NHL: The 10 Best Stanley Cup Redemption Stories of All Time

Can the Vancouver Canucks get that 16th playoff victory that eluded them last spring? Can the two-time Western Conference finalist San Jose Sharks shed the “chokers” persona? Can the Washington Capitals terminate their tendency to do spring cleaning before the start of the third round?

Aren’t these the types of questions that keep drawing everybody to the Stanley Cup playoffs on an annual basis?

You know the answer to that fourth question is a Cyclopean yes, because the preceding queries are just that enticing, as are many others.

Collective fan bases, core groups of participants and individual participants who have swung and missed at a title in recent history have a way of setting themselves apart from the other umpteen storylines each spring.

For direct rooters and impartial observers alike, and sometimes even openly respectful adversaries, few stories are more compelling than a player or team recovering from a preceding loss in the finals or otherwise mortifying defeat to claim the Cup.

The 10 best examples of elastic NHL players, coaches and franchises going from failure to fulfillment in a relatively short window of time are as follows.

10. Edmonton Oilers, 1983-84

Wayne Gretzky brooked two losing seasons―though keep in mind these were the days when several sub.-500 teams made the postseason―to start his NHL career.

Then the Oilers took on a contender’s persona in 1981-1982, but they were startlingly dislodged in the opening round of that year’s playoffs by the Los Angeles Kings.

The following season, Edmonton recompensed that upset by reaching the finals, only to be swept by the dynastic New York Islanders.

In the subsequent rematch in 1984, however, the Oilers felt the last of their growing pains and usurped the Cup from the Isles in five games.

An honorable mention should be given to the 2008-2009 Pittsburgh Penguins, whose story is relatively comparable. The chief difference is that, while Sidney Crosby’s team claimed its title by avenging a preceding loss to the Red Wings, they established themselves as contenders a tad quicker than Gretzky’s Oilers.

9. Toronto Maple Leafs, 1941-42

Following their first banner campaign in 1932, the Leafs lost in six of the next eight Stanley Cup finals, including three straight in 1938, 1939 and 1940.

Entering the 1941-1942 season, Toronto had no holdovers from its previous title team. It had two left over from the 1935 runner-up season, three from 1936, seven from 1938, 11 from 1939 and 15 from 1940.

They all finally hopped over the hurdle and brought the Cup back to Ontario upon rallying from a three-games-to-none deficit in the finals.

8. Scotty Bowman, 1972-73

Bowman’s arrival in the NHL coincided with that of the St. Louis Blues in 1967. He would coach the expansion club to three straight finals appearances in as many years of existence, only to lose twice to Montreal and once to Boston.

After one additional year in Missouri, Bowman left to fill the Canadiens’ vacancy. His second season in Montreal and fifth in the NHL culminated in his first of nine career championships.

7. Detroit Red Wings, 1996-97

In 1993-94, Bowman made Detroit the his last of five NHL stops. He made an instantaneous impression by helping the Wings finish atop the Western Conference in each of his first three seasons.

In his second and third campaign behind the Detroit bench, the Red Wings nabbed the President’s Trophy, even setting an NHL record with 62 wins and 131 points in 1995-96.

But each of those three build-ups was followed by a spring sputter. Detroit lost to San Jose in the opening round of the 1994 playoffs, endured a sweep at the hands of the obsessive-defensive Devils in the 1995 finals and lost the first installment of their newfangled rivalry with Colorado in the 1996 conference finals.

Ironically, the disproportion between regular-season and postseason successes flip-flopped the following year. Finishing third in the bracket, the Wings won their rematch with the Avalanche to claim the Campbell Bowl and then swept the higher-seeded Flyers to end the franchise’s 42-year title drought.

6. New Jersey Devils, 1994-95

The 1994 Devils were less than 20 minutes away from stamping their first Stanley Cup final passport on home ice, when Mark Messier followed through on his famed guarantee. The captain of the rival Rangers single-handedly turned a 2-1 New Jersey lead into a 4-2 New York victory, forcing a rubber game at Madison Square Garden.

Two nights later, Stephane Matteau smuggled a wrap-around behind green goaltender Martin Brodeur in double overtime, derailing the Devils.

A lockout forced Jacques Lemaire’s pupils to delay their reclamation project by about three months. And they finished in a relatively unfavorable spot as the fifth-seeded team in the Eastern Conference.

