List of Stanley Cup champions: Difference between revisions
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| [[1939 Stanley Cup Finals|1938–39]] || [[Boston Bruins]] || [[Art Ross]] || [[Toronto Maple Leafs]] || [[Dick Irvin]] || align=center| 4–1 || [[Roy Conacher]] <small>(17:54, second)</small> |
| [[1939 Stanley Cup Finals|1938–39]] || [[Boston Bruins]] || [[Art Ross]] || [[Toronto Maple Leafs]] || [[Dick Irvin]] || align=center| 4–1 || [[Roy Conacher]] <small>(17:54, second)</small> |
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| [[1940 Stanley Cup Finals|1939–40]] || [[New York |
| [[1940 Stanley Cup Finals|1939–40]] || [[New York Unicorn Apple HOLY COWS!]] || [[Frank Boucher]] || [[Toronto Maple Leafs]] || [[Dick Irvin]] || align=center| 4–2 || [[Bryan Hextall]] <small>(2:07, OT)</small> |
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| [[1941 Stanley Cup Finals|1940–41]] || [[Boston Bruins]] || [[Cooney Weiland]] || [[Detroit Red Wings]] || [[Jack Adams (coach)|Jack Adams]] || align=center| 4–0 || [[Bobby Bauer]] <small>(8:43, second)</small> |
| [[1941 Stanley Cup Finals|1940–41]] || [[Boston Bruins]] || [[Cooney Weiland]] || [[Detroit Red Wings]] || [[Jack Adams (coach)|Jack Adams]] || align=center| 4–0 || [[Bobby Bauer]] <small>(8:43, second)</small> |
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Revision as of 16:16, 16 October 2009
The Stanley Cup, donated by former Governor General of Canada Lord Stanley of Preston in 1892, is the oldest professional sports trophy in North America.[1] Originally inscribed the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, the trophy started out as an award for Canada's top-ranking amateur ice hockey club. Today, it is awarded to the top team in the National Hockey League, a professional ice hockey league.
In 1915, the two professional ice hockey organizations, the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), reached a gentlemen's agreement in which their respective champions would face each other for the Stanley Cup. After a series of league mergers and folds, it became the de facto championship trophy of the NHL in 1926. The Cup later became the de jure NHL championship prize in 1947.
Since the 1914–15 season, the trophy has been won a combined 93 times by 17 active NHL teams and five defunct teams. Prior to that, the challenge cup was held by nine different teams. There are two seasons that the Stanley Cup has not been awarded: the 1918–19 season, because of a Spanish flu epidemic, and 2004–05, because of the NHL lockout.
Challenge Cup era
The origins of the Challenge era come from the method of play of the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada prior to 1893. From 1887 to 1893, the league did not play a round-robin format, but rather challenges between teams of the association that year, with the winner of the series being the 'interim' champion, with the final challenge winner becoming the league champion for the year. The Stanley Cup kept the tradition going, but added league championships as another way that a team could win the trophy. If a team in the same league as the current champion won the league championship, it would then inherit the Cup, without a challenge. The only time this rule was not followed was in 1904, when the Ottawa Senators club withdrew from its league, the CAHL. The trustees ruled that the Cup stayed with Ottawa, instead of the CAHL league champion.
During the challenge cup period, none of the leagues that played for the trophy had a formal playoff system to decide their respective champions; whichever team finished in first place after the regular season won the league title.[2] A playoff would only be played if teams tied for first-place in their leagues at the end of the regular season. Challenge games were played until 1912 at any time during hockey season by challenges approved and/or ordered by the Stanley Cup trustees. In 1912, Cup trustees declared that it was only to be defended at the end of the champion team's regular season.[3]
In 1908, the Allan Cup was introduced as the trophy for Canada's amateurs, as the Stanley Cup became a symbol of professional hockey supremacy.[4]
This table lists the outcome of all Stanley Cup wins, including successful victories and defenses in challenges, and league championships for the challenge era.
- Notes
^ A. Although the Montreal Victorias won the AHAC title in 1895, the Stanley Cup trustees had already accepted a challenge from the 1894 Cup champion Montreal HC and Queen's University. As a compromise, the trustees decided that if the Montreal HC won the challenge match, the Victorias would become the Stanley Cup champions. The Montreals eventually won the game, 5–1, and their crosstown rivals were awarded the Cup.
^ B. Intended to be a best-of-three series, Ottawa Capitals withdrew their challenge after the first game.
^ C. The January 31 (a Saturday) game was tied 2–2 at midnight and the Mayor of Westmount refused to allow play to continue on the Sunday. The game was played on February 2 (a Monday) and the January 31 game was considered to be void.[7]
^ D. For most of 1904, the Ottawa Senators were not affiliated with any league.
^ E. The Montreal Wanderers were disqualified as the result of a dispute. After game one ended tied at the end of regulation, 5–5, the Wanderers refused to play overtime with the current referee, and then subsequently refused to play the next game of the series in Ottawa.
