Which franchise has "failed" the most: Toronto, St.Louis, Buffalo, or Vancouver?

[The Panther]

I would say the Canucks are 2nd, lots of income and a great fan base, but they have had 2 cup runs, and years of inept management.

Actually, 3, even if the first (1982) was sort of a fluke.

 

[Pominville Knows]

0-5 in a 30 year stretch from 1980-2010.

Also 5-5 in Conference Finals over that same stretch.

Can't beat Leafs 0-5 though in Conference Finals 78-02.

Considering the Flyers came to lose in the finals after all those additional appearances in the conference finals, i believe they got the Leafs beat in this metric.

 

[LightningStorm]

I agree with the Leafs being the biggest failure due to the built in advantages they have playing in the hockey capital of the world. Not even making the finals in over 50 years is shocking, and the stat The Panther mentioned about them not having a season over .600 from 1967-1999 is mind blowing, even with most of that time being the Ballard years.

Vancouver and St. Louis are the two with the biggest missed opportunities though. The Blues had some real talented teams in the 90's that unfortunately coincided with better teams in Detroit, Colorado, and Dallas. Similar story starting in 2012 with them being in the Blackhawks and Kings shadows in the years that immediately followed.

There's no heartbreak in this time bigger than the Canucks though. They have entered a game one win away from the cup THREE TIMES. Once in 1994, twice in 2011, and they are 0-3 in those games. To put this in context, no other cupless team has been a win away even once. Even looking at MLB and the NBA (excluding the NFL with the Super Bowl being one game), no NBA team is in this position, and only two MLB teams are. The Milwaukee Brewers and Texas Rangers both blew 3-2 World Series leads in the 1982 and 2011, respectively. Oddly enough, both were to the Cardinals. So of all championship lacking franchises in the NHL, MLB, and NBA, the Canucks hold the record for most games with an opportunity to win a title at 3, and only two other franchises have even been at that situation at all, with the Brewers and Rangers each twice being there. I think this gets overlooked about the Canucks in discussions like this.

 

[shazariahl]

I wasn't sure at first, but you guys have convinced me with the Toronto talk. The lack of major awards on the team is pretty staggering too. Wings95 isn't wrong about the Gretzky/Lemieux/Jagr years (and we could almost add Hasek to that list as well), but it's still pretty horrible. Not one major award during that span... no cup finals... every advantage one can think of. As others have mentioned, Blues and Sabres especially (and Van to a lesser extent) have had financial difficulties and such, which can often strip a promising team of its potential. The Leafs don't really have any excuses.

I do have to say though, I now understand why Leafs fans still whine about 93. It was literally their only shot in 50 years. It makes me a little more sympathetic to their cause.

 

[angrymnky]

I was thinking maybe not Vancouver since they never had any number 1 draft players and the other teams did. But I checked and Vancouver did have 15 picks in the top 5 over those years. Buffalo had 10, Toronto 9 and St Louis 6. So as many high draft pick chances as Toronto and St Louis.

So a team of Dale Tallon, Jocelyn Guevremont, Don Lever, Dennis Vervegaert, Jere Gillis, Bill Derlago, Rick Vaive, Jim Sandlak, Trevor Linden, Petr Nedved, Bryan Allen, Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, Olli Juolevi and Elias Pettersson versus Wendel Clark, Auston Matthews, Gary Nylund, Scott Thornton, Lanny MacDonald, Al Iafrate, Mitch Marner, Luke Schenn, Morgan Reilly, Gene Carr, John Davidson, Wayne Babych, Perry Turnbull, Erik Johnson and Alex Pietrangelo. Buffalo has some good ones in their list as well Turgeon, Barrasso, Perrault, Vanek, Eichel.

 

[Scott Stevens]

Take Toronto out of the running.

The other three are good candidates.

Over the last 4 months has it been driven hard enough into your brain how bad this post was? Lmao

 

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Probably Maple Leafs. They've been here since the beginning and haven't made the finals since expansion.

 

[rfournier103]

I’m going to say Toronto.

Maple Leafs fans here have given me quite an education on just how awful their ownership has been over the decades. Everyone here knows what I think of Bruins ownership and management, but at least they’ve kept the Bruins relavent, competitive, and scandal-free.

