That's weird, i thought everybody's reaction would be either "BRASS BONANZAAA!!" or "Wait, what happens to denis savard, then?".
99 Red Winged Balloons: A hockey TL
- Thread starter kinnikuniverse
- Start date
1990-1991 NHL Season
1990-1991 Regular Season
The detroit red wings seems to have finally fouund hope. Strengthened massively by the acquistions of chris chelios and paul ysebaert as well as the russians sergei fedorov and Vladimir Konstantinov, wayne gretzky, steve Yzerman and Co. Had a really good regular season, shooting up to 3rd in the norris division standings, reaching the 90 points barrier for the first time since wayne gretzky arrived. Chelios and konstantinov gave a big dose of quality to the defense, coach bryan murray building a tight unit at the back, with homegrown talents steve chiasson and Yves Racine benefitting greatly from playing with their new teammates, Racine even racking up 47 assists.
Fedorov would become not only the first rookie to score 50 goals since calgary's joe nieuwendyk, but also the first rookie to score 100 Pts since Winnipeg's Dale Hawerchuk! Though sceptics believed that gretzky was helping him pad his stats...
It wasn't just the first line that was on fire, though. Adam graves would have his breakout season, scoring 35 goals alongside steve yzerman. Paul maclean was on his way to having another good season when he unfortunately suffered a torn rib cage during a game against buffalo, which would eventually put an end to his career. This forced shawn burr to fill in on the 2nd line, whEre he would complement Yzerman and Graves well. Paul ysebaert, meanwhile, would deliver a solid performance as the 3rd line center alongside johan garpenlov, shawn burr and, later, Todd Fedyk. Finally, at the trade deadline, the wings pulled off another coup, acquiring New york rangers goalie and detroit native john vanbiesbrouck and the rangers 1992 first round pick for doug houda, Joey Kocur and their own 1992 1st round pick.
Meanwhile, around the league, there were some massive news: For the first time since the NHL-WHA Merger, the league will expand to three teams, with The San Jose Sharks arriving in 1991, bringing hockey back to the bay area for the first time since the california seals left for cleveland, and Teams from ottawa and Milwaukee coming in for 1992. Ottawa, in particular, will ressurect the historic Senators Franchise that won multiple stanley cups in the roaring 20s, while milwaukee will call themselves the Admirals, after the successful minor league team of the same name.
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The minnesota north stars, whom the gund brothers wanted to move to san jose before settling with an expansion team, Would then be bought by Harvey Ratner and Marv Wolfenson, the owners of the NBA's minnesota timberwolves, and as such will move into the brand new Target Center for the season.
The biggest on-ice story of the season remains denis savard's dispute with Chicago blackhawks coach Mike Keenan. Following disagreements with keenan's coaching, savard requested a trade. However, those plans went up in flames when the red wings hijacked a deal to send savard to montreal in exchange for chris chelios. After no suitors was found, the tensions between savard and keenan was such that savard sat the season out, in hopes of getting traded. Unfortnuately, no suitor was found, and savard made good on his promise and continued sitting out. This allowed him to recover from the injuries that he suffered in the past before, finally, Keenan and dollar bill wirtz waived him shortly before christmas. The winnipeg jets claimed him, with GM John Ferguson hoping for savard to take the load off of thomas steen and ray ferraro.
Denis savard's going through a tumultuous time in hos career.
The move payed off for savard, and he played a more efficient role on the second line. Savard, as well as the defense led by freddie olausson, Teppo Numminen and new acquistion phil housley, would propulse the jets to the last playoff spot available in the smythe, barely beating the vancouver canucks by 3 points.
Meanwhile, the los angeles kings and the calgary flames were the class of the smythe division, with los angeles beating calgary for top spot by only 2 points. Jimmy carson has blossomed into an elite center, and his line with luc robitaille and tony granato struck fear in opposing defenses. Bobby carpenter and tomas sandstrom would have a new partner in russian dmitri khristich, the kings's 3rd round pick in 1988. Having defected from the soviet union, Khristich would prove a valuable asset on the second line.
Rob blake, yet another talented youngster in the kings's arsenal
But the biggest addition on the roster was Rob blake. The kings's 2nd round pick in 1988 would fit right into the second defensive pairing alongside doug crossman, and he would put up a solid rookie season, scoring 46 points. With blake and khristich adding himself to the young core of robitaille, carson, carpenter, gelinas, duchesne and daryl sydor, the kings are set to be cup contenders in the next few years.
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The most hated man in hockey
The st. Louis blues made headlines when they signed washington's Top defenseman scott stevens in free agency. Joinging an already strong defense coupled with a free-scoring offense led by the hull and oates duo and rod brind'amour as well as secondary scoring from cliff ronning, geoff courtnall, bob bassen and dave lowry, as well as the breakout of curtis joseph, the blues finished top of the norris division with 113 pts.
With rick tocchet and jarri kurri surrounding 3rd overall pick keith primeau, as well as a lots of depth with pelle eklund, keith acton, murray craven and ron sutter and a tight unit at the back and ron hextall in front of net, the philadelphia flyers peeps out the new jersey devils for the last playoff spot in the patrick division.
The pittsburgh penguins made a big acquisition in larry murphy from the minnesota north stars. Jaromir jagr was every bit as advertised, forming a wild duo with mario lemieux. They attempted to acquire ron francis and ulf samuelsson at the trade deadline, but the whalers, fresh off a stanley cup win, considered both men off limit, with francis signing a lucrative contract extension. The pens were disappointed, but it's alright, they got john cullen and zarley zalapski. What could possibly go wrong?
As for the whalers, their stanley cup win galvanised the team, with the money coming in being especially welcomed ny the community-owned team. The whalers, already a solid team, became even better with the off-season acquisition of Dave Ellett from Winnipeg in exchange for second line center ray ferraro. This allowed prospect bobby holik to take that spot and make it his own, gelling well with scott young. Ellett joins an already well-established defensive unit featuring ulf samuelsson, Norm maciver, brad shaw and dave babych, whose long-term injury prompted the walers to acquire ellett.
NHL PLAYOFFS 1990-1991
Boston vs Hartford
Montreal vs Buffalo
Pittsburgh vs Philadelphia
NY Rangers vs Washington
Chicago vs minnesota
Detroit VS St. Louis
Los angeles vs Winnipeg
Calgary Vs Edmonton
TO BE CONTINUED
1991 NHL Playoffs
1990-1991 NHL Playoffs
The most exciting playoffs in sports are here, and some exciting action kept hockey fans on the edge of their seats.
In the eastern conference, boston and hartford engaged in yet another battle in the war for new england. Dave ellett scored 2 OT goals to bring hartford into the lead before the boston machine steamrolled them in the next 3 games. But then, ron francis, pat verbeek, scott young and bobby holik gave hartford hope in game 6, winning 4-2, but ray bourque, cam neely and co. Brought hartford down to earth and out of the playoffs with a dominant 4-1 game 7 win to face Montreal, who beat a determined but average sabres team.
Le magnifique returns to action.
Meanwhile, mario lemieux came back just in time for the playoffs, where a hungry flyers team forced the pens to the limit, keith primeau showing his playoff credentials and jari kurri proving that he doesn't need gretzky to succeeed in the NHL. Unfortunately for the flyers, Jiri Hrdina would have a phenomenal game 7, and lemieux would bring the finishing touch in a 4-0 win to eliminate the flyers. They will face the washington capitals in the next round.
Private eyes are watching them, and they can't go for that.
Meanwhile, out west, Brett hull, Scott stevens, rod brind'amour and adam oates faced the red wings of gretzky, fedorov and yzerman. It was a battle between not only two opposing trios in hull, oates and brind'amour against gretzky, yzerman and fedorov, but also a battle between two world class defensemen in stevens and chris chelios, with goalies john vanbiesbrouck and curtis joseph also being under scrutiny.
Beezer becomes the man in detroit's playoff run.
The series went back and forth, with a game 7 to decide everything. Wayne gretzky took the opportunity to do what he does best: dominate. The 99 scored two goals and led the wings to a third period comeback to win game 7 4-3 and advance to the second round, facing the surprising minnesota north stars.
In the pacific, los angeles made short work of the winnipeg jets in 5 games to face the edmonton oilers.
Cam Neely scores the series-clinching power play goal.
Boston and montreal would have a series for the ages, with New acquisition kirk muller opening the scoring in game 7 before dave christian would tie it up. Cam neely then scored a powerplay goal that would prove to be the series winner as the bruins head to the conference finals to face mario lemieux and the pens.