But a combination of Lemaire’s trap, Brodeur’s goaltending and an offense piloted by agitator Claude Lemieux bolstered the Devils through all four rounds. Despite starting each series away from home, they ultimately went 12-4 through the first three rounds and swept the favored Red Wings in the finals.

5. Dallas Stars, 1998-99

Ken Hitchcock’s Stars of the late 1990s followed a pattern not unlike that of the mid-'90s Red Wings.

Finishing second in the Western Conference for the 1997 tournament, Dallas traded wins with the underdog Edmonton Oilers for the first six games of the opening round. Of the last five installments of that series, three were overtime victories for the Oilers, including a 4-3 stunner in Game 7 at Reunion Arena.

It was none other than Detroit, in successful defense of its title, that dumped the President’s Trophy-winning Stars in the 1998 Western Conference finals.

But the subsequent offseason acquisition of Brett Hull and the return of Joe Nieuwendyk from an injury suffered the previous postseason helped the Stars to the next stage. They repeated as regular-season champions, erased a 3-2 series deficit to knock off Colorado in the conference finals and repressed the Cinderella Sabres for the championship.

4. Marian Hossa, 2009-10

Acquired from Atlanta at the trade deadline, Hossa led the Pittsburgh Penguins through their 2008 playoff run with 12 goals and 26 points. But neither general manager Ray Shero, his radiant rental or his other employees were rewarded as Detroit claimed the Cup in six games.

What could have been less likely than the Pens and Wings crossing paths in the next Cup final and Pittsburgh finding redemption? One of their former mates switching sides and losing yet again, which was what Hossa did after signing with Detroit as a free agent and posting a team-best 40 goals in the regular season.

Transferring to yet another city via free agency for the second consecutive summer, Hossa would find himself in the finals again with Chicago in 2010. He pitched in a goal and three assists over the first three games, then went quiet for the rest of the series, but was finally a victor when Patrick Kane’s overtime strike eliminated the Flyers in Game 6.

3. Steve Smith, 1986-87

Smith’s first full season in the NHL and first Stanley Cup playoff run was on the heels of his Edmonton Oilers winning back-to-back titles. That run ended in the seventh game of the Smythe Division finals against the rival Calgary Flames when the young blueliner committed a bona fide rookie gaffe.

In what was initially unfolding as a routine breakout setup behind the net, Smith’s attempt at an upfront centering feed banked off the back shin of Oilers’ goaltender Grant Fuhr and into his own cage. That blunder ultimately finalized a 3-2 triumph for the visiting Flames.

Smith’s apprehension that the misplay would cost him his future with the proud franchise was ultimately dissipated. In 1986-1987, he saw action in 62 regular-season and 15 playoff games, including the Cup clincher in Game 7 against Philadelphia.

Upon taking the trophy from NHL president John Ziegler, Edmonton captain Wayne Gretzky promptly handed it to Smith for a cathartic victory lap around Northlands Coliseum.

2. Detroit Red Wings, 1942-43

The aforementioned Maple Leafs of 1942 were the first major professional sports team to fully recover from an initial 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series.

The Wings, who had also lost in the previous final to Boston, were the victims who went down in particularly ugly fashion. When they missed their chance to complete the sweep, legendary coach Jack Adams was suspended for the balance of the series for chasing after referee Mel Harwood.

Detroit regrouped and proceeded to finish first in the league for the first time in five years. In the postseason, they got direct vindication by knocking off Toronto in six games in the opening round and sweeping the Bruins in the finals.

1. Boston Bruins, 2010-11

The 1943 Red Wings may have rebounded after being the first team to spill a 3-0 series lead, but they only needed two rounds and eight victories to thoroughly redress themselves.

Conversely, last year’s Bruins would need four series wins and 16 individual game victories to get the requisite champagne to rinse out all residual vinegar from their second-round collapse against Philadelphia in 2010.

As it happened, Boston started its 2011 run by winning its first Game 7 on four tries in the Claude Julien era, zapping the rival Canadiens in overtime. That was immediately followed by a sweep of the Flyers that was completed 52 weeks to the date of their previous Game 4 with Philadelphia and 51 weeks after being on the wrong side of the same handshake in the same building after the same round.

Eventual Conn Smythe Trophy winner Tim Thomas, whose future with the team was in question with his problematic hip the preceding year, proceeded to pitch two shutouts in as many Game 7s. He and his skating mates topped the Tampa Bay Lightning, 1-0, to reach the finals and then stifled the regular-season champion Canucks, 4-0, to end a 39-year championship drought.