Every NHL Team's All-Time Worst Moment

Whether you're a fan of the Chicago Blackhawks (Est. 1926) or the Columbus Blue Jackets (Est. 2000), each and every team in the NHL has a dark moment.

Every great shake in the league has a flip side. Consider the final game of the playoffs, when one group of guys gets to hurl their equipment into the air and cry tears of joy after making it to the top of the heap as Stanley Cup champions.

About 200 feet away, the losing team is forced to look on while a deep and painful sorrow grows in their guts.

Yes, for every winner, there is a loser. For every goal, there is a whiffed save. For every slick pass, a burned defender. For every champion, a player comes in second for the final time in his career.

Hockey is a game of parallels and lightning flashes, and every team in the league has a moment that defines the negative side of franchise history.

All stats appear courtesy of Hockeydb.com unless otherwise noted.

Anaheim Ducks

The Moment: Losing the 2003 Stanley Cup Final.

Coming up short in the Stanley Cup Final is never easy. It's a haunting sequence of events that can follow players for years after their careers are over. All that work, all the pain and suffering and tribulations only to watch another group hoist the trophy together.

When the Anaheim Ducks—then the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim—lost in 2003, though, there was something particularly heartbreaking about the loss.

The team had been an odds-off underdog throughout the playoffs and had defeated several teams that they weren't supposed to be able to even hang with. J. S. Giguere put on one of the most memorable Conn Smythe runs ever, yet his face during the presentation ceremony told the whole story.

He was being awarded the wrong trophy, despite his best efforts. His absolute and heroically complete efforts. And there was Gary Bettman, handing Giguere the playoff MVP award instead of the Cup.

Boston Bruins

The Moment: Giving up a 3-0 series lead and losing in 2010.

Teams have to learn how to lose before they can learn how to win. 2010 is all the proof that one should require.

In the Eastern Conference semifinals, the Boston Bruins took a commanding 3-0 series lead over the Philadelphia Flyers. Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara, Milan Lucic and Andrew Ference were all a part of Boston's roster and would all go on to win the Stanley Cup a year later.

But not before suffering one of the worst playoff collapses ever.

After dropping Games 4, 5 and 6 and failing to close out the Philadelphia Flyers, the Bruins managed to snag a 3-0 lead in Game 7. It appeared that they'd be able to dodge a heat-seeking and historic bullet. Philly would score a goal toward the end of the first period, breathing new life into the team.

The Flyers would score the next three goals—including the game-winner with the Bruins shorthanded following a too-many-men call—and Boston was left to pick up the pieces after losing what appeared to be an unlosable series lead.

Buffalo Sabres

The Moment: Brett Hull's infamous foot-in-the-crease goal.

If lists such as this are still being compiled in 10 years, it's likely that the worst moment in Buffalo Sabres history will remain the same. Losing in the Stanley Cup Final is awful, but to do so in overtime is gut-wrenching.

Especially when the game-winning goal probably shouldn't have counted.

It used to be illegal to have a foot in the crease before the puck entered the blue paint. When Hull stickhandled around a downed Dominik Hasek, he pushed the puck back out onto white ice while maintaining the position of his skates inside the crease.

He then proceeded to score the Cup-clinching goal. The Sabres were furious when they watched the replay in their locker room, but the NHL stood by its referees in this particular instance, and the ghost of this moment haunts the franchise to this day.

Calgary Flames

The Moment: Trading Jarome Iginla for two unsigned college players and a first-round pick.

It's incredibly difficult to move a superstar and receive fair value. Ben Hanowski and Kenny Agostino could turn out to be solid NHL players some day, but they'll never mean as much to the Calgary Flames as Iginla did throughout his career there.

Calgary general manager Jay Feaster continued to pretend like it was 2004 up until the 11th hour in 2013, when he finally decided to trade his aging star for zero help at the NHL level. Had he made this move one or even two years prior, the return would have been much more desirable.

Instead, Feaster shot the Flames in the foot by holding out hope of squeaking into the playoffs as a No. 7 or 8 seed over the last few years, hampering his ability to truly kick-start the dreaded rebuilding process.