Out west, the wings swept the north stars in dominating fashion, while edmonton would survive a scare and win agaisnt the los angeles kings in 6 games, setting up a showdown between gretzly and messier in the conference final.
Freinds and teammates, now rivals.
The atmosphere was electric for gretzky's return to edmonton, and the Oilers gave it all they got, but a brick wall stopped them...its name was john vanbiesbrouck. The detroit native showed why detroit were right in acquiring him from the rangers, as he would only concede 7 goals all series long, with steve yzerman, chris chelios, vladimir komstantinov, yves racine and sergei fedorov all contributing as the wings beat the oilers in 6 games to advance to their first stanley cup final under the gretzky era, their first final appearance since 1966. Who awaits them? None other than the penguins, who made short work of the bruins thamks to a breakout performance by jaromir jagr.
The dream match. Dollar signs are flooding the NHL offices.
Gretzky vs lemieux for the stanley cup, the perfect scenario imagined by the NHL. Indeed, the 1991 stanley cup finals attracted unprecedented ratings for hockey on television, and the show delivered on all accounts. Everything was put on display: skills, team work, Grit, violence and exceptional goaltending from vanbiesbrouck and tom barasso. Game 1 was a dramatic shootout, Shawn burr scoring a dramatic late goal to win it 5-4 for the wings. Lemieux and jagr would dominate game 2, with lemieux scoring one of the greatest goals in hockey history, pushing away 4 defenders before slotting the puck past john vanbiesbrouck. gretzky and yzerman would fight back in a game 3 win for detroit. The pens would win game 4 5-3 and game 5 6-4. Back at the joe, john vanviesbrouck would give an amazing performance, shutting out the pens as gretzky and Chris Chelios would score the only goals in a defensive game 2-0 to force game 7.
Chelios, the Red Wings's game changer.
In another instant classic, the wings drew first blood with yzerman debiating konstantinov's slapper. John Cullen would then get one back in the second period, before gretzky ties it up to end the period. The third was a stalemate until jaromir jagr, with 4 minutes left, delivers a nutmeg between Vladimir konstantinov's legs before breaking steve chiasson's ankle with a scintillating feint before scoring a wonderful goal with a backhander past vanbiesbrouck for the game winner! It was followed by the iconic celebration where jagr took off his glove and blew a kiss at the Pittsburg crowd going crazy inside the civic center.
That goal, pretty much.
And just like that, after years of futility, Mario lemieux and the pittsburgh Penguins have won the stanley cup!
The Mullet game is strong with these two.
Gretzky and the wings were understandably disappointed at losing at the last hurdle, but they brought hope back to detroit. They genuinely feel that they are very close to winning that first cup since the gordie howe era.
1990-1991 Stanley Cup finals: Pittsburgh Penguins over Detroit Red Wings 4-3
The most exciting playoffs in sports are here, and some exciting action kept hockey fans on the edge of their seats.
In the eastern conference, boston and hartford engaged in yet another battle in the war for new england. Dave ellett scored 2 OT goals to bring hartford into the lead before the boston machine steamrolled them in the next 3 games. But then, ron francis, pat verbeek, scott young and bobby holik gave hartford hope in game 6, winning 4-2, but ray bourque, cam neely and co. Brought hartford down to earth and out of the playoffs with a dominant 4-1 game 7 win to face Montreal, who beat a determined but average sabres team.
Le magnifique returns to action.
Meanwhile, mario lemieux came back just in time for the playoffs, where a hungry flyers team forced the pens to the limit, keith primeau showing his playoff credentials and jari kurri proving that he doesn't need gretzky to succeeed in the NHL. Unfortunately for the flyers, Jiri Hrdina would have a phenomenal game 7, and lemieux would bring the finishing touch in a 4-0 win to eliminate the flyers. They will face the washington capitals in the next round.
Private eyes are watching them, and they can't go for that.
Meanwhile, out west, Brett hull, Scott stevens, rod brind'amour and adam oates faced the red wings of gretzky, fedorov and yzerman. It was a battle between not only two opposing trios in hull, oates and brind'amour against gretzky, yzerman and fedorov, but also a battle between two world class defensemen in stevens and chris chelios, with goalies john vanbiesbrouck and curtis joseph also being under scrutiny.
Beezer becomes the man in detroit's playoff run.
The series went back and forth, with a game 7 to decide everything. Wayne gretzky took the opportunity to do what he does best: dominate. The 99 scored two goals and led the wings to a third period comeback to win game 7 4-3 and advance to the second round, facing the surprising minnesota north stars.
In the pacific, los angeles made short work of the winnipeg jets in 5 games to face the edmonton oilers.
Cam Neely scores the series-clinching power play goal.
Boston and montreal would have a series for the ages, with New acquisition kirk muller opening the scoring in game 7 before dave christian would tie it up. Cam neely then scored a powerplay goal that would prove to be the series winner as the bruins head to the conference finals to face mario lemieux and the pens.
Out west, the wings swept the north stars in dominating fashion, while edmonton would survive a scare and win agaisnt the los angeles kings in 6 games, setting up a showdown between gretzly and messier in the conference final.
Freinds and teammates, now rivals.
The atmosphere was electric for gretzky's return to edmonton, and the Oilers gave it all they got, but a brick wall stopped them...its name was john vanbiesbrouck. The detroit native showed why detroit were right in acquiring him from the rangers, as he would only concede 7 goals all series long, with steve yzerman, chris chelios, vladimir komstantinov, yves racine and sergei fedorov all contributing as the wings beat the oilers in 6 games to advance to their first stanley cup final under the gretzky era, their first final appearance since 1966. Who awaits them? None other than the penguins, who made short work of the bruins thamks to a breakout performance by jaromir jagr.
The dream match. Dollar signs are flooding the NHL offices.
Gretzky vs lemieux for the stanley cup, the perfect scenario imagined by the NHL. Indeed, the 1991 stanley cup finals attracted unprecedented ratings for hockey on television, and the show delivered on all accounts. Everything was put on display: skills, team work, Grit, violence and exceptional goaltending from vanbiesbrouck and tom barasso. Game 1 was a dramatic shootout, Shawn burr scoring a dramatic late goal to win it 5-4 for the wings. Lemieux and jagr would dominate game 2, with lemieux scoring one of the greatest goals in hockey history, pushing away 4 defenders before slotting the puck past john vanbiesbrouck. gretzky and yzerman would fight back in a game 3 win for detroit. The pens would win game 4 5-3 and game 5 6-4. Back at the joe, john vanviesbrouck would give an amazing performance, shutting out the pens as gretzky and Chris Chelios would score the only goals in a defensive game 2-0 to force game 7.
Chelios, the Red Wings's game changer.
In another instant classic, the wings drew first blood with yzerman debiating konstantinov's slapper. John Cullen would then get one back in the second period, before gretzky ties it up to end the period. The third was a stalemate until jaromir jagr, with 4 minutes left, delivers a nutmeg between Vladimir konstantinov's legs before breaking steve chiasson's ankle with a scintillating feint before scoring a wonderful goal with a backhander past vanbiesbrouck for the game winner! It was followed by the iconic celebration where jagr took off his glove and blew a kiss at the Pittsburg crowd going crazy inside the civic center.
That goal, pretty much.
And just like that, after years of futility, Mario lemieux and the pittsburgh Penguins have won the stanley cup!
The Mullet game is strong with these two.
Gretzky and the wings were understandably disappointed at losing at the last hurdle, but they brought hope back to detroit. They genuinely feel that they are very close to winning that first cup since the gordie howe era.
1990-1991 Stanley Cup finals: Pittsburgh Penguins over Detroit Red Wings 4-3
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1991 NHL Draft
The 1991 NHL Draft
The 1991 NHL Draft has arrived, and everybody had eyes for only one man: a 6'4 ft, 240 lbs center from london, ontario who can skate, hit and score goals at will. he plowed through the canadian junior Ranks like a knife through butter, and he is even called by the canadian national team for the world championships.
His name? Eric lindros.
Dubbed "the next one" by the media, lindros is seen as the future face of the NHL, and whoever selects him first overall will certainely become stanley cup contenders. The two last placed teams in the NHL last season, the quebec Nordiques and the toronto Maple Leafs, finished with thd same number of points, 46. This forced the league to determine the winner of the lindros sweepstakes via coin toss live at buffalo, where the draft was taking place.
When the day arrived, they proceeded immediately with the coin toss. Quebec called head, but it fell on tails, meaning the maple leafs will choose the london, ontario native, to the joy of all leafs fans and the lindros family.
