By David Whalen
Bad news Sens fans. There’s a curse on Stanley Cup finalists.
Every team that has made the NHL Finals since 2002 has either missed the playoffs or lost in the first round the following season. This doesn’t bode well for last year’s finalists, who surprisingly captured the Eastern Conference crown before bowing out quickly to the Anaheim Ducks in five games.
The curse has taken a curiously cyclical turn. In 2003, a year after a surprise run to the Cup Finals – where they lost in five games to the Detroit Red Wings – the Carolina Hurricanes posted the worst record in the league. Last spring, though they didn’t suffer quite the meltdown of four years prior, the Hurricanes – by now the defending Cup champions – were back on the outside looking in come playoff time.
Last season marked the first time ever that not one, but two finalists from the year before have missed the playoffs. The Edmonton Oilers, like the Hurricanes, were forced to hit the golf course prematurely in April. Spooky stuff.
However, this curse has less to do with mysticism and more to do with money and managerial maneuvering
In fact, it isn’t really a curse at all. It’s just parity.
With 30 teams in the league and a salary cap, it’s harder and harder to keep a team together, especially those made up of players who can draw big money anywhere – which the best clubs usually are.
Consider the case of the Tampa Bay Lightning, a well-oiled machine in 2004 when its players hoisted the franchise’s first Stanley Cup.
Come the 2005-06 season – after a lockout-induced off-year of wrangling between owners and players that resulted in the institution of the salary cap – the team couldn’t afford to retain the services of goalie Nikolai Khabibulin, who left for the big bucks offered by the Chicago Blackhawks.
As a result, the team couldn’t keep the puck out of its own net in important games.
Even before the cap came along in 2005, teams struggled to keep players. In 2003, after losing in the Finals to New Jersey, the Ducks had to let star player Paul Kariya leave for Colorado. The Ducks promptly failed to make the playoffs the following year.
Aside from a few consistent contenders, like the New Jersey Devils and the Detroit Red Wings, it seems no team can string four or five strong seasons together.
Gone are the days of the dynasty. The Montreal Canadiens won the Cup every year from 1976 to 1979. The team’s major developmental club, the Nova Scotia Voyageurs, was so good hockey pundits thought – and some still think – it could have beaten any team in the NHL, the Habs excepted. Today, with so many teams and a cash structure designed to ensure teams can’t stockpile star players, such things are impossible.
But there’s hope for the Senators. Judging by the roster, there’s no reason why the team shouldn’t again contend for the Eastern Conference crown. The team didn’t pick up any major players in the offseason, but it didn’t lose any either.
However, keeping a team intact doesn’t guarantee finalists a free pass the following year. After winning the Cup in 2003, the Devils had pretty much the same nucleus of players the next year. However, before the team could book another Stanley Cup parade, team captain Scott Stevens suffered a concussion and wasn’t able to play in the playoffs, where the team – you guessed it – lost in the first round.
Barring something like that, the Sens could be as good, if not better, than last year. It’s much too soon to say.
At least if it doesn’t happen, we’ll have the curse to blame.