It was a sad end to what was a truly spectacular career for Iginla in Calgary.

Carolina Hurricanes

The Moment: Facing the Detroit Red Wings in the 2002 Stanley Cup Final.

The Carolina Hurricanes didn't have a bad team in 2002. It's just that the '02 Red Wings are arguably the best team that's ever been constructed. When all is said and done, that team might have featured as many as 10 Hall of Fame players.

Carolina didn't go down without a fight, however. They at least managed to win Game 1 in overtime before dropping the next four games to the super-powered Red Wings.

Another instance of needing to lose before you can win, the Hurricanes would bounce back and win the first Stanley Cup in franchise history four years later in 2006.

Chicago Blackhawks

The Moment: This is more of a time frame, but the early part of the 2000s weren't very friendly to the Chicago Blackhawks.

"Dollar" Bill Wirtz left both positive and negative impressions all over the proud 'Hawks team, but the period between the year 2000 and 2007 was awfully dark. During that time span, ESPN named Chicago the worst franchise in professional sports—quite a ways off from the model franchise that the 'Hawks are these days.

Wirtz implemented incredibly unpopular policies concerning how home games were handled locally by television in the early '90s and stood by those decisions for far too long.

The team was awful out on the ice as well, as Wirtz routinely traded away his best players after giving them larger contracts.

Games weren't aired in Chicago until 2007, after Wirtz passed away. Once his son Rocky took over, the tides started to turn for the franchise, and the 'Hawks grew into the mighty powerhouse that they are today.

Colorado Avalanche

The Moment: The Steve Moore-Todd Bertuzzi incident.

It's still hard to watch.

What occurred between Bertuzzi and Moore on March 8, 2004 is everything that can go wrong when hockey players are allowed to police themselves. The honor system that fans and players of the game defend constantly showed its ugly side on this night.

Moore had taken out Vancouver Canucks captain (and the NHL's leading scorer) Markus Naslund with a headshot in February, and players on the Canucks side of things badly wanted revenge for the hit that injured their best player and emotional leader.

Things escalated as the score of the game got out of control, and the lives of several men were irrevocably changed in an instant.

Nothing positive came out of what happened, and to this day this incident sticks in the minds of non-hockey fans. It's what they recall when they see an NHL highlight on SportsCenter, and that's a shame.

Columbus Blue Jackets

The Moment: Brittanie Cecil was hit by a stray puck during a Columbus Blue Jackets game on March 16 and would later die from complications related to the injury.

In one of the most tragic turns in sporting history, Cecil was struck in the head by a deflected slap shot. There were no nets to prevent the puck from striking her, but there would be after this night.

Sports Illustrated broke the incident down like this:

"

She was watching the Blue Jackets play the Calgary Flames when a slap shot by Columbus center Espen Knutsen was deflected by Calgary defenseman Derek Morris with 12:18 left in the second period. The puck struck Brittanie, sitting more than 100 feet behind the glass in Row S of Section 121, in the left temple. She died two days later, the first spectator fatality in the 85-year history of the NHL.

If she had turned her head a fraction of an inch, or bent over to pick up a soda, it probably would have been just another puck sailing into the stands, with no major harm done. Brittanie would still be enjoying the small-town charms of West Alexandria, population 1,500, a farming town 90 miles west of Columbus. 

"

Cecil was visiting Nationwide Arena to celebrate her 14th birthday—a heart-wrenching story through and through.

Dallas Stars

 The Moment: Bryan Marchment takes out Joe Nieuwendyk during the 1997-98 playoffs.

After relocating from Minnesota to Dallas in 1993, the Stars went through several years of rebuilding. After Tom Hicks bought the team in 1995, serious work started being done to turn the franchise from an NHL afterthought to a powerhouse.

A sequence of sound moves had the Stars well on their way to being true contenders, and leading the charge was Joe Nieuwendyk. Prior to the 1997-98 playoffs, Dallas had won its first Presidents' Trophy as the top team in the league.

