scoring for another cup-clinching squad in Montreal.

Note: This team was so bad that 42-year-old Rags coach Frank Boucher had to come out of his six-year retirement to play 15 games, putting up 14 points as the oldest NHLer ever until Doug Harvey in '68.

Another note: The team was so bad that coach Boucher even took them to a hypnotist to try and convince them they were a winning team.

 

[Normand Lacombe]

The 91-92 Nordiques. Sakic (94 pts), Sundin (76) and Nolan (73) were the top three point producers for Quebec. The fourth leading producer was Greg Palawski with 45 pts.

 

[streitz]

 

[koyvoo]

Meh. Guys like Murray, Olczyk abs Wilson were pretty good players.

 

[streitz]

 

[streitz]

Meh. Guys like Murray, Olczyk abs Wilson were pretty good players.

Depends on how you define 'good'.


I guess qualifying for awards on years they didn't feel like giving trophies to Potvin or Carbonneau means more for some then others.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

speaking of olczyk and troy murray, between hawerchuk and selanne/tkachuk, when thomas steen was hurt (and he had a tough few of years with injuries), the jets basically were housley, numminen, and olausson.

 

[streitz]

speaking of olczyk and troy murray, between hawerchuk and selanne/tkachuk, when thomas steen was hurt (and he had a tough few of years with injuries), the jets basically were housley, numminen, and olausson.

Housley and Olausson were both soft and crap(I liked Olausson more of the 2) so I don't even count them.


Numminen was solid

 

[Johnny Engine]

The following I recall distinctly:

The year before Toronto brought in Nieuwendyk, Roberts and Nolan to provide veteran secondary scoring, the Leafs of 2002-03 were a 3-man band:

Mogilny 33g 79p
Sundin 37 g 72 p

No other Leaf had more than 16 goals!

Belfour had 37 wins and a career-highest 0.922 save % as the 37 year old became a Vezina finalist.

Your numbers are right but your timeline is off. Both of Roberts and Nolan were on that team - Roberts had been there for 2 years already and was injured for most of 02/03, and Nolan was a midseason acquisition.