Updated: Ranking the Last 10 Stanley Cup Champions

Image Courtesy of suntimes.com

(As has been done for all the “ranking the last 10 champions” lists we’ve made, I’ve updated the rankings in the NHL list to reflect the last 10 teams to win the Stanley Cup. I made a few changes
elsewhere but, for the most part, this is the same column that ran last summer. So feel free to skip
down to the new section if any of this sounds familiar.)

 

A couple weeks ago Mike ranked the past ten NBA Champions. We liked the idea so much, we decided to do it for the other three major sports. First I’ll be covering the past ten Stanley Cup champions. This takes us back to 2002 because of the lockout in 2004-05. You remember...that totally necessary lockout where all the players had their demands met and the game was changed so that it would never be defensively dominated or low scoring ever again. Oh what's that? None of the players demands were met and hockey is back to being as much of a low scoring, shot blocking game as it's ever been? Ah I see.

 

I made quite the observation in researching these teams. Despite all the talk of the playoffs being random and the regular season not mattering; the teams that win generally deserve to win. You don't really see too many surprise teams, teams that got hot at the right time, or teams that weren't a championship caliber. Overall, this was the under-rated decade of champions and classic finals in general.

 

So there were a few factors I took into account when making my list and they're not nearly as complicated as the ones Mike used for his NBA list. Instead I judged teams based on their regular season performance, their postseason performance, who they beat, and the manner in which they beat them. So without further ado, here's my list:

 

10. 2006 Carolina Hurricanes: If there's ever a championship you don't want to win, it's the one right after a lockout. Basketball and baseball have shown that lockouts tend to provide strange and forgettable champions. This year's Heat are an exception for a few reasons (LeBron, the over-pervasive media, LeBron, the decision, LeBron, the shortness of the lockout, and of course LeBron). But in general, post lockout championships are like winning a pick-up basketball game at a family party after there's a huge fight/argument between other members of the family earlier in the party. No one cares that you won; they're just going to remember the fight. Such is the trouble with teams that win after lockouts. The Canes benefitted from the major changeover that occurred over the course of the lockout year. They benefitted from some of the weakest competition any Cup winner has ever faced. It took them the full seven games to put away the upstart, less talented Sabres who had five injured regulars including four of the top six defensemen. In the finals it again took them seven to do away with the untalented 8th seeded Oilers who only got that far on the back of goaltender Dwayne Roloson. The same Dwayne Roloson who was knocked out of the series in game one. Yeah ...overall they had a 16-9 playoff record (tied for worst of the list) while facing some of the worst competition.

 

9. 2011 Boston Bruins: While the Bruin had the (weirdly) dominant seven game win over President's Trophy winning Vancouver; the rest of the run is not as convincing. For example they took all seven games to beat the 8th seeded Canadians and the random Lightning team. They also didn't score a power play goal for the entirety of the first two rounds of the playoffs and finished only third in the conference with 46 wins in the regular season. However they did sweep the Flyers (albeit the Flyers who escaped the less than intimidating Sabres by the slightest of margins) and the finals was possibly the most dominant seven game series in world history. The final score of the series was 23-8 Boston! 23 to 8!!! The best regular season team was held to 8 goals! After the Canucks took a 2-0 series lead; Boston outscored them 21-4! Vancouver was up 3-2 after five games and were outscored 9-2 in games six and seven. Despite this utter dominance, the entire spectrum must be viewed. Compared to the other teams on this list Boston did not have a very impressive regular season or postseason (16-9) and they had a tendency to rely too much on Tim Thomas and his brilliance and Nathan Horton and his propensity to score game winning goals in game 7's. We were given a clear picture of what the 2011 Bruins were so close to being in 2012.

 

8.2009 Pittsburgh Penguins: The importance of Sidney Crosby and the Penguins finally slaying Detroit and taking their throne as the supposed new kings of the league overshadowed the fact that Pittsburgh didn't have a very good year. They're one of two teams in the past ten years to win the Cup with less than 100 points. In fact they were in 10th place in the East halfway through the year before firing Michael Therrian and hiring Dan Bylsma. This sparked an 18-3-3 run to 4th in the East where the Pens ended up in time for the playoffs to start. The Pens did accomplish the mighty feat of defeating the league's two best teams in Washington and Detroit but took all seven games to do so. They handled the Flyers easily in the first round and swept Carolina in the conference finals. Overall it was impressive season but they just didn't dominate like others ahead of them did.

 

7. 2012 Los Angeles Kings: This was by far the hardest team to place on the list. You see, they had by far the worst regular season of anyone on the list. But they also had the most dominating postseason run. I felt that their playoff dominance was enough to put them over the previous three but after that they're hampered too much by their less than brilliant regular season. A regular season that saw them score less than 200 goals (192), finish 8th in the West, and barely sneak into the playoffs in the last week of the regular season. But they did their best to make everyone forget that by taking out the two time defending President's Trophy winners; the Vancouver Canucks in only five games. They then swept the second seeded St. Louis Blues to start the playoffs 8-1. In the conference finals they again took a 3-0 series lead to run their record to 11-1. After the core of Drew Doughty, Jeff Carter, Mike Richards, Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown, and Dustin Penner began to take shape it became clear that this was a great team that underachieved a bit in the regular season. They defeated Phoenix and were slated to play New Jersey in the Stanley Cup. Incredibly, they started a fourth straight series with a 3-0 lead and improved their playoff record to 15-2. After struggling a bit, they closed out the Devils in 6 games with a 6-1 blowout in the clincher. They finished with a 16-4 playoff record by taking out the one, two, and three seed in the West. This playoff domination was good enough to make a totally average regualar season the 7th best championship team of the decade.