While they would eventually defeat the San Jose Sharks in six games, the victory didn't come without serious cost. Known hit man Marchment took Nieuwendyk's knees into the boards, causing damage to ligaments and knocking the star player out of the playoffs.

The effects of the loss weren't truly felt until the Western Conference Final, where Dallas just didn't have enough point-producing forwards left standing to handle the Detroit Red Wings.

Detroit Red Wings

The Moment: The best period for the Detroit Red Wings in recent memory was viciously halted by a tragic limousine accident involving a handful of players and coaches associated with the team.

When those Red Wings that were involved with winning the Stanley Cup in 1997 look back and remember how things were, they are likely doing very little thinking about the game of hockey itself. Thoughts about the fragility of life and the near loss of good friends are likely what circulate.

Only six days after the Wings had won the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1955, Vladimir Konstantinov, Viacheslav Fetisov and Sergei Mnatsakanov hired limo driver Richard Gnida to drive them home from a private party.

They'd never arrive at their destination, as Gnida—whose license was suspended for drunk driving at the time of the accident—drove the car into a tree on Woodward Avenue in Birmingham, Mich. Konstantinov and Mnatsakanov would both sustain life-altering injuries, while Fetisov walked away mostly unharmed.

It was an incredibly dark day during what should have been a time filled with joy for those involved in the championship run. Instead, two lives were left in ruin, and no one seemed unfazed by the wreck.

Edmonton Oilers

The Moment: The Wayne Gretzky trade.

This trade went down 25 years ago and Sportsnet is still airing a five-part special about the trade in 2013. Books have been written about it. Conspiracy theories still abound, and there's not enough space here to truly get into the nitty-gritty details that surrounded this deal.

The long and the short of it is simple: The best player in the history of professional hockey was traded from a Canadian franchise—from a country that revered Gretzky as a demigod—to Los Angeles for two players that are only Trivial Pursuit-worthy because of No. 99 going the other direction, three first-round picks and $15 million in cash.

It's the cash that should jump out at you. L.A. had literally just bought the most outstanding and dominant player in NHL history from the Oilers for the price of starting about 10 Dunkin' Doughnut shops.

That's a dark day, indeed.

Florida Panthers

The Moment: Losing in the Stanley Cup Final in 1996.

All Cinderella runs must come to an end. Some teams win, and some teams lose. Few squads in recent memory were more rag-tag than the Florida Panthers were in '96. Only two years removed from their first season in the NHL, the Panthers charged through three rounds of playoff action on the backs of players that most other teams didn't want.

That's why so many of them were available during the expansion draft, after all.

Did they make it that far because they were implementing and religiously sticking to the neutral-zone trap? Sure, but that shouldn't take away from this impressive run.

It all came crashing down against the Colorado Avalanche, though, who were just too good and too well-coached to loose in the finals. Florida didn't win the series and hasn't climbed back to the top of the peak yet.

Los Angeles Kings

The Moment: Dropping the 1993 Stanley Cup Final.

The Los Angeles Kings didn't pump all those resources into acquiring Wayne Gretzky for no reason. They expected him to lead the franchise to its first ever Stanley Cup victory, and he appeared to be doing just that in 1993.

L.A. won Game 1 of the Final decisively, taking a 1-0 series lead on the back of that 4-1 win. Then in Game 2, one of the most infamous moments in recent hockey history occurred.

Trailing 2-1 late in the third period, Jacques Demers (head coach of the Montreal Canadiens at the time) called for Marty McSorley's stick to be measured.

It turned out that the curve was illegal, and the Canadiens were awarded with a late power play. Patrick Roy was pulled, and the rest is history. Eric Desjardins scored on the ensuing 6-on-4 to tie the game and then scored less than a minute into overtime to tie the series at one-all.

Montreal would go on to win the next three games and its 24th Stanley Cup.

Of course, all of this is emboldened by the fact that there is a lot of evidence that indicates the Canadiens played a bit dirty to find out who had illegal curves on the other side. Both the Los Angeles Times and USA Today have published articles showing that the Canadiens might have cheated a bit to find out who was cheating for the Kings.