^ F. Victoria did not formally challenge for the Stanley Cup with the Stanley Cup trustees. Toronto accepted the challenge directly.[8]
- Source
- Coleman, Charles L. (1964). The Trail of the Stanley Cup, vol. 1, 1893–1926 inc. Sherbrooke Daily Record Company Limited.
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NHA/NHL vs. PCHA/WCHL/WHL champions
In 1914, the Victoria Aristocrats from the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) challenged the NHA and Cup champion Toronto Blueshirts. Since the Aristocrats never formally submitted a challenge, the Cup trustees viewed the series as illegitimate. However, the controversy was moot as Toronto successfully defended the Cup by sweeping a best-of-five series.[8]
One year later, the NHA and the PCHA concluded a gentlemen's agreement in which their respective champions would face each other for the Cup. Under the new proposal, the Stanley Cup championship finals alternated between the East and the West each year, with alternating games played according to NHA and PCHA rules.[9] The Cup trustees agreed to this new arrangement, because after the Allan Cup became the highest prize for amateur hockey teams in Canada, the trustees had become dependent on the top two professional leagues to bolster the prominence of the trophy.[10] After the Portland Rosebuds, an American-based team, joined the PCHA in 1914, the trustees issued a statement that the Cup was no longer for the best team in Canada, but now for the best team in the world.[9] Two years later, the Rosebuds became the first American team to play in the Stanley Cup championship final.[10] In 1917, the Seattle Metropolitans became the first American team to win the Cup.[11] After that season, the NHA dissolved, and the National Hockey League (NHL) took its place.[9]
In 1919, the Spanish influenza epidemic forced the Montreal Canadiens and the Seattle Metropolitans to cancel their series tied at 2–2–1, marking the first time the Stanley Cup was not awarded.[12]
The format for the Stanley Cup championship changed in 1922, with the creation of the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL). Now three leagues competed for the Cup and this necessitated a semi-final series between two league champions, with the third having a bye directly to the final.[13] In 1924, the PCHA and the WCHL merged to form the Western Hockey League (WHL) and the championship reverted to a single series.[14] After winning in the 1924–25 season, the Victoria Cougars became the last team outside the NHL to win the Stanley Cup.[15]
NHL Champions
The WHL folded in 1926, and its assets were bought by the NHL. This left the NHL as the only league left competing for the Cup. Other leagues and clubs have issued challenges, but from that year forward, no non-NHL team has played for it, leading it to become the de facto championship trophy of the NHL.[14] In 1947, the NHL reached an agreement with trustees P. D. Ross and Cooper Smeaton to grant control of the cup to the NHL, allowing the league itself to reject challenges from other leagues that may have wished to play for the Cup.[16][17] A 2006 Ontario Superior Court case found that the trustees had gone against Lord Stanley's conditions in the 1947 agreement.[18] The NHL has agreed to allow other teams to play for the Cup should the league not be operating, as was the case in the 2004–05 NHL lockout.[17]
The Conn Smythe Trophy is awarded to the player who is judged to be the most valuable player to his team during the playoffs.[19] It was first awarded during the 1964–65 playoffs.
Playoff formats
- 1927 to 1928: For the 1926-27 season, the NHL was split into Canadian and American divisions. In each division, the winner of the two-game, total-goals series between the second and third place teams faced the first place team in a two-game, total-goals series for the division title. The two division champions played off for the Stanley Cup in a best-of-five series.[20]
- 1929 to 1931: The league changed the playoff format: In the quarter-finals, both second place teams faced each other, as did the two third place teams in two-game, total-goals series. Both first place teams received a bye and automatically advanced to the semi-finals, but had to face each other in that playoff round in a best-of-five series. The other semi-final (known as Series D) was a best-of three as was the Final. As a result, two teams from the same division occasionally played each other in the Stanley Cup Finals.[21]
- 1932 to 1936: The semi-final of the non-first place teams was changed to a two-game total-goals format, and the Final was changed to a best-of-five.[20]
- 1937: All series of the non-first place teams were changed to best-of-three.[20]
- 1938 to 1942: Before the start of the 1938–39 season, the league contracted to seven teams, causing the league to implement a one division format. The top six teams qualified for the playoffs (eliminating only one). The first-place team and the second-place team played a best-of-seven semi-final. Third played fourth and fifth played sixth in best-of-three series, and the winners of those series played a best-of-three semi-final. The Final was changed to a best-of-seven.[20]
- 1943 to 1967: With the league reduced to six teams, the playoffs were reduced to the top four teams. First played third in one semi-final and second played fourth in the other. All series were best-of-seven.[20]
- 1968 to 1970: As a result of the 1967 NHL Expansion, the league realigned its teams into the East Division and the West Division, with the playoffs arranged so that teams from each division would meet in the Stanley Cup Finals. The one versus three and two versus four structure (the former semi-finals, now the quarter-finals) was duplicated in both divisions.[21]
