Were the Flyers favored to win the 2010 Stanley Cup Final?

[MadLuke]

a star player just going from team to team and being a huge part of them making their respective Final?

Hossa, pens-wings-Hawks in a short window going from memory (looking it was 3 year in a row).

None of the run felt like as big has Pronger putting the Oilers in the finals to start a similar narrative too, the talk was a bit more about him always loosing the cup than achieving to always make the final. He was a really big piece of those pens, but the wings and hawks were obviously loaded.

Paul Coffey a bit more spread out, Finals with the oilers in 87, Pens in 1991, Det in 95 and Flyers in 1997
Less of a superstar, but maybe in the playoff he was close to that, Claude Lemieux always seem to be caught in a final when he arrived on a new team.

86-89 Montreal
95: Devils
96: Colorado
00: Devils first year back

 

[GKJ]

Through another lens...does anyone have an example handy from back in the day (likely pre-WWII) of a star player just going from team to team and being a huge part of them making their respective Final?

Pronger: '06 Edm (SCF), '07 Ana (Cup), '10 Phi (SCF)...he was with a decent Blues team in the early 2000's...imagine if the Blues went on a run in '03 or '04...'04 they lost to SJ, they would have gotten Detroit - which #6 Calgary beat in 6.

In '03, they lost in 7 to Vancouver in round one. That would have led them to expansion Minnesota. Which would have led them to another sandbagging team in Anaheim. There was definitely an avenue there, but...ya know, Chris Osgood is fairly heavy baggage to have to carry around...

2001 the Blues went to the conference finals

 

[WarriorofTime]

Through another lens...does anyone have an example handy from back in the day (likely pre-WWII) of a star player just going from team to team and being a huge part of them making their respective Final?

Hossa played in 3 Finals with three different teams.

1st in playoff ice time amongst forwards on the 08 Penguins
4th in playoff ice time amongst forwards on the 09 Red Wings
4th in playoff ice time amongst forwards on the 10 Hawks

I think there were a lot of bad narratives involved with Hossa being on the losing side of the 08 and 09 Finals as though that somehow made him a losing player. It is rare for teams to get to back to back finals. I think the 08 Pens probably got to the Finals a year earlier than they would have been ready if no Hossa and the 09 Wings probably got to one more Finals than they would have been able to sustain if no Hossa. Also needed immediate shoulder surgery following 09 postseason and was out at the beginning of the 09-10 season so wasn't playing 100%.

 

[overpass]

Through another lens...does anyone have an example handy from back in the day (likely pre-WWII) of a star player just going from team to team and being a huge part of them making their respective Final?

Pronger: '06 Edm (SCF), '07 Ana (Cup), '10 Phi (SCF)...he was with a decent Blues team in the early 2000's...imagine if the Blues went on a run in '03 or '04...'04 they lost to SJ, they would have gotten Detroit - which #6 Calgary beat in 6.

In '03, they lost in 7 to Vancouver in round one. That would have led them to expansion Minnesota. Which would have led them to another sandbagging team in Anaheim. There was definitely an avenue there, but...ya know, Chris Osgood is fairly heavy baggage to have to carry around...

Sprague Cleghorn led several teams to success in his day.

In his 20s he played for a Montreal Wanderers squad that was usually out of the running. The one year they made the finals was in 1914-15, when the Wanderers went 14-6 and lost to the Senators. Art Ross organized the Senators "kitty-bar-the-door" defensive strategy which helped them shut down the Wanderers' powerful offence.

In 1918-19 he moved to the Ottawa Senators. And in his second season there, 1919-20, the Senators won the league and the Cup. To be fair, they probably could have won it without Cleghorn, as that team was stacked. George Boucher was a super sub for them and was sometimes their best player. They were maybe the best team in the pre-consolidation era, or even pre-WWII. The defensive pairing of Cleghorn and Eddie Gerard was long remembered as maybe the best blueline duo ever.

After a short stint in Toronto (forced by the league to spread the talent around), he moved on to Montreal and succeeded Newsy Lalonde as team captain. In his third season in Montreal, 1923-24, he finished one point behind Frank Nighbor in the voting for the first Hart trophy, and Montreal won the NHA and the Stanley Cup.

Cleghorn moved on to Boston in 1925-26, became their captain, and led the club out of the basement to finish over 0.500. And a year later, Boston made the Cup final against the Ottawa Senators and lost, with the 36 year old Cleghorn still playing a key role on the blueline.