Quebec will choose 3rd overall, because the brand new expansion franchise, the san jose sharks, has been granted the 2nd overall choice, where they select right winger pat faloon of the spokane chiefs. The nordiques were understandably disappointed, as lindros would've been their franchise saviour. Nonetheless, they filled their need in defense by selecting Scott niedermayer.
The new york islanders would end up selecting defenseman scott lachance with the 4th overall pick and the vamcouver canucks select Alek Stojanov with the 5th pick, leaving the philadelphia flyers to select swedish wonderkid peter forsberg 6th overall. Winnipeg, in need of a tough stay-at-home-defenseman in their quarterback-heavy defense, would select richard matvichuk with the 7th pick, leaving minnesota to select aaron ward.
New jersey, who resigned Brendan Shanahan after the St. Louis blues decided to stop going after the young left winger and keep scott stevens, would select brian rolston with the 9th overall pick, while edmonton, using the second of the pick from the gretzky trade, would pick martin lapointe 10th overall. The hartford whalers would select forsberg teammate markus naslund with the 11th pick, while the los angeles kings would select defensman phillipe boucher with the 12th overall pick. Buffalo selects brent bilodeau, washington selects tyler wright, the new york rangers, who acquired Mark messier and Jeff beukeboom of edmonton and signed free agent adam graves from detroit, would select alexei kovalev, while the stanley cup champions pittsburgh penguins would select glen murray to fill their wing depth. The last notable choice in the 1st round is Montreal choosing martin rucinsky with the 17th pick. The red wings only notable choice is goalie chris osgood in the third round.
NHL DRAFT ROUND 1 ROUNDUP
1: C Eric Lindros - toronto
2: RW pat falloon - San Jose
3: D Scott niedermayer - Quebec
4: D Scott Lachance - Islanders
5: RW Alek Stojanov - Vancouver
6: C/RW Peter Forsberg - Philly
7: D Richard Matvichuk - Winnipeg
8: D Aaron Ward - Minnesota
9: RW Brian rolston - New Jersey
10: RW Martin lapointe - Edmonton
11: LW Markus Naslund - Hartford
12: D Phillipe Boucher - Los Angeles
13: D Brent Bilodeau - Buffalo
14: C Tyler Wright - Washington
15: W Alexei Kovalev - New York
16: RW Glen Murray - Pittsburgh
17: LW Martin Rucinski - Montreal
18: RW Nicklas Sunblad - Calgary
19: C Dean Mcammond - Edmonton
20: C Pat Peake - Washington
21: LW Patrick Poulin - Chicago
1991 1992 RED WINGS LINE UP
Ysebaert-Gretzky-Fedorov
Burr-Yzerman-Sheppard
Gallant-Draper-Miller
Probert-Habscheid-Fedyk
Racine-Chelios
Chiasson-konstantinov
Lidstrom-Mcrimmon/Mcsorley
Vanbiesbrouck
Cheveldae
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Hi guys!
After some consideration, i'm coming back to this diary. I'll be working on the 1991 1992 season.
After some consideration, i'm coming back to this diary. I'll be working on the 1991 1992 season.
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1991-1992 NHL Season
The 1991 1992 NHL season saw many storylines take shape. First off, hockey returned to the bay area for the first time since 1976, with the san jose sharks playing in front of packed crowds at the cow palace. Unfortunately for them, it was the only positive thing (that, plus doug wilson's slap shot and the play of youngsters pat falloon, ray whitney and sandis ozolinsh), as the sharks would finish at the bottom of the satndings, typical for an expansion team...
But the league was all about the revitalised new york rangers under coach roger neilson and new superstar mark messier. The former oilers captain sat madison square garden on fire, turning a good rangers team into a presidents trophy winner. He isnt alone, however, as talented youngsters such as Tony Amonte, Darren Turcotte and Doug Weight scored aplenty as well, while mike richter, who became the starting goalie following the john vanbiesbrouck trade, repayed roger neilson's faith by delivering solid performances in front of net. the team would also benefit from the arrival of two russians: Center Sergei Nemchinov and defenseman sergei Zubov, who posted really good numbers offensively, while mark tinordi covered the defensive side for him.
The future is now for the rangers
The other players who arrived along with messier, oilers teammate jeff beukeboom and former red wing adam graves, also contributed. Beukeboom solidified the first pairing, allowing brian leech to break out as the league's premier offensive defenseman, winning the norris trophy. Graves, meanwhile, would have his own breakout season on the first line with messier and amonte, registering 59 points, while veteran goalscorer mike gartner lighted up the red light as usual on the 2nd line with weight and john ogrodnick.
In other news around the league, Jari Kurri was traded to the los angeles kings in exchange for steve duchesne. This move came in as a way to improve scoring on a kings team that saw its offense dry up. Plus, it allowed to make way for the more defensively responsible brian benning and rookie daryl sydor alongside rob blake and veteran doug crossman and newly acquired charlie huddy.
Kurri in his new uniform
The move was very successful for the kings, as kurri reinvigorated the first line, jimmy carson and luc robitaille coming back to form just in time for the kings to finish on top of the smythe once again. With former 1st liner tony granato rounding up the 2nd line alongside tomas sandstrom and dimitri Kristich and bobby carpenter anchoring martin gelinas and captain dave taylor on the 3rd line, L.A now has a ton of depth up front. Add to that the tightened defense and kelly hrudey's steady presence in front of net, and the kings has got what it takes to make a deep run in the playoffs and are even among the favorites to come out of the west and into the stanley cup final!
Despite losing kurri, the flyers filled their need for a power play quarterback in duchesne, the quebecois partnering up with terry carkner and feeding the puck to rick tocchet and keith primeau, who looks like a stud in his sophomore season in the NHL. Despite their presence and ron hextall's solid play,as well as depth pieces like murray craven, patrick juhlin and scott mellanby, the flyers would miss the playoffs.
Meanwhile, in toronto, with harold ballard finally dead and eric lindros coming, new GM Cliff Fletcher pulled out all the stops in building a competitive club for the next one's arrival. In two mega trades, the leafs would add the likes of Doug Gilmour, ric natress and jamie macoun of the calgary flames for gary leeman and scraps as well as edmonton's grant fuhr and Glenn Anderson in exchange for eddie olczyk and scott Thorton.
the three symbols of hope and dreams for the maple leafs.
Gilmour anchoring captain wendell clark and ex-soviet nikolai borchesvky became one of the best lines in the NHL, and Young french canadian left winger vincent damphousse would breakout with glenn anderson and brian bradley flanking him. With those big acquisitions, the leafs would make the playoffs, edging out the minnesota north stars for the last available spot in the norris.
The buffalo sabres, meanwhile, has had enough with 1987 1st overall pick pierre turgeon, and he would be traded to the new york islanders along with defenseman uwe krupp in exchange for the disgruntled pat lafontaine, whose contract negotiations with the isles ended up in disaster, especially when the isles traded longtime captain brent sutter to the chicago blackhawks.
On his new team, Lafontaine and dale hawerchuk formed one of the best 1-2 center punches in the league, the st. Louis native forming great chemistry with dave andreychuk and alexander mogliny, the young russian winger finally cracking the 50-goals barrier for the first tiem in his NHL Career.
Few peoplw thought that the reigning champions pittsburgh penguins would become even better when the season started. They would be proven wrong, as none other than Scotty Bowman became the new head coach following cup winning coach bob johnson being diagnosed with cancer. While they didn't finish on top of the conference or division, the team played a lot better defensively, and they looked poised for a repeat.
The hartford whalers's season saw some much needed youth stepping up to help ron francis, pat verbeek and kevin dineen. Czech bobby holik looks like a selke trophy winner in the making, while scott young would blossom into a top 6 goalscorer, thanks in part to the playmaking of quarterback-turned-two-way defenseman dave ellet and yet another unexpected bloomer: Center/left winger Andrew Cassels, acquired from montreal for a 2nd rounder. While the defense was once again rock solid thanks to ulf samuelsson, ellet's conversion to a more defensive game as well as norm maciver and veteran dave babych, Goalie Mike Liut unfortunately has age caught up to him. Despite this, the whalers make the playoffs.
