Which Final Loser Should Have Won the Cup the Following Year?

[HanSolo]

I'm going to take a daring guess and say the 2008 Penguins.

We need more illuminated minds like yours.

 

[Avs2022]

Habs in 2022

Well, Lekhy did win the Cup the next year. Also scoring an OT goal both years to send his team to the finals

 

[FissionFire]

The 2008 Wings did win the cup.

Typo. Obviously meant 2009

 

[Stewie Griffin]

2016 Sharks looking at who their opponent would've been the next year...

 

[Moridin]

2024 Leafs should have won it in 2025, but running into a red hot Bobrovsky in the 2025 division finals after Matthews had his magical 82 in 82 season was too much.

 

[Section 104]

1973 New York Rangers . After losing in the Finals to the Bruins in 1972, with the formation of the WHA the Rangers kept all their players while other teams lost key ones (Bruins Gerry Cheevers, Chicago Bobby Hull, Montréal J C Tremblay). They beat the Bruins in 5 and then beat Chicago, who had less points, in the first game.The Rangers had swept Chicago the year before and in 1971 lost in 7, although New Yorkers tend to remember Pete Stemkowski’s sudden victory goal in triple overtime in game 6. But Bobby Hull took care of business in game 7. Chicago won the next two by a goal in each game and then finished the series in 5, Rangers Dennis, the third best Hull, leading with 5 goals scored. Rangers after scoring 8 goals the first 2 games, scored 3 the last 3 games.

 

[DaveG]

Could say the same thing about Tampa, setup to be a wagon of a team again.

I was still fairly young in 2005, maybe I'm misremembering but ive heard all kinds of teams that could've had legit claims to the throne that year... Tampa, Calgary, Ottawa, Toronto, Carolina, Colorado, Buffalo...

even as a Canes fan I wouldn't say the Canes if it was still under pre-lockout rules. They had a solid core with Staal, Williams, Cole, Brindy, Hedican, A Ward, and Wesley, and picked up 3 savvy acquisitions pre-lockout in Cullen, Gerber, and Frank Kaberle. But the guys they picked up when Detroit and Tampa had to cut salary to get cap compliant are what put them into contender status: Whitney and Stillman. Probably still a playoff team, but not a contender.