1996: The Red Wings easily dispatched the Minnesota North Stars in 4 games befkre facing the Colorado avalanche in the second eound. In one of the all time greatest playoff series, both teams went neck in neck, patrick roy stopping the wings's offense as if he was a brick wall. The pivotal moment came when Claude Lemieux performed a nasty hit on Kris Draper along the board, prompting a huge brawl that got many players kicked out and penalised, with patricj roy and chris osgood even fighting each other. The avalanche would win game 7 thansk to a great performance by joe sakic and scott niedermayer. After the game, wayne gretzky, usually always calm and politically correct in hsi statements, let out a rare slip of the tongue after shaking claude lemieux's hand after the game: "I can't believe i shook that guy's freaking hands..."
The avalanche would then eliminate the surprising Dallas Devils, jacques lemaire's men eliminating both the st. Louis blues and the winnipeg jets to reach the western conference finals. Patrick Roy would face his former team the montreal canadiens, who surprised everybody in the eastern conference thanks to a stiffling defense, great performances from owen nolan, pierre turgeon, vincent damphousse and breakout star adam deadmarsh but mostly from goalie John Vanbiesbrouck, who suddenly turned into a brickwall, stopping the rangers, Maple Leafs and the Pittsburgh Penguins's vastly superior offenses and carrying the team on his back. Unfortunately, it would not be a repeat of 1993, as beezer would go cold at the worst possible moment, and the avs would make short work of the habs in 4 games to win their first ever stanley cup.
1996-1997: The Red Wings were on a mission to win their second cup in 3 years, and they were unstoppable. Gretzky dominated in the 97 playoffs, making short work of st. Louis and the hasek, selanee, takchuk, koivu and and jeremy roenick-led winnipeg Jets before facing the avalanche in a rematch of the 1996 second round series. Game 4 would be remembered for the brawl where darren mccarthy avenged his linemate draper by sucker punching claude lemieux and knocking him out, with the red wings dominating game 6 en route to winning the series 4-2 with brendan shanahan's game winner sending them to the finals.
In the east, the rangers made short work of montreal, while the surprsing ottawa senators, who qualified for the playoffs thanks to a steve duchesne overtime slapper in the last game of the season, stuns the washington capitals in 7 games, only to lose to the rangers in 5. This sets up a conference final matchup against peter forberg's philadelphia flyers. The legion of doom, leclair, forsberg and renberg, ran rampant on the league, leclair scoring almost 60 goals and forsberg delivering an art ross-winning campaign of 115 pts. They eliminated a declining pittsburgh side in 5 games before taking part in a grueling 6-game series against eric lindros, mats sundin and alexander mogilny's toronto maple leafs. The leafs's lack of depth, following the departures of doug gilmour and dave andreychuk through cap management, ultimately cost them the series, as philly, having signed veteran free agent dale hawerchuk and sending a package of futures, kevin dineen and terry carkner for Mike Ricci, had a ton of depth at every position, and eliminated the leafs.
The conference finals between the rangers and flyers was an all-time classic, with each and every game being separated by one goal. In the End, Philly would edge it out, winning game 6 4-2 with two goals by forsberg and two goals by rookie defenseman janne niniima.
In the rematch of the 1995 cup finals, the flyers were simply outmatched, however, as the red wings absolutely dominated, lidstrom and chelios containing the legion of doom by themselves and gretzky, fedorov and yzerman running rampant as the wings wins their second cup in 3 years in only 4 games. They would repeat the feat the following year, sweeping a surprising washington capitals side.
However, the effects of the salary cap would come back to bite them in the 1998 offseason. Sergei Fedorov would leave the team after accepting a 6-year, 38 million dollars offer from the San Jose Sharks, teaming up with the likes of Steve Rucchin, ray whitney, Marco Sturm, Miroslav satan and Marian Hossa and a defense of Glen Wesley, sandis osolinsh, magnus ragnarsson, mike rathje, Roman Hamrlik and zdeno chara. Not only that, but wayne gretzky announced that 1998 1999 was to be his final year in professional hockey. Add to that fetisov retiring and doug brown also leaving, and the wings depth was pretty much decreased. Fedorov's absence showed, as the wings would lose in the second round to the winnipeg jets, who would then beat the minnesota north stars in the conference finals and finally beat the toronto maple leafs of lindros, sundin and mogilny in 6 games to win their first ever stanley cup, dominik hasek winning nlboth the conn smythe and the vezina trophy.