Out west, the red wings, boosted by free agent signing ray sheppard, would finisht top of the conference with 102 points. What makes it even more remarkable is that wayne gretzky was out for much of the season,leaving sergei Fedorov all alone as the no.1 center. Eager to prove that he doesn't need gretzky, Fedorov would light up the league, reacing almost 90 points on his own and finishing a distant 2nd in the leaue MVP standings to mark messier. Across the lineup, steve yzerman would not be overshadowed by gretzky and his russian teammate, scoring 103 points for the season. Meanwhile, The defense would see young swede niklas lidstrom gradually climb the depth chart to eventually play alongside star d-man chris chelios. The two immediately clicked, forming one of the most promising defensive pair in the league, while vladdy konstantinov, steve chiasson and yves racines continued their development and marty mcsorley held up his own as a punishing stay-at-home defenseman. Finally, john vanbiesbrouck would have a stellar year in front of net, earning himself a nomination for the vezina trophy.
Young Lidstrom is turning heads at the joe.
Their norris rivals, the st. Louis blues, would finish in a very distant second place in the norris. Hull and oates continued to unleash hell, oates getting a meaty contract extension at the trade deadline, while rod brind'amour continued his development, many experts predicting that brind'amour will be one of the league's premier two-way players in the future. Secondary scoring was a plenty for the blues, with the second line of cliff ronning, geoff courtnall and nelson emerson carrying a good portion of the offensive load off of hull and oates's backs, while captain scott stevens continued staking his claim as the NHL's best defenseman.
Meanwhile, the blackhawks, led by jeremy roenick, steve larmer, steve smith, new acquisition brent sutter and ed belfour, finished in third, 4 points behind the blues.
The winnipeg jets finished in fourth place. Key to its good season was its center depth, with ray ferraro, denis savard and thomas steen winning faceoffs and scoring goals, especially thanks to the defense, led by quarterbacks freddie olausson and phil housley. Ferraro, in particular, had a breakout season, scoring 40 goals and 40 assists. The main unit, which consists of ferraro, rookie keith tkachuck, pat elynuik and defensemen phil housley and teppo numinen, contributed much to the jets's goalscoring ways. Their main weakness, however, was goaltending, as bob essensa, who was so hot for them during the 1990 run to the stanley cup finals, hit a massive cold streak and was brought back to earth. To remedy the goalie situation, the jets traded highly promising prospect stéphane beauregard to the chicago blaclhawks in exchange for czech Dominik hasek, who found himself stuck on the bench behind Ed belfour in the windy city.
1992 NHL PLAYOFFS
ADAMS
Montreal vs Hartford
Boston vs buffalo
CAMPBELL
NY Rangers vs New Jersey
Washington vs Pittsburgh
NORRIS
Detroit Vs Toronto
St. Louis vs Chicago
SMYTHE
Vancouver vs Winnipeg
Los Angeles vs Edmonton
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1991-1992 NHL PLayoffs 1st rounds
The most exciting and unpredictable playoffs in sports are back! Who will survive the war and come away with the ultimate prize: lord stanley's cup? Let's find out!
The montreal canadiens, as usual, looked really strong during the season. The departure of chris chelios to detroit was not felt in the slightest, and young talent such as matheiu schneider, eric desjardins and sylvain lefevbre all stepped up to join petr svoboda as the new leaders of the habs defense. Kirk muller, acquired from new jersey in exchange for claude lemieux last season, slotted in nicely into the team as its new top center, and his partnership with mark recchi and shayne corson was a fruitful one.
However, in game one against ron francis's hartford whalers, it would be 4th liner gilbert dionne who would steal the show, scoring the only two goals of the game to give the habs the win. Patrick roy was his usual stellar self in front of net, shuting out the whalers and stoning francis, pat verbeek, kevin dineen and scott young and making 32 saves. Game 2 would be even more one sided, as the habs dominated on home ice, winning 5-2.
Game 3 at the XL Center in hartford would see an inversed score, as francis galvanised the team to a 5-2 win over the french canadians. Dave ellett opened the scoring for hartford in the 2nd period with a cannon of a slap shot from the slot, which opened the floodgates for the whalers. A short-handed goal by andrew cassels turned the tide to hartford, with francis scoring, cassels with his second and a power play goal by scott young in the third sealing the deal. Game 4 would see the whalers being in control the entire game, with penalties costing the habs as yvon corriveau and scott young scored both on PP Goals and bobby holik sealed it with an empty netter to tie the series 2-2.
Game 5 at the forum would be crucial for the habs. They started off really poorly, with young, corriveau and cassels opening the scoring with 3 unanswered goals, 1 short-handed and 2 on the powerplay. Head coach pat burns, who was far from happy with his team's performance, made ajustements that would pay off big time, as the habs would score 4 unanswered goals in an incredible come back! The third period was all habs from now on, as john leclair and shayne corson would end up scoring their first goals of the playoffs to seal the deal, with scott young's second goal at 3 minutes of the 3rd being the only consolation goal for the whalers.
In hartford, the pressure was on for the whalers, and they would have to answer with intensity and physicality. That's exactly what they did, as ulf samulesson, kevin dineen and francis led the team to play a very defensive game agaisnt the habs, with bodies flying all around the arena. The scoring would open with norm maciver beating patrick roy following an excellent screening job by bobby holik, only for the habs to answer right back with a quick wristshot by Stéphane Richer. The game would end up in over time.
In the stanley cup playoffs, it is very likely that some random grinder becomes the unexpected hero for his team. That's exactly what happened with yvon corriveau, the hartford 4th liner would beat patrick roy on a rebound to give the whalers the crucial OT Win and force a game 7 at the forum.
In one of the great game 7s in NHL playoffs history, the habs's mathieu schneider opened the scoring on the power play, with game 1 hero gilbert dionne making it 2-0 at 11 minutes of the 1st period. The 2nd would see a former hab take over the game, as andrew cassels would dominate on the ice, scoring a goal and assisting his linemate and fellow rookie geoff sanderson to tie the game up and force overtime.
Unfortunately for ronnie franchise and his friends, despite a valiant effort, they would crumble at the worst possible moment as russ courtnall would send the habs to the adams final with a beautiful backhand. The habs will face their dreaded rivals in the boston bruins, who themselves survived a tense 7-game series against the lafontaine-hawerchuk-mogilny-amdreychuk buffalo sabres.
In fact, 7-game series was the trend in these playoffs, as both the presidents trophy winners new york rangers and the reigning champs Pittsburgh penguins would beat the new jersey devils and washington capitals in similar fashion.
Out west, it was the same, as the detroit red wings of wayne gretzky, steve yzerman, sergei fedorov, chris chelios and co. Would find in the toronto maple leafs a tougher than expected opponent, doug gilmour and wendel clark carrying the leafs to a game 7, where the great one would do what he does best: dominate, scroing two goals and 2 assists on both fedorov and the game-winner from ray sheppard on the powerplay to bring detroit to the division finals against the hull and oates and stevens st. Louis blues, who made quick work of the chicago blackhawks in a 6-game upset.
Speaking of upsets, the winnipeg jets of denis savard and ray ferraro upsets the vancouver canucks of linden, nedved and superstar pavel bure, largely thanks to the star-making performance of czech goalie dominik hasek, who literally stole the series from the canucks. Winnipeg will face the los angeles kings in the smythe finals, the kings having made short work of edmonton in 5 games.
In the division finals, the boston bruins would make short work of the habs, sweeping them and returning to the conference finals for the second straight year. Meanwhile, the young rangers will be put to the test against the pittsburgh penguins. In a closely fought contest, game 1 would go to pittsburgh 3-2. In game two, the rangers took over as rookie mike richter only concedes two goals in a 4-2 win.
Game three would be the most dramatic game in the playoffs so far, as the rangers and pittsburgh would combine for ten goals each heading into over time. There, kris king would score the winner to have the rangers lead 2-1.
Game 4 would once again go into overtime at the igloo. Richter would perform heroics throughout OT, blocking and making some breathtaking saves to hold the fort. Finally, young stéphane matteau caight a rebounding puck and buried it into tom barasso's net to give the rangers a massive 3-1 series lead!
Back at MSG, messier and the rangers looked to crush lemieux and jagr's dreams of a repeat. After jagr scored the onyl goal in the first period, darren turcotte would score on a powerplay, followed shortly after by mike gartner with a wicked writshot pass barasso at the start of the third. Jagr would then tie it up with 5 minutes remaining, but newcomer sergei zubov would become the hero for the rangers, blasting a slap shot to the top right corner in the last minute of the period to send the ramgers to the conference finals and do the unthinkable, beating the penguins 4-1 in the series!
