When the NHL Draft Lottery (Phase 1) produced a placeholder at the top of the draw, the handwringing began immediately: What if, in this year from outer space, an already-awesome team has a hiccup in the qualifying round, enters Phase 2 of the lottery and winds up with the No. 1 pick?
Of course, should a high-seeded squad like the Pittsburgh Penguins or Edmonton Oilers get bounced in a qualifier, it will be because a team that under normal circumstances would have been outside the playoff picture is suddenly in the main draw. That could cue another form of concern: What if an unworthy outfit actually advances to the Stanley Cup Final?
Considering the three-round grind it takes to make a Final, you could argue any club that gets there — regardless of its regular season record — has proven itself as a quality team. That said, there have been some pretty suspect squads get to the showcase series.
With that in mind, here’s a look at the worst teams to get within four (or fewer) wins of the Stanley Cup.
Senior Writer Ryan Dixon and NHL Editor Rory Boylen always give it 110%, but never rely on clichés when it comes to podcasting. Instead, they use a mix of facts, fun and a varied group of hockey voices to cover Canada’s most beloved game.
1991 Minnesota North Stars
Mario Lemieux’s coming out party — “What a goal! What a move! Ohhh Baby!” — came at the expense of a North Stars team that really should get more play for the astonishing upsets it pulled off.
After finishing fourth in a Norris Division that had two awesome teams (Chicago and St. Louis) and three average-to-awful ones (Detroit, Minnesota and Toronto), the 27-39-14 North Stars (.425 points percentage) went on an absurd run. The fact they beat a Blackhawks team that finished 38 points ahead of them is pretty well known in hockey lore as one of the biggest first-round whackings in history. You know what they did in Round 2? Beat a Blues team that finished 37 points ahead of them in the same number of games — six — it took to dust Chicago.
Minny only needed five games to win the conference final, knocking off an Edmonton team that had won the Stanley Cup 12 months prior. And, by the way, they held a 2-1 series lead on Mario and Co., before the Penguins ripped off three straight wins. Things finally caught up to them in the end, as Pittsburgh clinched the Cup with an 8-0 victory in Game 6.
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1982 Vancouver Canucks
We’re so conditioned to talking about the parity in today’s game that it’s easy to forget what a monstrous gulf once existed between the NHL’s good and bad teams. Expansion through the late 1960s and ’70s coupled with the World Hockey Association merger — the NHL absorbed four new teams for the 1979-80 season — produced some wild record discrepancies in a 21-team circuit.
Despite finishing with a 30-33-17 mark, the Canucks actually placed second in the Smythe Division behind the second-best team in the league, the Edmonton Oilers. And when that 111-point Oilers squad lost to a 63-point Los Angeles Kings club in the first round, the road to the Final was wide open in a Campbell Conference where just two of 11 squads posted a winning record.
Vancouver only lost two games en route to the Final and never faced a .500-or-better club on the path. Unfortunately, the dynastic New York Islanders — who emerged from a conference where seven of 10 teams finished above .500 — were waiting in the Final and swept coach Roger Neilson and his charges.
By the way, the 1994 Canucks that came painfully close to beating Mark Messier and the Rangers could also be on this list. That outfit was 41-40-3 (84 games!) before catching fire in the post-season.
1999 Buffalo Sabres
This plucky team will be remembered forever because it lost the Final on Brett Hull’s toe-in-the-crease tally that won Game 6 in overtime. But the “No Goal” Sabres were really the no goals Sabres. Yes, Buffalo finished ninth overall in the NHL in the 1998-99 season, but it ranked 17th in goals-per-game with 2.52 and 21st in power-play efficiency at 13.5 per cent (though that mark jumped to 20 per cent in the playoffs).
The Sabres had just one player top 60 points in the regular season and that was 40-goal man Miroslav Satan. In the playoffs, their leading scorers were — I kid you not — defencemen Jason Woolley and Alexei Zhitnik, who had identical 4-11-15 lines in 21 contests.
All of this, of course, is the preamble to saying, when you had late-90s Dominik Hasek in goal, anything was possible. ‘The Dominator’ posted a .939 save percentage in the 1999 playoffs, lifting Buffalo to the Final one year after getting the squad to the East Final.
2010 Philadelphia Flyers
This is a bit of a stretch, but we had to get a team from this century on here. Philly finished 41-35-6 in a season that saw Peter Laviolette replace John Stevens behind the bench. The seventh-seeded Flyers actually had home-ice advantage in the Eastern Conference Final because the only team worse than it — No. 8 seed Montreal — rode Jaroslav Halak’s goaltending to upset wins over the Capitals and Penguins.
This Flyers team fell in an 0-3 series hole to the Bruins in Round 2, then stormed back to rip off four straight wins. Philly even got behind 3-0 in Game 7 in Boston and managed to escape with a win.