Two wrongs don't make a right, and this is still one of the most seriously contested hot-button issues in NHL history.

Minnesota Wild

The Moment: Sergei Zholtok dies on November 3, 2004.

Zholtok was a career journeyman who seemed to have found a home with the Minnesota Wild. After bouncing between the NHL and AHL for eight seasons with short stops with the Edmonton Oilers and Montreal Canadiens along the way, he posted career-best numbers in both the 2001-02 and the 2002-03 seasons.

While he was a member of the Nashville Predators when he died during the lockout, he'd only played 11 games for the Predators before passing away overseas due to cardiac arrhythmia.

He'll be remembered most for his time with the Wild, when he was a solid secondary scoring threat. Zholtok was just 31 years old.

Montreal Canadiens

The Moment: Howie Morenz dies from a broken leg that was sustained on January 28, 1937.

Widely considered the first superstar the NHL ever had, Howie Morenz was a force of nature out on the ice. Standing at only 5'9'', he was an incredible skater in his time and one of the most prolific goal scorers the league had during the first half of the 20th Century.

All that came to an end in January of 1937. While retrieving the puck from the corner, Morenz lost his balance and slid into the boards. The junky wood caught his skate, and the pursuing defenseman didn't react in time to prevent a high-impact collision.

Morenz broke his leg in four places that night and would never play hockey again. He collapsed on March 8, suffering from an apparent heart attack. He was 34 years old when he died.

Nashville Predators

The Moment: Ryan Suter leaves town and signs with the Minnesota Wild.

Compared to some of the more tragic events on this list, listing Suter's departure as the darkest moment in team history pales in comparison. Still, watching a homegrown star leave town to sign a 13-year contract worth nearly $100 million hurts a true fan's soul.

After seven seasons with the Predators, Suter became an unrestricted free agent and decided to take his talents to the Wild, along with Zach Parise.

While Minnesota squeezed into the playoffs during the last week of the regular season in 2013, the Predators seemed to struggle without their second All-Star defenseman to go along with Shea Weber.

The franchise has a knack for home-growing its own stars, so it's only a matter of time before Suter is replaced from within. Watching him pull on the forest green of the Wild still must be hard to stomach for Nashville fans, though.

New Jersey Devils

The Moment: The summer of 2013 in general.

After years of being one of the model franchises in the NHL, the New Jersey Devils hit a rough patch during the summer of 2013.

First, Ilya Kovalchuk decided to "retire," leaving 12 years and $77 million on the table. While sites like Grantland.com have managed to paint this in a positive light, watching your franchise player bolt to Russia can't be easy.

The loss of Kovalchuk is nothing compared to the financial turmoil the team currently finds itself in.

Forbes recently reported that the NHL could be forced to take control of the Devils if they don't step hemorrhaging money. Per that report:

"

The Devils have $230 million of debt and team owner Jeff Vanderbeek missed the first payment on a recently restructured bank loan. The team’s annual debt payment is around $15 million a year and in the past the Devils have already used prepayments of future revenue streams to pay bills.

"

While Puck Daddy responded, writing that the owner of the Philadelphia 76ers could step in to buy the team before the NHL has the chance to take control, sometimes these things don't work out so cleanly. It took the Phoenix Coyotes a long while to find proper ownership, and a situation like that in Jersey would be torturous for the hungry fanbase.

New York Islanders

The Moment: Selecting Rick DiPietro first overall in 2000.

While the 2000 NHL draft was one of the weakest ever, the New York Islanders did something that no team had ever done before when they stepped up to the mic to make their selection. Prior to DiPietro, no goaltender had every been selected first overall.

The Islanders changed that, but to say that this was a gaff would be an understatement.

They left two legitimate All-Stars on the board in Marian Gaborik and Dany Heatley, and even Scott Hartnell or Rostislav Klesla would have been better selections than DiPietro.

