Oddities of Lord Stanley's Tournament Quiz

Answer: Chicago Blackhawks

The post war era saw Toronto and Montreal dominate the late 1940s, Detroit and Montreal dominate the 1950s, and, (big surprise), Montreal dominate the 1960s. The fabled Canadiens garnered twelve Cups, Toronto won ten, and the Red Wings nabbed six during this golden era of the original six teams.

The Blackhawks, coached by the long forgotten Rudy Pilous, made their breakthrough in 1961, beating Detroit four games to two. After that, they would suffer a forty nine year drought before finally winning another Cup in 2010. Alas, of the other two teams in the league at the time, Boston could only lose five times in the finals, and New York barely even sniffed the Cup during this time, making the finals only once and losing to Detroit in 1950.

Answer: Joel Quenneville

Quenneville took the Chicago Blackhawks to the promised land in 2010, ending their 49 year drought, then repeated the feat in 2013 (and again in 2015), cementing the Chicago franchise as one of the most successful and a force to be reckoned with in the early 21st century. Perhaps not coincidentally, after retiring from coaching in 2002, Scotty Bowman eventually signed on as a senior advisor of hockey operations with Chicago in 2008, and soon after, there they were winning the Cup.

The list of first time Cup winning coaches after 2002: 2003-Pat Burns/New jersey; 2004-John Tortorella/Tampa Bay; 2006 - Peter Laviolette/Carolina; 2007- Randy Carlisle/Anaheim; 2008 - Mike Babcock/ Detroit; 2009 - Dan Bylsma/Pittsburgh; 2010 - Quenneville; 2011 - Claude Julien/Boston; 2012 - Darryl Sutter/Los Angeles.

Answer: once

Only the 1993 Montreal Canadiens, who defeated the Los Angeles Kings 4-1 in the finals, were able to capture the Cup during this period 1990-2015. This Canadian drought is puzzling and frustrating for many of Canada's rabid fans, who see hockey as "their" sport, something of a national institution and cornerstone of their culture.

Many theories have been advanced to explain the phenomenon. These included the obvious, such as the smaller number of Canadian teams, and the more subtle; the weaker Canadian dollar hurt Canadian teams ability to sign high priced free agents in the period before the salary cap, and the stronger attendance of most Canadian teams enable sold out arenas despite poor performance, thus reducing ownership motivation to field a superior product.

Answer: A penalty for an illegal stick

The Kings essentially sneaked into playoffs with a 39-35-10 third place record, then dispatched Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto to make the finals. They were a solid team, however, and they also had the still formidable talent and unprecedented inspiration of the great Wayne Gretzky motivating the team and the fan base.

They surprised the favored Canadiens 4-1 in game one, and had a 2-1 lead late in game two. At that point, coach Jaques Demers called for a measurement of the hockey stick of King's tough guy Marty McSorely.

The stick was ruled illegal (too much curve). The Canadiens pulled their goalie on the ensuing power play for a six on four situation, and defenseman Eric Desjardins scored the tying goal with 73 seconds left. He also scored the game winner in overtime, completing a hat trick and sending the Habs on their way to the Cup as they swept the next three games for a 4-1 series win.

Answer: No one

In the old days, when there was no such thing as a goalie mask or a face shield, the NHL champions contested the Cup with a challenger from another league. In 1919, the Montreal Canadiens took on the Seattle Metropolitans of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. Hard core NHL history buffs will know that this was the only year in the 20th century that the Stanley Cup was not awarded, and that the real cause was so small as to be literally microscopic. Five games were played, with each side winning twice and one tie! Then a flu outbreak afflicted both teams and essentially laid out the majority of the Montreal roster. Montreal manager George Kennedy gallantly offered to forfeit the series, Seattle gallantly refused, and the Cup was not awarded. One Montreal player died from the illness, and Kennedy was weakened, never fully recovered, and himself died two years later.

Answer: No one

February 16th, 2005 was a sad day for the National Hockey League and everyone connected with it in any way. The entire 2004-05 season, with its 1,230 regularly scheduled games and its prospective Stanley Cup tournament, was cancelled. This was the first time in the history of North American pro sports that time a whole season and postseason was lost.

The players had been locked out since September of 2004 because of an intractable labor dispute, and when last ditch negotiations fell through, the owners finally, officially pulled the plug.

The major issue was a "salary cap" which the players and agents would not accept. Eventually, of course, they did accept a modified cap and play resumed the following season. The lockout lasted 310 days and officially ended on July 21st with official ratification of the agreement by the NHLPA (players association).

Although the owners probably did overstate the extent of the financial crisis facing the league, there is no doubt many teams were hemorrhaging money and were in danger of folding.

In one poll, 52% of the fans held the players more responsible for the work stoppage, as opposed to 21% blaming the owners. In the long run, despite the trauma of the lost season, it's possible to say the fans got over it, the game got healthier, and the league became more balanced.

