The weakest cup finals roster ever?

[calgARI]

The roster may have been weak on paper but they were a good team on the ice, certainly a lot better than 03 Ducks, 02 Canes, 98 Capitals, 96 Panthers.

[Kjesse]

I still don't understand why we traded Lydman.

The 03-04 Flames aren't strong in terms of "names", but they sure got things done. They were tough, energetic, and with league best goaltending almost captured the top prize. There were few passengers on that team.

[Devils'Advocate]

1968 Blues.

[Pointman]

It was DEFENSIVE league before lock-out and Flames had a lot of talent, yes, TALENT on defense and in the net. Regehr, Leopold and Lydman were excellent, highly-touted and TALENTED defensemen and Kipper was obviously very talented goalie.

Robyn Regehr was highly-touted prospect, who was supposed to become next Adam Foote, and he was widely considered as elite shut-down Dman back then.

Jordan Leopold was highly-touted defender (I remember Jim Houghson saying in EA NHL game that Leo is a lot like young Brian Leech). He was starting defenseman on team USA and next year after lock-out he had more ice time than Hamrlik and Phaneuf.

Toni Lydman was very solid blueliner, who went on to two conference finals with Sabres in the next two seasons, and in 2005-06 he actually led them in ice time.

Having Selke nominee Craig Conroy and other elite defensive forwards, such as Yelle and Gelinas, didn't hurt team defense either.

Another point that needs to be adressed is that Flames low scoring was a result of playing very physical and defensive system rather than lack of scoring talent. Nevermind league-leading scorer Iginla, Martin Gelinas had two 30+ and four 20+ goals seasons in his career alond with Stanley Cup and three other appearances in Finals (Cammalleri, for example, has two 30+ and three 20+ and only two series wins). Even guys like Chris Clark and Chris Simon boast 30 and 29 goals seasons respectively. Fourth-line center Matthew Lombardi has 20-goals season to his name, as well, as depth wingers Dean MacAmmond and Chuck Kobasew. That forwards group had decent, albeit not great, hands and a lot of scoring depth (seven 20-goals scorers). Their numbers were largely result of the system they played.

[Hanna Sniper]

enough said

[Dion]

86 Flames

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/l...000431986.html

[Buff]

Without looking at the roster, my first thought was the '91 North Stars, but with the likes of Bellows, Gagner, Propp, Modano, Broten, Bobby Smith and Dahlen they were no slouches up front but definitely lacking star power. Not much for defense or goaltending though. How did they make it so far? Cinderella team.

The Panthers in 96 are very strong candidates. Poor team, indeed.

[Bootsy]

Originally Posted by Dion

86 Flames

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/l...000431986.html

Yeah, real weak I only count 3 hall of famers on that roster 4 if you count Hull.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Bootsy

Yeah, real weak I only count 3 hall of famers on that roster 4 if you count Hull.

It was a weak roster when you consider where the players were at that stage in thier careers. Hull had yet to establish himself in the NHL and only played 2 playoff games. Suter was injured in the first round and didn't play for the rest of the playoffs. Vernon was in his first season and used the playoffs to establish himself as the Flames #1 goalie.

[Bootsy]

Originally Posted by Dion

It was a weak roster when you consider where the players were at that stage in thier careers. Hull had yet to establish himself in the NHL and only played 2 playoff games. Suter was injured in the first round and didn't play for the rest of the playoffs. Vernon was in his first season and used the playoffs to establish himself as the Flames #1 goalie.

No it wasn't....just curious are you old enough to remember this team?
McDonald , MacInnis and Mullen all future HOFers.
I'm not sure how Vernon being a rookie has any bearing on this especially since he stole the job from Lemelin who just played on Team Canada in the '84 Canada Cup. Roy was a rookie too and lead Montreal to the Cup.
For this team to even be mentioned as the weakest cup finalist is ridiculous .

[OutOfTheCube]

The '99 Sabres were pretty bad.

