The Journey Back - Stanley Cup Hangovers?
"We need to make sure that we start over again... Our name is right back in the hat with 29 other teams that are going to compete for the Stanley Cup. In order to do that, we have to get better, we have to grow together as a team."
-- Dan Bylsma
No team has won back-to-back Stanley Cup Championships since the Red Wings did it in '97 and '98.
Before that, the Pens did it in '91 and '92.
It's been over a decade since a team has repeated as champions.
There is no championship advantage in hockey.
The Pittsburgh Penguins will need to go through a grueling 82-game schedule just like every other team.
They will need to deal with slumps and injuries and personnel changes.
Then, after all that, they will need to win 16 playoff games in order to touch the Stanley Cup once again.
It's the same journey as last year, and the year before, and the year before that.
Winning the Cup once doesn't make it any easier to win it again.
The Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy in sports to attain.
And, if history is any indication, it's even harder to win it two years in a row.
Many great teams have tried, and many great teams have failed.
Despite the fact that the Pens won back-to-back Cups in the 90s, we still know what it feels like to fail after a championship season.
1993.
The Pittsburgh Penguins were on course to claim their third Stanley Cup in three years.
They won the President's Trophy and were a favorite heading into the playoffs.
We don't need to mention what happened when they got there.
The point is, no matter how prepared a team is, no matter how talented the players are, anything can happen.
Today we look at the last ten years of champions and break down the season following their Cup win.
1998–99 Stanley Cup Champions:
Dallas Stars
Is it just us, or are the Dallas Stars the most boring Stanley Cup Champions ever?
We would have forgotten that they ever won the Cup if not for Brett Hull's foot in the crease.
6,000 people in Buffalo just screamed "NO GOAL."
The 1999–2000 Season:
The Stars performed quite well in the season following their Cup win.
They finished first in the Pacific division and third in the Western Conference.
They started off the playoffs with a 4-1 series victory over Edmonton, beat San Jose 4-1 in round two and fought through a tough Colorado Avalanche team to win the Western Conference Final in seven games.
In the Final they fell to the New Jersey Devils in six games.
Two of the six games were ended in overtime, including the final game.
Jason Arnott scored in the second overtime period to win the Cup for the Devils.
The Stars became the first team since 1984 to lose in the Final the year after winning the Cup.
There was no Stanley Cup hangover for the Dallas Stars, but they weren't able to claim the Cup twice in a row.
1999–2000 Stanley Cup Champions:
New Jersey Devils
The 2000-01 Season:
Defensive hockey was in full force at this point and the New Jersey Devils were at the top of the class.
The Devils also had goal scoring ability. They featured an impressive first line of Patrick Elias, Jason Arnott and Petr Sykora and the New Jersey Devils actually led the NHL in goals scored in 2001.
With Martin Brodeur in goal they also ranked among the top of the NHL in goals against.
The Devils followed their Stanley Cup victory with an impressive season.
They finished first in the Eastern Conference in the regular season and the defeated the Hurricanes, Leafs and Penguins to return to the Stanley Cup Final for the second year in a row.
It was in the Final where Patrick Roy showed up Brodeur and the Avalanche claimed the Cup in seven games.
The Devils were shutout twice in the series and blew two chances to win the Cup.
They went into game six at home leading the series 3-2, but they couldn't pull it off.
Again, no apparent Cup hangover was present, but the Devils still weren't able to win back-to-back Cups.
Did Brodeur run out of gas in the final round?
The team's offense disappeared as well, so it's possible that the second straight run to the Final simply wore the Devils out.
The team's offense disappeared as well, so it's possible that the second straight run to the Final simply wore the Devils out.
2000-01 Stanley Cup Champions:
Colorado Avalanche
The 2001-02 Season:
The 2001-02 Colorado Avalanche lost Ray Bourque to retirement and played the entire season without Peter Forsberg, who sat out the regular season after having his spleen removed.
Despite the losses, the Avalanche had a good season.
They won the Northwest Division and finished second in the Western Conference.
Forsberg returned for the playoffs and he led the playoffs in scoring as the Avalanche defeated the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks on route to the Western Conference Final.
However, the Avalanche fell to the Detroit Red Wings in seven games. Three of the seven games went to overtime, but the deciding content was all Detroit.
The Red Wings beat the Avalanche 7-0 at home and advanced to the Stanley Cup Final.
They would go one to win the Cup. It was the third season in a row that the defending Stanley Cup Champion was eliminated by the team that would eventually claim the Cup.
2001–02 Stanley Cup Champions:
Detroit Red Wings
The 2002-03 Season:
The Detroit Red Wings started the 2002-03 regular season looking much different than the team that won the Cup the season before.
Both goaltender Dominik Hasek and coach Scotty Bowman retired during the offseason and captain Steve Yzerman missed the first 66 games of the regular season with a knee injury.
The Red Wings had a strong season anyway.
Henrik Zetterberg played his first season for the Red Wings and Sergei Fedorov and Brett Hull put up strong offensive numbers.
The team won the Central Division and entered the playoffs as the second seed in the Western Conference.
