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Long gone are the days of the dynasties of old where teams won the Stanley Cup in bunches and stood atop the NHL for years. Many Montreal Canadiens fans still jab at the Toronto faithful and anyone else who will listen about the teams’ 24 Stanley Cup wins, but where have the Habs been since 1993? The Leaf fan may retort with at least the Leafs have 13 Cup wins to their credit and each season since 1967 the faithful have usually had someone who used to wear the Blue and White to cheer for in the Cup finals. However, the Cup has become increasingly harder to win, and more so to win more than once over a period of time. The closest thing to a current dynasty the Detroit Red Wings who have won 4 Stanley Cups since 1997. So I ask, where have all the dynasties gone?
In the period between 1930 and 1950 there were three prominent teams in the league; Montreal won the Cup 5 times, Detroit 4 times while Toronto brought home the Cup 6 times over that span. Between 1951 and 1970 Detroit won another 3 Cups, Toronto won the Cup 5 times and Montreal won the Cup an astounding 10 times.
Between 1971 and 1990 the torch was passed between the three teams who dominated hockey between 1930 and 1970, and when coupled with expansion new power houses were formed. While Montreal still managed to win 7 cups over this period, the New York Islanders snuck in and won 4, and the Edmonton Oilers burst onto the scene and won 5 cups over an incredible stretech. There were also 5 different back-to-back winning seasons during this same span.
Over the span of 60 Cups, you did not only see individual teams repeating, but also players repeating for the same team, players like Guy Lafleur, Mark Messier and Bryan Trottier. Teams were built for the long haul, not just for the present. It was building the teams and keeping them together that helped win Cups. The rise and fall of teams was drawn out over a long period of time.
However things changed after 1990. Since 1991 there have been 21 Cups awarded to 13 different franchises and other than Pittsburgh winning the Cup in 1991 and 1992 and Detroit winning the Cup in 1997 and 1998, no other team has won back-to-back Stanley Cups over that period of time. In fact, no team has won the Cup more than once over the past 9 seasons.
What is new? What is different? What is bringing about this change?
Well for one thing, every team that has won the Cup over the past 10 seasons, with the exception of Detroit, has drafted with at least one top 3 pick in a draft within 10 seasons prior to the Cup win. Detroit did have higher picks, but those picks did not fall within the 10 season parameters I set for this review. And with more teams in the league the difference between a pick in the top 3 and a pick in the 27-30 range of a round can be significant. What does this tell us about building a champion? For one, in the modern day it means either parting with a big asset to gain a high pick, or by actually starting the rebuilding process at the beginning.
Secondly, in an era where the salary cap has forced teams and general managers to be creative, keeping good teams together has also become a problem. Do you try to find alternatives or do you just complete the modern day rebuild and go at it again in 5 years? One could argue that an example of this can be seen with Colorado, Carolina and Tampa Bay. Three of the top 5 picks in the 2013 NHL draft are held by one of these clubs and each has won the Stanley Cup over the past 11 seasons. Could one of these picks launch a club back into relevance?
Fewer players are playing out their full career with one club, and many teams have been forced to make the decision to trade an iconic player (Boston and Ray Bourque, and this seasons Calgary Flames with Jarome Iginla) to a franchise that has a shot at the Cup just to give that player one final shot at glory.
Is the fact that the Leafs and the Habs have not selected in the top 3 picks in the draft (until last season) a prime reason why neither team has been able to win a Cup in the past 20 seasons? Is their treatment or lack of movement of its iconic players in recent years a contributor (Leaf’s letting Matts Sundin walk instead of trading him, Habs letting Koivu walk)? And although I focus on two easy teams right now for examples, each team has struggled with these issues at one stage or another in their histories.
However, I wonder if things might just be changing. As of Wednesday night the 5 teams remaining in the Stanley Cup play-offs represented the past 5 Stanley Cup winning cities (Detroit 2008, Pittsburgh 2009, Chicago 2010, Boston 2011 and Los Angeles 2012). This has to be at the very least a rare occurrence. What this also means is that this season will see a team crowned with its second Cup is as many as 5 years.
Will this only be the start of a long stretch of success for Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles or Pittsburgh, or does this represent the swan song for a team like Detroit who is at the end of their current success? Will Pittsburgh blow things up again like they did after winning their previous Cups in the preceding three decades? So many questions that will be answered soon.
This will be the first article in a series of articles looking at and analyzing the success of the final five teams; Detroit, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles in search of the new magic formula to creating a champion. The series will discuss whether that champion is built to stand the test of time like the Habs of old, or will each team’s success pass as quickly as the many Cup winners over the past 21 seasons.
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