Out west, a very physical series awaited the detroit red wings and the st. Louis blues. Both star studded teams, carrying names such as gretzky, yzerman, fedorov, Chelios and vanbiesbrouck for the wings and oates, hull, brind'amour, stevens and joseph for the blues. Game 1 went the red wings way, with vladdy konstantinov's pass finding paul ysebaert all alone to score the game winner in a 3-2 win.
Game 2 and 3, however, would see the blues dominate. Hull and oates combined for 10 points total, hull scoring 5 goals and oates assiting on 4 of them plus scoring one of his own, while the secondary scoring of geoff courtnall, cliff ronning, nelson emerson, brind'amour and defenseman jeff brown would also contribute to win game 2 5-2 and game 3 6-4. Game 4, however, would find steve yzerman scoring a hat trick in a 3-0 win to tie up the series.
A brutal defensive game at the joe awauted game 5, with john vanbiesbrouck and curtis joseph each delivering stellar performances. Combined with both teams defenses cancelling each other's offenses, and the game would end in a rare 0-0 after 3 period, forcing overtime.
Curtis joseph must have drank virgins blood or something, as he protected his net like he was a man possesed, stopping gretzky and co. At every chance. Finally, Courtnall recuperates the puck along the boards, manages to scoop it to gino cavallini, who beats out lidstrom and passes it to deadline day acquisition Stéphane Quintal (acquired from boston in exchange for sergio momesso and a 1993 3rd round pick) in the slot, the big, burly defenseman from quebec firing away and scoring the overtime winner!
Game 6 would be the glory day of the blues, as despite gretzky and yzerman's best efforts, a demoralised red wings team got shafted hard by st. Louis, vanbiesbrouck letting in 4 goals as the blues wins 4-2 and moves on to the western conference finals!
In the smythe division finals, the winnipeg jets was all about one thing: dominik hasek. The czech goalie is having a breakout performance in the playoffs, and he continued that dominant run against los angeles. Phil housley, teppo numinen, freddie olausson, denis savard, ray ferraro and rookie keith tkachuk also contributed, but hasek was definitely the team's most valuable player, as the winnipeg jets managed to defeat the los angeles kings in 6 closely fought games to head back to the conference finals for the first time since 1990!
This was a hard blow for a kings team that looked like favorites to reach the stanley cup final throughout the season. Part of the problem was the defense, which contained veterans that were declining somewhat and youngsters who were just too green for the playoffs. The kings front office need to do something in the offseason if they want to bring the cup to california and stop underachieving...
CONFERENCE FINALS
EAST
New York Rangers vs Boston Bruins
WEST
St. Louis Blues vs Winnipeg Jets.
Who will make it to the stanley cup?
The montreal canadiens, as usual, looked really strong during the season. The departure of chris chelios to detroit was not felt in the slightest, and young talent such as matheiu schneider, eric desjardins and sylvain lefevbre all stepped up to join petr svoboda as the new leaders of the habs defense. Kirk muller, acquired from new jersey in exchange for claude lemieux last season, slotted in nicely into the team as its new top center, and his partnership with mark recchi and shayne corson was a fruitful one.
However, in game one against ron francis's hartford whalers, it would be 4th liner gilbert dionne who would steal the show, scoring the only two goals of the game to give the habs the win. Patrick roy was his usual stellar self in front of net, shuting out the whalers and stoning francis, pat verbeek, kevin dineen and scott young and making 32 saves. Game 2 would be even more one sided, as the habs dominated on home ice, winning 5-2.
Game 3 at the XL Center in hartford would see an inversed score, as francis galvanised the team to a 5-2 win over the french canadians. Dave ellett opened the scoring for hartford in the 2nd period with a cannon of a slap shot from the slot, which opened the floodgates for the whalers. A short-handed goal by andrew cassels turned the tide to hartford, with francis scoring, cassels with his second and a power play goal by scott young in the third sealing the deal. Game 4 would see the whalers being in control the entire game, with penalties costing the habs as yvon corriveau and scott young scored both on PP Goals and bobby holik sealed it with an empty netter to tie the series 2-2.
Game 5 at the forum would be crucial for the habs. They started off really poorly, with young, corriveau and cassels opening the scoring with 3 unanswered goals, 1 short-handed and 2 on the powerplay. Head coach pat burns, who was far from happy with his team's performance, made ajustements that would pay off big time, as the habs would score 4 unanswered goals in an incredible come back! The third period was all habs from now on, as john leclair and shayne corson would end up scoring their first goals of the playoffs to seal the deal, with scott young's second goal at 3 minutes of the 3rd being the only consolation goal for the whalers.
In hartford, the pressure was on for the whalers, and they would have to answer with intensity and physicality. That's exactly what they did, as ulf samulesson, kevin dineen and francis led the team to play a very defensive game agaisnt the habs, with bodies flying all around the arena. The scoring would open with norm maciver beating patrick roy following an excellent screening job by bobby holik, only for the habs to answer right back with a quick wristshot by Stéphane Richer. The game would end up in over time.
In the stanley cup playoffs, it is very likely that some random grinder becomes the unexpected hero for his team. That's exactly what happened with yvon corriveau, the hartford 4th liner would beat patrick roy on a rebound to give the whalers the crucial OT Win and force a game 7 at the forum.
In one of the great game 7s in NHL playoffs history, the habs's mathieu schneider opened the scoring on the power play, with game 1 hero gilbert dionne making it 2-0 at 11 minutes of the 1st period. The 2nd would see a former hab take over the game, as andrew cassels would dominate on the ice, scoring a goal and assisting his linemate and fellow rookie geoff sanderson to tie the game up and force overtime.
Unfortunately for ronnie franchise and his friends, despite a valiant effort, they would crumble at the worst possible moment as russ courtnall would send the habs to the adams final with a beautiful backhand. The habs will face their dreaded rivals in the boston bruins, who themselves survived a tense 7-game series against the lafontaine-hawerchuk-mogilny-amdreychuk buffalo sabres.
In fact, 7-game series was the trend in these playoffs, as both the presidents trophy winners new york rangers and the reigning champs Pittsburgh penguins would beat the new jersey devils and washington capitals in similar fashion.
Out west, it was the same, as the detroit red wings of wayne gretzky, steve yzerman, sergei fedorov, chris chelios and co. Would find in the toronto maple leafs a tougher than expected opponent, doug gilmour and wendel clark carrying the leafs to a game 7, where the great one would do what he does best: dominate, scroing two goals and 2 assists on both fedorov and the game-winner from ray sheppard on the powerplay to bring detroit to the division finals against the hull and oates and stevens st. Louis blues, who made quick work of the chicago blackhawks in a 6-game upset.
Speaking of upsets, the winnipeg jets of denis savard and ray ferraro upsets the vancouver canucks of linden, nedved and superstar pavel bure, largely thanks to the star-making performance of czech goalie dominik hasek, who literally stole the series from the canucks. Winnipeg will face the los angeles kings in the smythe finals, the kings having made short work of edmonton in 5 games.
In the division finals, the boston bruins would make short work of the habs, sweeping them and returning to the conference finals for the second straight year. Meanwhile, the young rangers will be put to the test against the pittsburgh penguins. In a closely fought contest, game 1 would go to pittsburgh 3-2. In game two, the rangers took over as rookie mike richter only concedes two goals in a 4-2 win.
Game three would be the most dramatic game in the playoffs so far, as the rangers and pittsburgh would combine for ten goals each heading into over time. There, kris king would score the winner to have the rangers lead 2-1.
Game 4 would once again go into overtime at the igloo. Richter would perform heroics throughout OT, blocking and making some breathtaking saves to hold the fort. Finally, young stéphane matteau caight a rebounding puck and buried it into tom barasso's net to give the rangers a massive 3-1 series lead!
Back at MSG, messier and the rangers looked to crush lemieux and jagr's dreams of a repeat. After jagr scored the onyl goal in the first period, darren turcotte would score on a powerplay, followed shortly after by mike gartner with a wicked writshot pass barasso at the start of the third. Jagr would then tie it up with 5 minutes remaining, but newcomer sergei zubov would become the hero for the rangers, blasting a slap shot to the top right corner in the last minute of the period to send the ramgers to the conference finals and do the unthinkable, beating the penguins 4-1 in the series!
Out west, a very physical series awaited the detroit red wings and the st. Louis blues. Both star studded teams, carrying names such as gretzky, yzerman, fedorov, Chelios and vanbiesbrouck for the wings and oates, hull, brind'amour, stevens and joseph for the blues. Game 1 went the red wings way, with vladdy konstantinov's pass finding paul ysebaert all alone to score the game winner in a 3-2 win.