Then things fell apart for the greatest franchise in the history of professional sports and the only team that can truly appreciate the glory the Stanley Cup.
The second-seeded Red Wings were swept in the first round by the seventh-seeded Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.
The Ducks would go out to the Stanley Cup Final where they would be defeated by the New Jersey Devils.
2002–03 Stanley Cup Champions:
New Jersey Devils
What a facial expression.
The 2003-04 Season:
The Stanley Cup hangovers are starting to become more evident now.
Like the Red Wings the year before, the Devils had to deal with the loss of their captain for a significant amount of time.
Scott Stevens played only 38 games in the 2003-2004 season.
His absence was definitely felt and the Devils finished sixth in the Eastern Conference.
They fared no better in the playoffs, losing in the first round to the Philadelphia Flyers in five games.
The Tampa Bay Lightning would go on to win the Stanley Cup.
2003–04 Stanley Cup Champions:
Tampa Bay Lightning
Does anyone else find it hard to believe that the Lightning won the Cup only five years ago?
The 2005-06 Season:
Coming out of the lockout there were two questions:
1) How would the NHL manage to rig a league-wide sham lottery so that Sidney Crosby would be drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins?
2) What would the new NHL be like?
There were new rules, new ways to decide tied games and a new salary cap to contend with.
No one knew what to expect from the upcoming season.
In what was becoming a tradition for the defending Stanley Cup Champion, the Lightning were easily beaten in the first round of the playoffs.
They barely qualified for the postseason in the first place, finishing 8th in the Eastern Conference and only two points ahead of the 9th and 10th placed Toronto and Atlanta. The Ottawa Senators eliminated them in five games.
The Carolina Hurricanes went on the win the Stanley Cup.
2005–06 Stanley Cup Champions:
Carolina Hurricanes
The 2006-07 Season:
The Hurricanes defined "Stanley Cup hangover" in the 2006-2007 NHL season.
And, just like a hungover partier the day after prom, they felt confused and ashamed when they woke up and realized what they had done.
The Canes struggled badly during the season and finished 11th in the Eastern Conference.
The Edmonton Oilers, who they defeated in the Stanley Cup Final in 2006, also failed to make the postseason.
The Hurricanes lost the first four games of the season and were incredibly inconsistent for the entire year.
The final blow came when Cam Ward went down with an injury and missed a month of action.
The Hurricanes would watch from the sidelines as the Anaheim Ducks won the Stanley Cup.
2006–07 Stanley Cup Champions:
Anaheim Ducks
The 2007-08 Season:
In the year after winning the Cup, the Anaheim Ducks finished fourth in the Western Conference.
The team remained relatively the same as the one that held Lord Stanley's Mug over their heads the season before.
Their season was quite average and, unfortunately for them, average does not win Stanley Cups.
They were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs as the Dallas Stars defeated them in six games.
The Stars would fall to the eventual Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings in the conference final.
2007–08 Stanley Cup Champions:
Detroit Red Wings
Does looking at pictures like this one still hurt?
The 2008-09 Season:
If anyone reading this blog right now doesn't know what happened in the 2008-2009 NHL season, they should close their browser right now.
The Red Wings seemed to suffer no hangover.
They finished first in the Central Division and second in the Western Conference.
They swept Columbus in the first round, outlasted Anaheim in seven games and defeated Chicago in five to return to the Stanley Cup Final.
But it was in the final where the hangover may have hit them.
Every Red Wings fan will tell you about the injury to Pavel Datsyuk.
They tell you that the Red Wings would have found a way to beat the Penguins in only three games if he was not injured.
Whatev.
Every team has injuries.
What Red Wings fans are really saying is that their team was worn out.
Their veteran players were tired after playing all the way to the Stanley Cup Final in successive years.
Regardless, the Red Wings managed to have greater success following a Cup run than Anaheim, Tampa Bay, Carolina and New Jersey (in 2004) did.
So what does any of this mean?
Ultimately nothing.
Three of the last nine defending champions lost in the Stanley Cup Final the next year.
One lost in the conference final to the eventual champion.
On the other hand, four of those nine defending champions lost in the first round the next year, with one team being swept.
One team failed to qualify for the postseason at all, just a year after winning the Cup.
None of those teams have repeated as Champions, but none of their stories are the same.
The Stanley Cup is very difficult to win.
One injury or one month of inconsistent play can ruin your chances at claiming the Holy Grail.
One bad bounce or one timely penalty call can mean the difference between celebration and disappointment.
Like Dan Bylsma said, there are 30 teams in the NHL and each one of them starts off the season with a 0-0-0 record.
What you did last year means nothing.
You could make the Stanley Cup Final in the next season, or you could watch the entire playoffs from your couch.
Is it better to lose in the conference final in seven games than to be swept in the first round?
If your season doesn't end with the Cup once again over your head, you haven't accomplished your goal.
If your season doesn't end with the Cup once again over your head, you haven't accomplished your goal.
But, just like you can't focus on past glory, you also cannot live in fear of a championship hangover.
Last year means nothing now.
All that matters is the upcoming season.
Go Pens.
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