Answer: Mike Gartner

All four of these great players never won the Stanley Cup, but only Gartner never played in the finals and never won a major NHL award. However, his stellar career with five teams included an unprecedented seventeen seasons scoring thirty goals. Lindros won the Hart trophy as the leading scorer in the strike-shortened 1994-1995 season, scoring 70 points in only 46 games.

He also played in the Cup final in 1997 with Philadelphia against the Detroit Red Wings. Marcel Dionne won multiple awards during his outstanding eighteen year career, including two Lady Byng trophies and one Art Ross trophy as the top scorer in the league.

Unfortunately, he never made it past round two of the playoffs due to playing on mediocre teams in Detroit and Los Angeles for twelve seasons, and later with the New York Rangers. Ciccarelli had a career in many ways similar to Gartner's, playing a consistent nineteen years and racking up 608 goals and 592 assists for an even 1200 points.

He did get to play in the Stanley Cup finals with Minnesota in 1981 and Detroit in 1995.

Answer: Teemu Selanne (1993)

A surprising number of Calder Trophy winners had great careers, but never got to skate around the ice holding the Cup. The three other answers all were voted top first year player, are in the Hall of Fame, and never won Lord Stanley's chalice. The same is true for at least three others; Sergei Makarov (1990), Peter Statsny (1981) and Gilbert Perreault (1971). Teemu Selanne started his career in '93 with Winnipeg, won the initial Maurice Richard trophy (top goal scorer) in 1999 with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, and finally experienced Stanley Cup victory his second year back with Anaheim in 2007. Between stints with Anaheim, he spent a couple of years with San Jose and one with the Colorado Avalanche.

Answer: Against Panthers, Dominek Hasek clearing attempt hits referee and goes in Buffalo net

*In Dominek Hasek's time with the Sabres, they never met Florida in a playoff series.

Almost everyone would agree that the most controversial goal in Stanley Cup history is Brett Hull's overtime winner in game six of the 1999 finals, which clinched the Cup for Dallas over Buffalo. Countless commentators, bloggers, fans and hockey experts have viewed the goal over and over, and there is not a consensus as to whether it should have counted. His foot was in the crease, but even the strict "in the crease" rule, much despised at the time and since dropped by the league, didn't remove the ambiguity, because it had a provision allowing the maneuver if the player controlled the puck. So the argument became whether or not Hull had controlled it first. The bottom line is that to Buffalo fans it remains "No Goal" in their minds, but it says "Dallas Stars" on the Stanley Cup.
The other two instances are way less ambiguous. In the game four of the 2007 Easter Conference Semifinal, Henrik Lundqvist apparently robbed Briere with Buffalo down 2-1 and less than a minute remaining in the game. However, the replay of the puck across the line seemed definitive. Officials ruled the evidence "inconclusive" and the Rangers held on to even the series. Fortunately for team fans, Buffalo won the next two and advanced, so the cost was at most one extra game of wear and tear.
Perhaps the most egregious error in a Stanley Cup game was LeClair's "goal" through the side netting in 2000. It looked like it went in, it felt like it went in, but it didn't. No replay was immediately available which showed what really happened. When NBC showed their replay later, it was ruled too late to change. Philly went on to win the series.

Answer: Fog accumulating on the ice

The Philadelphia Flyers and Buffalo Sabres competed for the 1975 Cup, with the Flyers prevailing four games to two, successfully defending their breakthrough 1974 championship over the Boston Bruins. Philadelphia took the first two games on home ice, but things got weird when the teams got on the ice in Buffalo for game three.

The temperature was in the 80s, unseasonably hot for that city in late May, and their building (Memorial Auditorium) had no air conditioning. On ice temperature reportedly approached ninety degrees (32 Celsius) with high humidity, at the game's onset. Midway through period one, a lone bat which lived in the rafters came down and began flitting around the ice, probably hoping to cool off.

As it swooped around the face off circle during a stoppage, Sabres forward Jim Lorenz knocked it out of the air with his stick. Amid a mixture of boos and cheers, Flyers forward Rick MacLeish tried to stick handle it, then scooped it up with glove and deposited it in the penalty box.

Some Buffalo fans saw this as a bad omen. So the bat was real and did cause a brief delay, but it never bit anyone. This type of bat has a basic diet of insects, and normally avoids humans. But that was only the beginning. Seemingly right after the bat fiasco, the steamy air contacting the ice started forming fog, which grew more dense as the game progressed. During subsequent stoppages, players, and stadium personnel holding bed sheets, were instructed to skate around the ice to dissipate the fog. This met with only partial, temporary success as the fog worsened. Philadelphia took an early 2-0 lead, but Buffalo tied it at four in the third period, and eventually won the game in overtime on a bad angle shot by Rene Robert. Flyers goalie Bernie Parent, who went on to shut out the Sabres in the deciding sixth game back in Buffalo, claimed he barely saw the puck and didn't realize Robert had taken a shot until too late, because he couldn't see anything at ice level. The game was stopped five times in regulation, and seven times in the overtime period, but it finally ended at 18:29 of OT and it the result stood.