Game 2 and 3, however, would see the blues dominate. Hull and oates combined for 10 points total, hull scoring 5 goals and oates assiting on 4 of them plus scoring one of his own, while the secondary scoring of geoff courtnall, cliff ronning, nelson emerson, brind'amour and defenseman jeff brown would also contribute to win game 2 5-2 and game 3 6-4. Game 4, however, would find steve yzerman scoring a hat trick in a 3-0 win to tie up the series.
A brutal defensive game at the joe awauted game 5, with john vanbiesbrouck and curtis joseph each delivering stellar performances. Combined with both teams defenses cancelling each other's offenses, and the game would end in a rare 0-0 after 3 period, forcing overtime.
Curtis joseph must have drank virgins blood or something, as he protected his net like he was a man possesed, stopping gretzky and co. At every chance. Finally, Courtnall recuperates the puck along the boards, manages to scoop it to gino cavallini, who beats out lidstrom and passes it to deadline day acquisition Stéphane Quintal (acquired from boston in exchange for sergio momesso and a 1993 3rd round pick) in the slot, the big, burly defenseman from quebec firing away and scoring the overtime winner!
Game 6 would be the glory day of the blues, as despite gretzky and yzerman's best efforts, a demoralised red wings team got shafted hard by st. Louis, vanbiesbrouck letting in 4 goals as the blues wins 4-2 and moves on to the western conference finals!
In the smythe division finals, the winnipeg jets was all about one thing: dominik hasek. The czech goalie is having a breakout performance in the playoffs, and he continued that dominant run against los angeles. Phil housley, teppo numinen, freddie olausson, denis savard, ray ferraro and rookie keith tkachuk also contributed, but hasek was definitely the team's most valuable player, as the winnipeg jets managed to defeat the los angeles kings in 6 closely fought games to head back to the conference finals for the first time since 1990!
This was a hard blow for a kings team that looked like favorites to reach the stanley cup final throughout the season. Part of the problem was the defense, which contained veterans that were declining somewhat and youngsters who were just too green for the playoffs. The kings front office need to do something in the offseason if they want to bring the cup to california and stop underachieving...
CONFERENCE FINALS
EAST
New York Rangers vs Boston Bruins
WEST
St. Louis Blues vs Winnipeg Jets.
Who will make it to the stanley cup?
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An appearance in the big one may help them be more secure in Winnipeg and avert the ridiculous Phoenix move.
Well, they already appeared in the cup final in 1990 ITTL, dale hawerchuk's last year with the team. Granted, they lost, but it definitely helped attendance and revenue. If they make it (and i do mean if. That blues team with hull, oates, stevens, brind'amour, courtnall, ronning, the cavalini bros. and joseph are no slouch) a second time? Yeah, that's definitely gonna help their case.
Plus, there's still alot of stuff that's gonna happen in the future. Stay tuned...
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IRL, the wings had trouble against the minnesota north stars, who only had modano, bellows, an aging broten and a bunch of habs rejects on defense. Against this toronto team that is yet to reach its full potential, even without lindros (lindros comes in 92), i expect no different, even with wayne there. That series against the north stars is a prime example of why the red wings IRL needed a coach like scotty bowman and more character guys like cicarelli, draper, mccarthy and shanahan to get over the hump. Before that, they were huge underachievers.The Leafs drafted Lindros! You made the Leafs start off the post-Ballard era with Lindros and Gilmour....smiles in approval so hard it hurts his face
And seeing them take the Great One and Stevie Y's Red Wings the distance....
Yeah, this TL was great before, it's even better now
I gotta admit, i'm actually intrigued with how gretzky will interact with scotty bowman as his coach ITTL...
1992 NHL Conference Finals
1992 NHL CONFERENCE FINALS
We are in the final 4 of the NHL playoffs, featuring two teams looking to end their stanley cup drough on one side, and two teams looking to win their first ever cup on the other.
In the east, the new york rangers, looking to end over 50 years of misery, takes on the boston bruins of ray bourque and cam neely, who goes to the conference finals for the second year in a row.
Game 1 at madison square garden would set the tone for the rest of the series, as bodies were flying all over the arena. It would be adam graves who opened the scoring at 11:00 of the first period with a wristshot off a rebound to beat andy moog. Rookie joe juneau would answer back for the bruins in period 2, followed by peter douris.
The third period would see the bruins crumble, however, as the rangers would score 4 unanswered goals, including two by mark messier and one each for stéphane matteau and tony amonte, as the rangers win 5-2.
Game two would see a high-scoring affair where cam neely saves the bruins by scoring a hat trick, craig janney scoring a hat trick of assists as well as the bruins wins a tight contest 5-4 as they head to the boston garden.
At the garden, the bruins clearly had home advantage, as they would score 3 unanswered goals right from the start. The second would then see the rangers score 4 unanswered, with adam graves and darren turcotte each getting 2 goals and Defenseman brian leetch getting one as well.
And the goals kept on coming, as messier, amonte and sergei nemchinov would score goals, while cam neely would complete yet another hat trick right before graves completes his on an empty netter as the rangers register a statement win 8-5.
Game 4 would see mike richter deliver an incredible performance, keeping his team in the game as it was scoreless after 2. Then, Sergio momesso, acquired in exchange for stéphane quintal, woukd finally open the scoring at the 6th minute of the 3rd, but the rags kept on fighting until the breakthrough by tony amonte, who scores on a wrister following a lateral pass by messier. Finally, Mike Gartner would score the game winner on a powerplay to give the ramgers a 2-1 win and the chance to seal off the series at home at MSG.
In front of an awesome crowd and an electrifying atmosphere, the rangers would finish the job in style, with tony amonte scoring a hat trick as the rangers put the final nail in the coffin 4-1 and eliminates the bruins in 5 games to reach the stanley cup final for the first time since 1979!
Out west, few expected the winnipeg jets, who were essentially riding the wave of hot goalie dominik hasek, to stand a chance against the hull and oates st. Louis blues. What they didn't expect, however, was a series for the ages.
The jets would prove their doubters wrong by beating the blues 5-2 at st. Louis, hasek stoning brett hull the team's many scorers as ray ferraro, dave mcllwain, denis savard and phil housley gave the win to winnipeg.
Game 2, however, would see hull, ronning, geoff courtnall and free agent signing and former jet dave christian get their revenge as hasek suffered a poor night, the blues winning 4-0.
At winnipeg, the jets would bounce right back, winning 6-4 in a high scoring game that saw yoing keith tkachuk scoring the last two goals of the jets. The same thing would happen again in game 4 as winnipeg wins in OT 5-4 after a goal from brent ashton.
Game 5 would see st. Louis dominates, brett hull scoring a hat trick and rod brind'amour scoring two in a 7-3 win.
With their lives on the line, game 6 would be cruciial for the blues. And they answered with brio. Scott stevens played one heck of a game, earning himself the first star after a stellar defensive peroformance and assisting on cliff ronning, adam oates and nelson emerson's goals as well as scori g one himself as the blues would force a game 7 by the score of 4-2.
Everybody in the winnipeg arena prayed for a miracle, as they felt that the momentum shifted towards st. Louis's favour. Only a brick wall can stop them...
...and its name is dominik hasek.
The czech would be on fire, offering one of his trademark dominant performances, stopping almost every puck coming his way as the jets took first blood thanks to ray ferraro.
However, gino cavallini would tie it up at the second to make it 1-1. The third period would see a goaltending duel for the ages, as hasek and joseph matched each other move for move.
Finally, the breakthrough came...from freddie olausson, who rips one from the blue line to beat joseph, who was blinded by a great screening job by luciano borsato to make it 2-1 with only 3 minutes remaining in the game!
Try as they might, the offensive powerhouse of the blues was simply no match for the dominator as hasek holds the fort and bring the jets to its second stanley cup final in 3 years!
Nobody expected that. Many thought the jets couldn't recover from losing dale hawerchuk. Yet here they are, going to the cup finals, where the new york rangers awaits!
As for the St. Louis Blues, this was simply unacceptable. Such a talented group of players, well drilled by daryl sutter and featuring some of the game's brightest stars, and they lost to a hot goalie and a team based almost exclusively on offense! They have nothing but themselves to blame as their legacy of failure continues...