It's easy to look back and criticize this move with hindsight, but Henrik Lundqvist was drafted in the seventh round in this draft. Stronger scouting would have prevented this debacle, but the fact that the team handed the young netminder a (then) groundbreaking 15-year, $67.5 million contract after one good year is what makes this mistake so awful.

They weren't able to get out from under his contract until this summer—that's an awfully long time to pay for one mistake.

New York Rangers

The Moment: Derek Boogaard's death in 2012.

Derek Boogaard was a longtime member of the Minnesota Wild, but he was a member of the New York Rangers when he died of an accidental overdose in May of 2012. Instead of naming the Curse of 1940 as the darkest moment in Rangers history, we decided to list Boogaard's devastating death instead.

Known more for his fists than his firepower, the "Boogey Man" was going through the NHL/NHLPA Behavioral Health/Substance Abuse program at the time of his death, according to Larry Brooks of the New York Post.

He was was battling an addiction to painkillers, and their role in his accidental death has brought the ease of access that athletes have to these pills to light.

Moreover, Boogaard's role as an enforcer meant that he was on the receiving end of many concussions and much head trauma. There are now more questions about fighting and its role in hockey than ever before. The New York Times penned one of the most outstanding articles following this unfortunate incident, asking the tough question: Did fighting lead to Boogaard's death as a 28-year-old?

Ottawa Senators

The Moment: Drafting Alexandre Daigle.

It would have been irresponsible for the Ottawa Senators to pass on Alexander Daigle. He was considered the best prospect available by a landslide. The kind of player that can turn the fortunes of an entire franchise around.

He had the looks to be on all the billboards. He had the skills to fill the stat sheets. It all seemed too perfect for a team that had literally the worst season in the history of the NHL the year before.

That's what makes Daigle bombing so awful for the franchise. The team desperately needed a star to turn to after a 10-70-4 inaugural season. He's the embodiment of the early days of the Senators, which were dark and hopeless for all involved.

How does a professional hockey team only win a single game on the road during an 82-game season? For the answer, feel free to ask a member of the '92 Sens since that's exactly what the team did. 

Philadelphia Flyers

The Moment: The first time Eric Lindros was knocked out with a concussion.

It's easy to forget that Lindros was the best player in the NHL when Darius Kasparaitis cut across on him and gave him his first concussion. Of eight.

Would Big E's career have been derailed by head trauma had Kasparaitis not branded him with a mind-mixing check? We'll never know, because that's exactly what happened. It's just odd that no one seems to talk about what could have been had Lindros had his head up on that play.

In the mid-'90s, you would have been hard-pressed to find a more dominating presence out on the ice than Lindros. He had several monster seasons under his belt by 2000, when Scott Stevens derailed his career as a Flyer for good.

Had the big man managed to learn from his mistakes, maybe we'd be talking about him as a Hall of Famer and Stanley Cup champion. Instead, he's still one of the most polarizing players in the game because of how good he was prior to the concussions.

Phoenix Coyotes

The Moment: When the team filed for bankruptcy in 2009.

The Phoenix Coyotes ownership saga is so convoluted and messy that it'd require a separate 30-slide slideshow to explain in full. Without getting into the gritty details, it's never a good moment when a team is bleeding money faster than it can make it and the league has to step in to save the day.

At least it appeared the NHL was saving the day for Phoenix when it bought the club four years ago. Who would have thought that it would take until 2013 for a new ownership group to be hammered out?

Along the way, Gary Bettman was accused of running the equivalent of a boy's club, not allowing owners he didn't like to buy the team for fear that they would move the Coyotes. The Jim Balsillie shenanigans is a good example, but it's hardly the only one.

The days of operating with a skeleton crew appear to be over for Phoenix now, and this dark financial time can finally be laid to rest. For now, at least.

Pittsburgh Penguins

The Moment: The Pittsburgh Penguins coming very close to being the Kansas City Penguins.

It's easy to forget now that it's 2013, but back in 2007, the Pittsburgh Penguins weren't the beloved franchise that they are now. In fact, the fans had stopped showing up to games to such an extent that team owner Mario Lemieux nearly had to move the team to keep his head above water.

Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and a new arena have put all that firmly to rest, but it's still a scary thought for Penguins fans that have been there from the very beginning.

It was the difficulty in securing that new arena that almost forced the Pens out of town. In 2007, Lemieux was desperately trying to work with the city of Pittsburgh to find funding for a new place to play hockey.

During the impasse in negotiations, ESPN reported that Lemieux was "aggressively" pursuing opportunities to move the franchise elsewhere.

While the city of Pittsburgh was asking him to fork over millions of dollars, Kansas City was offering its new Sprint Center rent free, according to that same ESPN report.

Pensburgh over at SBNation did a great job of breaking down the revisionist history that has occurred since the Pens decided to stick around in Pittsburgh. It may come as a surprise to fans sporting their brand new No. 87 sweaters, but the Penguins were very, very close to relocating less than a decade ago.

San Jose Sharks

The Moment: Losing in the first round in 2009.

The San Jose Sharks reeled off a 117-point season in 2008-09. After welcoming new coach Todd McLellan to the fold, the team was introduced to a high-octane, puck-possession style that the new bench boss had picked up during his days as an assistant with the Detroit Red Wings.

After putting up the most points in the history of the Pacific Division, the Sharks seemed poised to finally break through during the playoffs.

The division-rival Anaheim Ducks had other ideas. The No. 8 seed in the Western Conference, the feisty Ducks weren't given much of a chance against the top team in the NHL. Six games later, it was the underdogs moving on while the Presidents' Trophy winners hit the golf course way earlier than expected.

This moment pretty much sums up the frustration of the franchise over the last several seasons. While the team has an excellent track record during the regular season, it has yet to do any damage in the playoffs.

St. Louis Blues

The Moment: Bobby Orr's Cup-clinching goal in 1970.

The day was May 10, and it will forever live in infamy for fans of all things hockey. Heck, even folks without even a passing fancy for the game are likely familiar with Orr's diving goal and celebration.

If everyone has seen the goal, then that means everyone has seen who the goal was scored against. To no fault of their own, the St. Louis Blues were victims of fate on this night, and they've been immortalized as the team on the wrong side of The Goal for more than 40 years.

Tampa Bay Lightning

The Moment: The precise moment that Takashi Okubo took a stake in the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Following its first playoff appearance in 1994-95, the Lightning seemed ready to make the jump to respectability. By 1998, Tampa had become not only the laughing stock of the NHL but also of professional sports in general.

How does that happen?

Sports Illustrated sums the mess up nicely in this article from March of 1998. A snippet, for your consideration:

"

What does Okubo, the first non-American or non-Canadian owner of a North American major league sports franchise, think of the sorry spectacle his team has become? Who knows? He has never attended a Lightning game, never been to Tampa and never granted an interview to a member of the North American media. (Okubo didn't respond to an interview request for this story.) Among Lightning players and top management, only (Team President) Oto and (executive VP) Phillips have met Okubo, and no one at the NHL offices has met him—not former league president John Ziegler, who approved Kokusai Green's acquiring a stake in the Lightning, and not Bettman, who has had to live with the aftereffects of that investment.

Since Kokusai Green became involved with Tampa Bay, the NHL has mediated disputes involving the Lightning on at least three occasions and has advanced the franchise money or investigated Tampa Bay management for conduct at least once. Though Bettman is loath to admit it, he has been kept in the dark about Okubo as much as anyone. When he went to Nagano in February for the Winter Olympics, he scheduled a meeting with Okubo—only to receive a note when he arrived stating that Okubo was sorry, but he had been pulled away by a business emergency in China. "He sent me a tie clasp," Bettman says.

"

And that's just the tip of the iceberg in one of the most ridiculous and confusing sports stories ever. Say what you want about Bettman, at least he's never sold an NHL franchise to a guy (gangster?) like Okubo.

Toronto Maple Leafs

The Moment: When the Toronto Maple Leafs hired John Ferguson Jr.