Gretzky would finally retire in the off-season. At the wings's season opener agaisnt the edmonton oilers, the numver 99 was retired into the rafters both for edmonton and detroit. With 7 stanley cups, over 900 goals, 2000+ assists amd almost 3,000 points, wayne gretzky is, without question, the greatest hockey player to have ever lived, and there will never be another like him.
UP NEXT: THE 88-99 TO 98-99 TIMESPAN IN BASEBALL.
The avalanche would then eliminate the surprising Dallas Devils, jacques lemaire's men eliminating both the st. Louis blues and the winnipeg jets to reach the western conference finals. Patrick Roy would face his former team the montreal canadiens, who surprised everybody in the eastern conference thanks to a stiffling defense, great performances from owen nolan, pierre turgeon, vincent damphousse and breakout star adam deadmarsh but mostly from goalie John Vanbiesbrouck, who suddenly turned into a brickwall, stopping the rangers, Maple Leafs and the Pittsburgh Penguins's vastly superior offenses and carrying the team on his back. Unfortunately, it would not be a repeat of 1993, as beezer would go cold at the worst possible moment, and the avs would make short work of the habs in 4 games to win their first ever stanley cup.
1996-1997: The Red Wings were on a mission to win their second cup in 3 years, and they were unstoppable. Gretzky dominated in the 97 playoffs, making short work of st. Louis and the hasek, selanee, takchuk, koivu and and jeremy roenick-led winnipeg Jets before facing the avalanche in a rematch of the 1996 second round series. Game 4 would be remembered for the brawl where darren mccarthy avenged his linemate draper by sucker punching claude lemieux and knocking him out, with the red wings dominating game 6 en route to winning the series 4-2 with brendan shanahan's game winner sending them to the finals.
In the east, the rangers made short work of montreal, while the surprsing ottawa senators, who qualified for the playoffs thanks to a steve duchesne overtime slapper in the last game of the season, stuns the washington capitals in 7 games, only to lose to the rangers in 5. This sets up a conference final matchup against peter forberg's philadelphia flyers. The legion of doom, leclair, forsberg and renberg, ran rampant on the league, leclair scoring almost 60 goals and forsberg delivering an art ross-winning campaign of 115 pts. They eliminated a declining pittsburgh side in 5 games before taking part in a grueling 6-game series against eric lindros, mats sundin and alexander mogilny's toronto maple leafs. The leafs's lack of depth, following the departures of doug gilmour and dave andreychuk through cap management, ultimately cost them the series, as philly, having signed veteran free agent dale hawerchuk and sending a package of futures, kevin dineen and terry carkner for Mike Ricci, had a ton of depth at every position, and eliminated the leafs.
The conference finals between the rangers and flyers was an all-time classic, with each and every game being separated by one goal. In the End, Philly would edge it out, winning game 6 4-2 with two goals by forsberg and two goals by rookie defenseman janne niniima.
In the rematch of the 1995 cup finals, the flyers were simply outmatched, however, as the red wings absolutely dominated, lidstrom and chelios containing the legion of doom by themselves and gretzky, fedorov and yzerman running rampant as the wings wins their second cup in 3 years in only 4 games. They would repeat the feat the following year, sweeping a surprising washington capitals side.
However, the effects of the salary cap would come back to bite them in the 1998 offseason. Sergei Fedorov would leave the team after accepting a 6-year, 38 million dollars offer from the San Jose Sharks, teaming up with the likes of Steve Rucchin, ray whitney, Marco Sturm, Miroslav satan and Marian Hossa and a defense of Glen Wesley, sandis osolinsh, magnus ragnarsson, mike rathje, Roman Hamrlik and zdeno chara. Not only that, but wayne gretzky announced that 1998 1999 was to be his final year in professional hockey. Add to that fetisov retiring and doug brown also leaving, and the wings depth was pretty much decreased. Fedorov's absence showed, as the wings would lose in the second round to the winnipeg jets, who would then beat the minnesota north stars in the conference finals and finally beat the toronto maple leafs of lindros, sundin and mogilny in 6 games to win their first ever stanley cup, dominik hasek winning nlboth the conn smythe and the vezina trophy.
Gretzky would finally retire in the off-season. At the wings's season opener agaisnt the edmonton oilers, the numver 99 was retired into the rafters both for edmonton and detroit. With 7 stanley cups, over 900 goals, 2000+ assists amd almost 3,000 points, wayne gretzky is, without question, the greatest hockey player to have ever lived, and there will never be another like him.
UP NEXT: THE 88-99 TO 98-99 TIMESPAN IN BASEBALL.
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