STANLEY CUP FINALS
New York Rangers vs Winnipeg Jets
TEAM LINE-UPS
RANGERS
Graves-Messier-Amonte
Ogrodnick-Weight-Gartner
Matteau-Nemchinov-Erixon
King-Turcotte-Kocur/Domi
Leetch-Beukeboom
Tinordi-Zubov
Cirella-Patrick
Richter
Laforest
WINNIPEG
Tkachuk-Ferraro-Elynuik
Ashton-Savard-McLlwain
Borsato-Steen-Macdermid
Eagles-Barnes-Shannon
Housley-Numminen
Olausson-Carlysle
Cronin-Mantha
Hasek
Essensa
Who will win the cup? (Most likely the rangers, but you never know with hasek in net...)RANGERS
Graves-Messier-Amonte
Ogrodnick-Weight-Gartner
Matteau-Nemchinov-Erixon
King-Turcotte-Kocur/Domi
Leetch-Beukeboom
Tinordi-Zubov
Cirella-Patrick
Richter
Laforest
WINNIPEG
Tkachuk-Ferraro-Elynuik
Ashton-Savard-McLlwain
Borsato-Steen-Macdermid
Eagles-Barnes-Shannon
Housley-Numminen
Olausson-Carlysle
Cronin-Mantha
Hasek
Essensa
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1992 Stanley Cup Finals
It all comes down to this.
Two teams, each with distinctly different goals, all vying for the same prize:lord stanley's cup.
The new york rangers, led by mark messier and a collection of fine young talent, looking to end a 50-year curse.
The winnipeg jets, the ultimate underdogs from mid-canada, carried by its swashbuckling offense and a beast from the east in front of net.
Who will lift the cup? Let's find out!
Game 1 at madison square garden was contested in a boiling atmospehere. Manhatan was roaring to life, they expect nothing but a stanley cup. Will 50 years of failire be wiped away?
At least, it won't be easy for the blueshirts, as dominik hasek, the star of these stanley cup playoffs, continued on his insane form as he stopped the rangers offense throughout the first period, with mike richter doing the same, albeit he also received help from his defense, which was better organised than the jets's.
The second period, however, would see john ogrodnick beat hasek with a deviation on a sergei zubov shot. This was the goal the rangers needed, and they would score one more via tony amonte on a cross ice pass by messier.
The third would see hasek get his focus back and return to dominant form, not letting a single goal in as phil housley scored the jets first goal with 13 minutes remaining. The jets then bolbarded .ike richter, the young american eating rubber after rubber.
Then, the big moment came with 34 minutes remaining when messier was called 2 minutes for holding denis savard in a controversial call, the rangers captain clearly showing his displeasure to kerry fraser. On the following powerplay, savard buries it with a tap in from a diagonal pass by housley to tie the game up!
From then on, both teams threw bombs at each pther, hasek and richter standing tall and proud as they forced the game to go to overtime.
In OT, a very close call for new york as amonte had an open net, yet somehow, hasek stretches his limbs like he's monkey D. Luffy and somehow stones amonte, with randy carlysle clearing the puck, which was caught by denis savard on a breakaway, but richter brilliantly reads his feint and stones him!
Tkachuk and Beukeboom collide on the board, but the burly tkachuk absorbed the hit and kicks the puck towards olaussson, who passes to carlysle, who shoots, Elynuik deviates and scores! The winnipeg jets wins game 1 at MSG in overtime.
This was tough for the rags, but messier and roger neilson gathered their men and whipped them to focus on the next game. Returning to MSG taking their opponents seriously, the rangers would be merciless, messier, gartner and nemchinov scoring tongive the rangers a 3-0 win and tie up the series.
At winnipeg, ray ferraro would score a brace in the first period, but that only woke up mr. Messier. The captain would then take over, scoring two unanswered and assisting adam graves in the third as the rangers win game 3 3-2.
Game 4 would see only defensemen score goals. First, phil housley scored on a wrister in the first, then at the end of the period, brian leetch would bury it behind hasek with a powerful slap shot.
The second would be scoreless, with hasek and richter staying solid throughout. The third would finally see James Patrick rush towards the net to recuperate a backhand pass by amonte and wrist it pass hasek for the game winner! The rangers now leads 3-1 in the series!
Back at MSG, everybody thought the curse was gonna be over, that new york would finally see another stanley cup...but the jets would answer back, winning 5-0 with denis savard playing his best game for the jets, as if the savard of the 80s was back, scoring a hat trick and assisting on keith tkachuk and ray ferraro's PP goal and dominik hasek shutting out the rangers.
Game 6 was crucial for the rangers. No more chokes, no more collapses. That was the motto for rangers faithful and the players. First blood was drawn by the rags with mike gartner's top corner at the end of the first. However, the garden would suddenly go quiet as freddie olausson and dave mcllwain would score two quick goals in answer at the second. The rest of the period would go silent as hasek was still in god mode.
That is, until 2 minutes left, where sergei zubov delivered a suicide pass to mark messier leaving the penalty box, finding himself on a breakaway, faces hasek, feints...scores! The rangers ties it up! Captain Marvelous has done it!
Messier and MSG celebrating after the tying goal
That goal brought MSG to life and completely revitalised the rangers. The third period would be all rangers, as they outshot the jets by 15 shots, yet hasek saved every single one of them. Mike richter would play the hero, stoning Denis savard on a breakaway in the dying seconds of the period as the game goes into overtime.
A massive hit by mark tinordi on Ray Ferraro allowed sergei zubov to pick up the puck amd move up the ice, facing hasek...before giving the puck to tony amonte who wrists it...and Scores! Manhatan is running wild as finally, for the first time in over 50 years, the new york rangers are stanley cup champions in a 3-2 OT win! 1940 is history!
As Mark messier and his teammates moved around the ice with lord stanley's mug in hand, the jets came back home disappointed, yet proud of the improbable run to the final that they just pulled off. They have nothing to be ashamed about. In fact, with a certain prospect from Finland incoming, the future is looking bright for hasek and the winnipeg Jets!
1940 is history!
Stanley Cup Winners ITTL
1989: Montreal Canadiens over chicago blackhawks 4-1
1990: Hartford Whalers over Winnipeg Jets 4-3
1991: Pittsburgh Penguins over Detroit Red Wings 4-3
1992: New York Rangers over Winnipeg Jets 4-2
Alright, that's it for this one! See you next time, at the 1992 NHL Draft!
Two teams, each with distinctly different goals, all vying for the same prize:lord stanley's cup.
The new york rangers, led by mark messier and a collection of fine young talent, looking to end a 50-year curse.
The winnipeg jets, the ultimate underdogs from mid-canada, carried by its swashbuckling offense and a beast from the east in front of net.
Who will lift the cup? Let's find out!
Game 1 at madison square garden was contested in a boiling atmospehere. Manhatan was roaring to life, they expect nothing but a stanley cup. Will 50 years of failire be wiped away?
At least, it won't be easy for the blueshirts, as dominik hasek, the star of these stanley cup playoffs, continued on his insane form as he stopped the rangers offense throughout the first period, with mike richter doing the same, albeit he also received help from his defense, which was better organised than the jets's.
The second period, however, would see john ogrodnick beat hasek with a deviation on a sergei zubov shot. This was the goal the rangers needed, and they would score one more via tony amonte on a cross ice pass by messier.
The third would see hasek get his focus back and return to dominant form, not letting a single goal in as phil housley scored the jets first goal with 13 minutes remaining. The jets then bolbarded .ike richter, the young american eating rubber after rubber.
Then, the big moment came with 34 minutes remaining when messier was called 2 minutes for holding denis savard in a controversial call, the rangers captain clearly showing his displeasure to kerry fraser. On the following powerplay, savard buries it with a tap in from a diagonal pass by housley to tie the game up!
From then on, both teams threw bombs at each pther, hasek and richter standing tall and proud as they forced the game to go to overtime.
In OT, a very close call for new york as amonte had an open net, yet somehow, hasek stretches his limbs like he's monkey D. Luffy and somehow stones amonte, with randy carlysle clearing the puck, which was caught by denis savard on a breakaway, but richter brilliantly reads his feint and stones him!
Tkachuk and Beukeboom collide on the board, but the burly tkachuk absorbed the hit and kicks the puck towards olaussson, who passes to carlysle, who shoots, Elynuik deviates and scores! The winnipeg jets wins game 1 at MSG in overtime.
This was tough for the rags, but messier and roger neilson gathered their men and whipped them to focus on the next game. Returning to MSG taking their opponents seriously, the rangers would be merciless, messier, gartner and nemchinov scoring tongive the rangers a 3-0 win and tie up the series.