It was Hasek, Satan, Peca, and a bunch of schlubs.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Bootsy

No it wasn't....just curious are you old enough to remember this team?
McDonald , MacInnis and Mullen all future HOFers.
I'm not sure how Vernon being a rookie has any bearing on this especially since he stole the job from Lemelin who just played on Team Canada in the '84 Canada Cup. Roy was a rookie too and lead Montreal to the Cup.
For this team to even be mentioned as the weakest cup finalist is ridiculous .

Yes i'm old enough to remember that team. I'm just wondering if you remebered all the injuries that took place during the run to the Cup finals and how it weakened the team. A healthy Suter and a few other players would have been the difference and chances are we would have won the Cup that year.

It's easy to look back and see all the HOF's on the roster but at that time no one knew what kind of career that Roy or Vernon were going to have. Lanny was the established star on the team and we had a bunch of up and coming players with bright futures ahead of them

[Pointman]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

The '99 Sabres were pretty bad.

It was Hasek, Satan, Peca, and a bunch of schlubs.

Panthers were worse. 1996 Panthers lost 0-4, Sabres lost 2-4 on that controversial Hull goal.

Geoff Sanderson and Alexei Zhitnik were fairly high-profile players for Sabres. Rhett Warrener, Cory Sarich, Jay McKee made up fairly physical and tough D.

Sabre's goaltending depth was unreal with Hasek, Biron and Roloson. I realize, that you need one goalie to play the game, but I can't think of any other team that had three #1 goalies in their system. It doesn't hurt that 1999 Hasek was probably the best goaltender ever. Sabres were still bad, but not the worst finalist ever.

[Pointman]

Originally Posted by jeffman

2003 ducks

Giguere, Kariya, Ozolinsh, Sykora, Oates, Rucchin, McDonald. And they went to Game 7. They were way stronger than 1996 Panthers, 1998 Caps and 1999 Sabres.

[Bootsy]

Originally Posted by Dion

Yes i'm old enough to remember that team. I'm just wondering if you remebered all the injuries that took place during the run to the Cup finals and how it weakened the team. A healthy Suter and a few other players would have been the difference and chances are we would have won the Cup that year.

It's easy to look back and see all the HOF's on the roster but at that time no one knew what kind of career that Roy or Vernon were going to have. Lanny was the established star on the team and we had a bunch of up and coming players with bright futures ahead of them

I agree with almost everything you are saying, what I don't get is how you figure that makes this team the weakest cup finals roster ever?
I also think that if the '04 team had a few less injuries they would have beaten Tampa too, the team that wins the war of attrition usually wins the cup.

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by Dion

It was a weak roster when you consider where the players were at that stage in thier careers. Hull had yet to establish himself in the NHL and only played 2 playoff games. Suter was injured in the first round and didn't play for the rest of the playoffs. Vernon was in his first season and used the playoffs to establish himself as the Flames #1 goalie.

The way I remember it is that people were saying whoever wins the series between Edmonton and Calgary was the favourite to win the cup. The long series with St. Louis wore them out and they didn't have much left against Montreal.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Bootsy

I agree with almost everything you are saying, what I don't get is how you figure that makes this team the weakest cup finals roster ever?

I'm looking at the roster through the eyes a fan watching the playoffs and players that year and not some 27 years later when you know how the careers of players developed into.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

The way I remember it is that people were saying whoever wins the series between Edmonton and Calgary was the favourite to win the cup. The long series with St. Louis wore them out and they didn't have much left against Montreal.

After beating the Oilers, fans in Calgary celebrated as if they just one the Cup. Electric avenue and all the bars were a gong show. I ended phoning in sick the next day as I was too drunk from celebrating

Giving up a 3 goal lead to the Blues late in the 3rd period and losing in OT of game 6 cost the Flames a few days of rest that they badly needed. Like you say, probably would have made a difference.

[FlamesFanStrandedInEDM]

Wasn't the 2003 Ducks team pretty weak?

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

Satan, Peca, and a bunch of schlubs.

Redundant sentence is redundant.