 

6. 2004 Tampa Bay Lightning: The forgotten champions. Their impressive playoff run was forgotten after possibly the most destructive lockout in North American sports history directly followed it. The Lightning scored the third most goals in the league in route to a 106 point finish. They tore through the Islanders and Montreal in the first two rounds of the playoffs in only nine games. Tampa then took all seven to put away the powerful Flyers and again went the distance to douse the oober hot Flames(Horrible pun intended). Why this team isn't remembered or talked about at all is beyond me. They had quite the playoff run(16-7), dominated at times(9-1 stretch to start the playoffs), a great regular season(106 points), the league's leading scorer(Martin St. Louis, albeit at a paltry 94 points), and a plethora of talent (Lecavalier, Richards, Boyle). Come on, people. Let’s give this team some more respect. It’s not like they’re going to get it from their hometown.

 

5. 2003 New Jersey Devils: This edition of the Devils allowed the least goals in the NHL (obviously) but also were in the top half of the league in scoring(14th). Not too shabby for the "trap and never fore check" Devils. They had more than a solid regular season with 108 points. They had a rather unimpressive 16-8 post-season record until you consider who they faced. Starting with the second round they defeated the future champion Lightning in five, President's Trophy winner Ottawa in seven, and the previously 12-2 Anaheim Mighty Ducks and Mr. Brick Wall himself J.S Giguere. Although they may not look special at first glance, these Devils defeated one of the toughest string of foes in recent playoff memory.

 

4. 2010 Chicago Blackhawks: Suprisingly the Hawks were one of the most dominant, complete championship teams of the decade. They had a great regular season record and a very good post-season one as well. Chicago had everything you could ask from a team. They had young stars like Duncan Keith, Kris Versteeg Pat Kane, and Conn Smythe winner John Toews. They had reliable veterans such as Marian Hossa, Pat Sharp, and John Madden. They had fantastic role players Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd, and Brent Seabrook. They started rookie Annti Niemi in the playoffs and most importantly they had overpaid, underperforming veterans in Brian Campbell and Cristobal Huet (An absolute must). Yes this was quite the complete team and they showed it in tearing through both the regular season (112 points) and the post-season (16-6 record) including a sweep of San Jose in the conference finals. They were top five in both goals for (271) and goals against (209). The only thing holding Chicago out of a top three spot is the competition they faced. 2010 was a rather weak post-season as Chicago had to go through only perennial disappointments Vancouver and San Jose before taking on the seventh seeded Flyers in the Stanley Cup. Overall this was almost as good as a championship run gets. Unfortunately the salary cap took its toll the past two seasons and Chicago learned the hard way to that not everyone can be signed to a major deal.

 

3. 2013 Chicago Blackhawks: This is a conundrum if I’ve ever seen one. The Blackhawks clearly had the most impressive regular season of anyone in the last 10 years. They finished 36-7-5, earned a point in each of the first 24 games, scored the second-most goals, allowed the second-least and finished second in close-game fenwick according to behindthenet.ca. Spread those totals over a full season and you get roughly 62 wins, which would tie an NHL record. But it wasn’t a full season. They didn’t have a chance to regress to the mean. The process was definitely in effect; after a 21-0-3 start, they finished 15-7-2.

So perhaps this regular season isn’t as impressive as it seems at first glance. They certainly didn’t seem unstoppable in the postseason. They did matchup against a pretty tough slate in the final three rounds. Detroit had just defeated the second-seeded Ducks and was a tougher team than their seventh-place finish would indicate. Los Angeles was the best possession team in hockey while Boston was fourth and playing at the highest level they had all year. Considering those factors and Captain Jon Toews’ incredibly bad shooting luck, 16-7 is a pretty impressive playoff record. This was a very good team; they just weren’t the world-beaters their regular season winning percentage made them out to be.

 

2. 2007 Anaheim Ducks: Somehow GM Brian Burke was able to put together an all-time great team in ANAHEIM.....and no one remembers. People seem to forget just how good this team was. Perhaps people need to be reminded that Hall of Famers Scott Niedermayer AND Chris Pronger were paired together. Perhaps mentioning the all-star caliber Francois Beauchemin and Sean O'Donnell were the second pairing will jog people's memory. Maybe it should be considered that the top prize of last offseason, Ilya Bryzgalov, was the BACK-UP goalie as former Conn Smythe winner Jean Sebastien Giguere led the way. But that doesn't even include the offense and West leading scorer Teemu Selanne, the formerly great Andy McDonald, and the incredibly young core of Dustin Penner, Ryan Getzlaf, and Corey Perry. The Ducks were sixth in goals for and 7th in goals against as they finished with 110 points. They made easy work of a tough Minnesota team in the first round of the playoffs and did the same in five games to a super-talented Vancouver team in the second. They then physically dominated the Mighty Red Wings and defeated them in six games in the conference finals. The Ducks finished off their historic run by embarrassing the previously unstoppable Ottawa Senators in five games to finish 16-5 in the post-season.

1. 2008 Detroit Red Wings: The Wings were one of the most convincing champions in quite a while. They are the only team to win both the Stanley Cup and the President's trophy in the same season since......they did it in 2002 (we'll get to that very soon). They dominated the regular season with 54 wins and 115 points as they finished 3rd in goals scored (257) and 1st in goals allowed (184). Goalies Dominic Hasek and Chris Osgood split time dominating in net while future Hall of Famer Nick Lidstrom anchored the defense, and Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg were unstoppable on offense. After falling down 2-1 against Nashville in the first round, Detroit embarked on one of the most dominating runs in playoff history. They won the next three to finish off the Predators, swept Colorado (winning 9-0 in the closeout game), and started 3-0 on Dallas in the conference finals. After finished off the Stars, they faced very little adversity in closing out the young and talented Penguins. 

Stay hungry, my friends.