At winnipeg, ray ferraro would score a brace in the first period, but that only woke up mr. Messier. The captain would then take over, scoring two unanswered and assisting adam graves in the third as the rangers win game 3 3-2.
Game 4 would see only defensemen score goals. First, phil housley scored on a wrister in the first, then at the end of the period, brian leetch would bury it behind hasek with a powerful slap shot.
The second would be scoreless, with hasek and richter staying solid throughout. The third would finally see James Patrick rush towards the net to recuperate a backhand pass by amonte and wrist it pass hasek for the game winner! The rangers now leads 3-1 in the series!
Back at MSG, everybody thought the curse was gonna be over, that new york would finally see another stanley cup...but the jets would answer back, winning 5-0 with denis savard playing his best game for the jets, as if the savard of the 80s was back, scoring a hat trick and assisting on keith tkachuk and ray ferraro's PP goal and dominik hasek shutting out the rangers.
Game 6 was crucial for the rangers. No more chokes, no more collapses. That was the motto for rangers faithful and the players. First blood was drawn by the rags with mike gartner's top corner at the end of the first. However, the garden would suddenly go quiet as freddie olausson and dave mcllwain would score two quick goals in answer at the second. The rest of the period would go silent as hasek was still in god mode.
That is, until 2 minutes left, where sergei zubov delivered a suicide pass to mark messier leaving the penalty box, finding himself on a breakaway, faces hasek, feints...scores! The rangers ties it up! Captain Marvelous has done it!
Messier and MSG celebrating after the tying goal
That goal brought MSG to life and completely revitalised the rangers. The third period would be all rangers, as they outshot the jets by 15 shots, yet hasek saved every single one of them. Mike richter would play the hero, stoning Denis savard on a breakaway in the dying seconds of the period as the game goes into overtime.
A massive hit by mark tinordi on Ray Ferraro allowed sergei zubov to pick up the puck amd move up the ice, facing hasek...before giving the puck to tony amonte who wrists it...and Scores! Manhatan is running wild as finally, for the first time in over 50 years, the new york rangers are stanley cup champions in a 3-2 OT win! 1940 is history!
As Mark messier and his teammates moved around the ice with lord stanley's mug in hand, the jets came back home disappointed, yet proud of the improbable run to the final that they just pulled off. They have nothing to be ashamed about. In fact, with a certain prospect from Finland incoming, the future is looking bright for hasek and the winnipeg Jets!
1940 is history!
1989: Montreal Canadiens over chicago blackhawks 4-1
1990: Hartford Whalers over Winnipeg Jets 4-3
1991: Pittsburgh Penguins over Detroit Red Wings 4-3
1992: New York Rangers over Winnipeg Jets 4-2
Alright, that's it for this one! See you next time, at the 1992 NHL Draft!
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1992 NHL Draft and Off-season
Two new teams enter the league this year, the ottawa senators and the milwaukee admirals. The two expansion teams will therefore pick first and second in the draft, as per league custom.
The admirals wins both the coin toss and the 1st overall pick, and they would select czech defensman roman hamrlik, while the sens would select alexei yashin.
The third overall pick belongs to the san jose sharks, who selects their top pick on their draft board, defenseman mike rathje.
Quebec is up next...but wait! The NHL comissioner steps up to the podium...
"We have a trade to announce...The Winnipeg Jets sends center Ray ferraro and the 17th overall pick to the Quebec Nordiques in exchange for the 4th overall pick! The jets are now on the clock..."
An unexpected move by the jets, as they sent their top scorer to Quebec, the nords acquiring some much needed depth at center to give joe sakic and mats sundin some rest. With the 4th overall pick, the winniepg jets selects defenseman darius kasparaitis. GM john Ferguson knew that the jets lost the finals to the new york rangers in part because Hasek was left on his ow one too many times, and the team's best d-men were all offensive minded quarterbacks. Sure, trading Ray Ferraro sucks, but sacrifices had to be made in order to improve the team, and with tough defensive d-men kasparaitis and 1991 1st round pick richard matvichuk ready for NHL Hockey and the two best young europeans in Teemu Selanee and center Alexei Zhamnov joining the roster, ferguson felt that the trade was worth it.
The Jets's young guns
Other than that, the islanders, who had the 5th overall pick, would take todd warriner, while the calgary flames would take cory stillman with the 6th pick. Nothing changes apart from the 17th pick, which now belongs to quebec, who selects defeseman Jason Smith. The pick after that, the devils pick sergei bautin and the pittsburgh penguins pick martin straka.
The detroit red wings, who switched picks with the new york rangers as part of the john vanbiesbrouck trade, would pick dead last in the first round. They woudl select winger Kirk Maltby.
The jets's second round pick would end up being boris mironov, while the momtreal canadiens would pick pavel bure's brother valeri. The canucks would pick michael peca, while the red wings would pick Darren Mccarthy, with the rangers picking defenseman matthias norstrom.
The only other notable picks are:
4th round: Toronto picks D Robert Svehla, Minnesota picks RW jere lehtinen
5th RND: San Jose picks Magnus Ragnarsson, Vancouver picks D Adrian Aucoin
9th RND: Milwaukee picks G Nikolai Khabibulin
OFF-SEASON NEWS
The biggest news of the off-season is, of course, the arrival of eric lindros in Toronto. The next one's arrival at training camp provoked a media frenzy the likes of which toronto and the hockey world has never seen before. With lindros, wendel clark and doug gilmour, leafs fans have hope that they will become stanley cup contenders for years to come.
Dat Mustache tho...
The good news would keep coming for the leafs. Canadiens head coach pat burns, who lost his players and the fans due to his strict defensive style and constant eliminations at the hands of boston, would leave the team and become the leafs head coach. At his suggestion, the leafs would then acquire one of his favorite players from montreal, Shayne corson, along with brent gilchrist and future considerations, in exchange for vincent damphousse. The quebecois isn't really a pat burns type of player, so this trade came as no surprise.
The canadiens, meanwhile, would not stop at only getting damphousse. They would later trade russ courtnall to Minnesota in exchange for veteran goalscorer Brian Bellows, and they would also hire a new coach in former blues and red wings skipper Jacques Demers. In demers, GM serge savard is hoping to implement more offense, with damphousse and bellows added to the team alongside established top 6 guys like kirk muller, mark recchi and stéphane richer, the habs seems to be gunning for just that.
Other moves around the league includes the hartford whalers bolstering their defense and goaltending by trading top prospect bobby holik to the new jersey devils for Eric Weinrich and Sean Burke. Burke will becone the team's new starter following mike liut's retirement, while weinrich brigs some more depth to a defense that already contains dave ellett, Ulf Samuelsson, Norm Maciver and dave babych. On offense, Swedish league top scorer Markus Naslund comes to the league, and he will be paired with ron francis and pat verbeek on the first line, with geoff sanderson, andrew cassels and scott young on the second.
Finally, we have our first big deal of the season, as Paul Coffey, who has been the leading defenseman for the pittsburgh oenguins, is traded to the los angeles kings in exchange for brian benning. The move came as the kings needed proven cup winners to partner their young stars. He won't be the only former oiler joining the team, however, as marty mcsorley joins from detroit in exchange for draft picks to solidify the bottom pairing.
Speaking of the red wings, they replaced marty mcsorley with longtime flyers anchor Mark Howe in free agency. The son of gordie howe brings some much needed veteran leadership on the team. Bryan murray was not done, however, as he acquired Washington capitals winger Dino Ciccarelli in exchange for Kevin Miller. Ciccarelli will play on the first line with wayne gretzky and sergei Fedorov.
Finally, another russian joins the team. Young Vyacheslav Kozlov, who shined in the 1992 Olympics for the former USSR Team, will join countrymen fedorov and vladdy konstantinov, and play on steve yzerman's line.
The only other notable off-season move was former st. Louis blues assistant captain gino Cavallini joining the young and promising quebec nordiques as a free agent.
DETROIT RED WINGS 1992 1993 ROSTER
Ciccarelli-Gretzky-Fedorov
Kozlov-Yzerman-Sheppard
Ysebaert-Burr-Drake
Probert-Draper-Gallant/Kennedy
Lidstrom-Chelios
Chiasson-Konstantinov
Racine-Howe
Vanbiesbrouck
Cheveldae
Ciccarelli-Gretzky-Fedorov
Kozlov-Yzerman-Sheppard
Ysebaert-Burr-Drake
Probert-Draper-Gallant/Kennedy
Lidstrom-Chelios
Chiasson-Konstantinov
Racine-Howe
Vanbiesbrouck
Cheveldae
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