In a Final versus the Blackhawks where neither team knew what it would get from its goalies — Philly had Michael Leighton and Brian Boucher, Chicago rolled the dice with Antti Niemi — the Hawks got a few more saves and won the series on Patrick Kane’s “I swear it’s in!” Game 6 overtime winner.
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Post-expansion St. Louis Blues
Go ahead and attach your asterisks. For the first three seasons following the great expansion of 1967, the NHL slotted the Original Six in one division and the six new guys in another. As a result, a very overmatched team was going to play in the Stanley Cup Final for each of those three years, and that club was the Blues.
St. Louis failed to win a game in that trio of trips to the Final, getting swept by the Canadiens in 1968 and ’69, before Bobby Orr flew through the air in 1970. The Blues relied on an all-time goalie battery to keep things close and while you tend to think of Glenn Hall backstopping this group in his twilight years, Jacques Plante also did some remarkable work in the Blues crease. He posted a .950 save percentage in 10 playoffs games at age 40 in ’69, then came back the next year at 41 and put up a .936 mark in six outings.
TORONTO – Reigning PWHL MVP and scoring champ Natalie Spooner will miss the start of the regular season for the Toronto Sceptres, general manager Gina Kingsbury announced Tuesday on the first day of training camp.
The 33-year-old Spooner had knee surgery on her left anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) after she was checked into the boards by Minnesota’s Grace Zumwinkle in Game 3 of their best-of-five semifinal series on May 13.
She had a goal and an assist in three playoff games but did not finish the series. Toronto was up 2-1 in the semifinal at that time and eventually fell 3-2 in the series.
Spooner led the PWHL with 27 points in 24 games. Her 20 goals, including five game-winners, were nine more than the closest skater.
Kingsbury said there is no timeline, as the team wants the Toronto native at 100 per cent, but added that “she is doing really well” in her recovery.
The Sceptres open the PWHL season on Nov. 30 when they host the Boston Fleet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — A top official of the Pakistan Cricket Board declined Friday to confirm media reports that India has decided against playing any games in host Pakistan during next year’s Champions Trophy.
“My view is if there’s any problems, they (India) should tell us in writing,” PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi told reporters in Lahore. “I’ll share that with the media as well as with the government as soon as I get such a letter.”
Indian media reported Friday that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has communicated its concerns to all the Champions Trophy stakeholders, including the PCB, over the Feb. 19-March 9 tournament and would not play in arch-rival Pakistan.
The Times of India said that “Dubai is a strong candidate to host the fixtures involving the Men in Blue” for the 50-over tournament.
Such a solution would see Pakistan having to travel to a neutral venue to play India in a group match, with another potential meeting later in the tournament if both teams advanced from their group. The final is scheduled for March 9 in Pakistan with the specific venue not yet decided.
“Our stance is clear,” Naqvi said. “They need to give us in writing any objections they may have. Until now, no discussion of the hybrid model has happened, nor are we prepared to accept one.”
Political tensions have stopped bilateral cricket between the two nations since 2008 and they have competed in only multi-nation tournaments, including ICC World Cups.
“Cricket should be free of politics,” Naqvi said. “Any sport should not be entangled with politics. Our preparations for the Champions Trophy will continue unabated, and this will be a successful event.”
The PCB has already spent millions of dollars on the upgrade of stadiums in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi which are due to host 15 Champions Trophy games. Naqvi hoped all the three stadiums will be ready over the next two months.
“Almost every country wants the Champions Trophy to be played here (in Pakistan),” Naqvi said. “I don’t think anyone should make this a political matter, and I don’t expect they will. I expect the tournament will be held at the home of the official hosts.”
Eight countries – Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, England, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Afghanistan – are due to compete in the tournament, the schedule of which is yet to be announced by the International Cricket Council.
“Normally the ICC announces the schedule of any major tournament 100 days before the event, and I hope they will announce it very soon,” Naqvi said.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Ottawa‘s Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand are through to the doubles final at the WTA Finals after a 7-6 (7), 6-1 victory over Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States and Australia’s Ellen Perez in semifinal action Friday.
Dabrowski and Routliffe won a hard-fought first set against serve when Routliffe’s quick reaction at the net to defend a Perez shot gave the duo set point, causing Perez to throw down her racket in frustration.
The second seeds then cruised through the second set, winning match point on serve when Melichar-Martinez couldn’t handle Routliffe’s shot.
The showdown was a rematch of last year’s semifinal, which Melichar-Martinez and Perez won in a super tiebreak.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will face the winner of a match between Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend, and Hao-Ching Chan and Veronika Kudermetova in the final on Saturday.
Dabrowski is aiming to become the first Canadian to win a WTA Finals title.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