The day that Toronto hired the man they call JFJ was the day it signed up for a half-decade of team-destroying moves and head-scratchers on the best of days.

It's no mistake that he hasn't landed a front-office job with any team since he was fired in 2008—he's currently a scout for the San Jose Sharks, which makes sense, since drafting is the only thing he did moderately well.

Sportsnet.ca put together an excellent timeline, listing all of Ferguson's moves in print, one after the other.

Some of the highlights include giving a clearly washed-up Eric Lindros a one-year deal, trading Tuukka Rask for Andrew Raycroft and Pavel Kubina's four-year, $20 million contract. 

Vancouver Canucks

The Moment: The Stanley Cup Final riots in 2011.

The CBC reported that the 2011 riots cost the city of Vancouver more than $1 million in damages. More than 100,00 people took to the streets after the Canucks lost a decisive hockey game to the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup Final, according to that same report.

At least 140 people were injured, four were stabbed and CTV News reported that 117 people ended up in handcuffs that night. The saddest part of the whole incident was that it was a mirror image of what occurred in Vancouver in 1994 when the 'Nucks lost in the Stanley Cup Final to the New York Rangers.

The fans clearly didn't learn their lesson, as the rioting began almost immediately after the third period concluded.

For media outlets such as ESPN that rarely cover hockey, this was a nasty blemish on the records of both the Canucks and hockey fans in general. It was front and center on mostly every national news show, bringing a hailstorm of critical attention to hockey that was completely unnecessary and foolish.

Washington Capitals

The Moment: The 2010 playoff collapse.

When you become the first non-Original 6 team to break the 120-point plateau, big things will be expected during the playoffs. The Washington Capitals scored 318 goals in 2010 and appeared to be an unstoppable offensive juggernaut.

Who could possibly stop a squad that featured seven players that reached at least 20 goals (not counting Mike Green, who had 19)? Who was going to be able to stop the locomotive that Alexander Ovechkin had become?

The answer was Jaroslav Halak.

The Caps were the first team to get "Halaked" in 2010. Despite taking a commanding 3-1 series lead, the Montreal Canadiens battled back and forced the series to a Game 7. Washington threw everything it could at Montreal, posting 42 shots as they sought to advance to the second round, but to no avail.

The Caps were forced to clear out their lockers earlier than expected yet again.

Winnipeg Jets

The Moment: The 1999 draft.

The Winnipeg Jets have only been in existence in this current form for three years, so we'll dip back into the not-so-illustrious history of the Atlanta Thrashers for the franchise's darkest moment.

Atlanta burst onto the hockey scene in 1999 and selected the highly touted Patrick Stefan with the first overall selection. While the '99 draft was chock full of busts (Pavel Brendl at No. 4, Brian Finley at No. 6, Oleg Saprykin at No. 11 and so on), the fact that the Thrashers managed to select nine players that would bust out is ridiculous.

Consider for a moment that a draft as good as this one would likely catapult a basement-dwelling team into playoff contention two years, tops.

As you can see on this list from Sports Illustrated, literally zero percent of the players Atlanta selected came anywhere near working out, and none of them are still in the NHL these days.

This draft represents the futility that surrounded the Thrashers until they relocated to Winnipeg, so in a way, this could be viewed as one of the best moments in Jets history. One of the Sedins would sure look good in Winnipeg, though, right?

2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Air Disaster

There are numerous tragedies that have been left off of this list, not as a slight to those instances, but because that's just the nature of lists such as this. They can't be all-inclusive. Choices must be made, and an honorable mentions slide for this particular subject matter felt callous to say the least.

That said, we'd be remiss if we didn't include the 2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Air Disaster as one of the darkest moments in not just NHL history, but in sports history in general.

An entire team perished in an unprecedented tragedy. All told, of the 45 people that were on that flight, only one survived.

Consider this a moment of silence for this particular instance, and all the other life-altering instances listed and unlisted. Sometimes it's easy to forget that hockey is just a game, and that the guys out there with numbers on their backs are real people.

Flesh and blood. Just like you and me.