Leafs ownership has failed their fans both on and off the ice for decades. No need to go into all the details here, but they’ve been pretty evil in a lot of ways.

While I certainly don’t want them to win at the expense of the Bruins, if and when the Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup again, I’ll be happy for their fans.

 

[Kyle McMahon]

Playoff wins per season since 1967:

Vegas 13.00
Montreal 5.15
Boston 4.51
Philadelphia 4.33
San Jose 4.19
Edmonton 4.18
Pittsburgh 4.04
Chicago 3.96
Colorado 3.87
Detroit 3.80
Anaheim 3.71
NY Rangers 3.67
St Louis 3.22
Dallas 3.20
New Jersey 3.19
NY Islanders 3.13
Washington 3.07
Tampa Bay 2.92
Ottawa 2.88
Buffalo 2.65
Nashville 2.58
Toronto 2.22
Los Angeles 2.18
Calgary 2.15
Vancouver 2.10
Minnesota 1.63
Carolina 1.55
Arizona 1.08
Florida 0.75
Columbus 0.56
Winnipeg 0.50

I believe this is wrong. Columbus has only won 5 playoff games in their 17-season franchise history.

 

[seventieslord]

I believe this is wrong. Columbus has only won 5 playoff games in their 17-season franchise history.

You're right.

 

[njdevils1982]

You're right.

it truly needs to be seen in text….. .29

failure personified

 

[feffan]

My spontanues tought (will read the thread afterwards as to not get coloured by others toughts...) is
1. Toronto - that massive fan base and money stach should have made them a better team, at least before the cap. Much like the Rangers, who also should have done better at least before the cap. No excuses to be made. They both should have accomplished just about what Chicago did after Bill died.
2. Vancouver - they have been so close, but made some dumb decisions when they managed to assemble on of the greatest cap-teams. That they didn´t beat the Bruins was beacause they had one of the most beat up D-cores I´ve seen, but they should have been able to solve the goalie situation better and add/rearrange to get at least one more great shot at the Cup.
3. St. Louis - had some great teams built, aspecially late 90´s. And underperformed. But also went up against some of the best teams the last 30 years. Never myself had them as favourites any other year.
4. Buffalo - to me actually an overachiver, who with some luck would have a Hasek led Cup. Add that there team after the 05 lockout had potential and just as the Senators could have had a Cup if better luck with injuries.

Would add Flyers to the list. Should have been able to build a greater contender during the Giroux era. And even if the Lindros situation with the injuries was a bit unlucky, it was also badly handeled. Flyers sneak in after Toronto and Rangers for mer on such a list at first tought.

 

[Chardo]

The team in the world's biggest hockey market, biggest fan base in the league, with unlimited resources and no budget constraints, not only fails to win for 50+ years, but fails to even sniff the finals.

There's no contest here.

 

[frisco]

The Sabres are in by far their worst stretch ever. They've missed the playoffs 8th straight years including this year. They only missed six times in their first 31 seasons and that included their first two years as an expansion squad. That being said, the 11 year stretch from 74-75 on was almost more painful. They average 100 points a year for those 11 years but only made one Final (75) and two Semi-Finals (75, 80).

The Canucks were just patently mediocre as a franchise to start off. They didn't hit 90 points until the franchise's 22nd year.

This doesn't really answer the OP question though. I'd have to say Toronto.

My Best-Carey

 

[The Panther]

(Thread-bump)

St.Louis is officially removed from the list of contenders! Congrats!

It's now down to Toronto, Buffalo, and Vancouver....

 

[EpochLink]

(Thread-bump)

St.Louis is officially removed from the list of contenders! Congrats!

It's now down to Toronto, Buffalo, and Vancouver....

Canucks won't be contenders for awhile..the jury is still out on this core.

 

[sr edler]

The team in the world's biggest hockey market, biggest fan base in the league, with unlimited resources and no budget constraints, not only fails to win for 50+ years, but fails to even sniff the finals.

There's no contest here.

Toronto sniffed the finals in 93.

 

[The Panther]

Toronto sniffed the finals in 93.

Sniffed Gretzky's jock-strap.

Did y'all see that horrendous and disgusting purple light-show show firing up on both sides of Ryan O'Reilly as he accepted the Stanley Cup? Good grief.

Gary, retire. Please.

 

[Iron Mike Sharpe]

Leafs are the undisputed front-runners now