- 1971: In the semi-finals, the winner of the first versus third quarter-final now met the winner of the second versus fourth series of the other Division. This now enabled teams of the same Division to meet in the Final.[20]
- 1972 to 1974: The league now changed the quarter-final matchups to be between the first-place and the fourth-place teams, and the second and third-place teams.[20]
- 1975 to 1977: The league expanded to 18 teams and realigned into two conferences: the Prince of Wales Conference and the Clarence Campbell Conference. Twelve teams qualified for the playoffs, three from each division. The NHL introduced the best-of-three 'preliminary series' between all second and third-place teams. Their seeding was based on their regular-season record. The winners of those four series would then play in the quarter-finals with the division winners. The teams were re-seeded based on their regular-season record and were re-seeded for the semi-finals. All series after the preliminary series were best-of-seven.[20]
- 1978 to 1979: The preliminary series was changed to include all of the second-place finishers and the next best four teams, based on their regular-season record.[20]
- 1980 to 1981: With the absorption of the four WHA teams, the league became a twenty-one team, four-division league. The playoffs were expanded to include 16 teams. The four first-place finishers and the twelve best finishers from the rest of the teams qualified for the playoffs. The first round became a best-of-five of #1 versus #16, #2 versus #15, 3 vs. 14, 4 vs. 13, 5 vs. 12, 6 vs. 11, 7 vs. 10, and 8 versus 9. The eight winners were reseeded for the quarter-final, and the quarter-final winners reseeded for the semi-finals. All series after the first round were best-of-seven.[20]
- 1982 to 1986: The league completely revamped its playoff structure and introduced divisional playoffs. Four teams from every division now qualified for the playoffs. In every division, first played fourth and second played third in a best-of-five series. The winners then played a best-of-seven division final. The division winners played the other division winner within their conference in a best-of-seven Conference Final. The conference winners then played off in the Stanley Cup Final.[20]
- 1987 to 1993: The Division semi-final was changed from a best-of-five series to a best-of-seven.[20]
- 1994: The league revamps its playoff structure to become conference, rather than division-based. The top eight teams in each conference qualify for the playoffs. The division first-place teams are seeded first and second in the playoffs and receive home ice advantage for the first two rounds (in essence, they keep their seeding). The next best six in each conference qualify also. All teams play in the first round, seeded 1 versus 8, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6, 4 vs. 5. All series are best-of-seven, but the arrangement of home games is changed for Central and Pacific division teams. Instead of the normal 2-2-1-1-1 rotation, series involving those divisions are 2-3-2, with the higher seeded team having the option of starting play at home or on the road. After each round, teams are reseeded to play a conference semi-final, then a conference final. The conference winners play in the Stanley Cup Final (which remains a 2-2-1-1-1 format)[20]
- 1995 to 1998: The Central and Pacific division options are changed to allow 2-2-1-1-1 or 2-3-2 formats. If the 2-3-2 is selected the higher-ranked team can also select to start at home or on the road.[20]
- 1999 to present: The league was re-organized into two conferences of three divisions apiece. The qualifiers remain sixteen, but the seeding changes. The first-place team in every division qualifies and is seeded first through third for the playoffs. Of the other teams in each conference, the top finishers qualify for the fourth through eighth seedings. All teams play in the first round, seeded 1 versus 8, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6, 4 vs. 5 by that criteria. For the conference semi-finals and finals, the winning teams follow the same criteria. The conference winners play each other for the Stanley Cup in the Final. Home ice advantage is determined by highest seed in the first 3 rounds and by regular-season points of the two teams in the Stanley Cup Finals.[20]
See also
- List of NHL seasons
- NHL Conference Finals
- List of NHL franchise post-season droughts
- List of NHL franchise post-season appearance streaks
- All-time NHL team performance list
- Triple Gold Club
- List of IIHF World Championship medalists
- List of Olympic medalists in ice hockey
- Presidents' Trophy
- Canada/World Cup of Hockey
References
General
- "List of winners of the Stanley Cup". NHL.com. Retrieved 2008-04-18.
- "List of Stanley Cup Playoff Formats". NHL.com. Retrieved 2008-04-18.
- "Stanley Cup-winning goals". NHL.com. Retrieved 2008-04-18.
- "STC List of winners of the Stanley Cup". LegendsofHockey.net. Retrieved 2008-04-18.
- "Stanley Cup Playoffs - Winners and Finalists Since 1893". The Sports Network. Retrieved 2008-04-18.
- Coleman, Charles (1964–1969). The Trail of the Stanley Cup vols. 1–3. Sherbrooke Daily Record Company Ltd., NHL.
- McCarthy, Dave, ed. (2008). The National Hockey League Official Guide & Record Book/2009. Dan Diamond Associates. ISBN 978-1-894801-14-0.
- Podnieks, Andrew (2004). Lord Stanley's Cup. Triumph Books. ISBN 1-55168-261-3.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Diamond, Dan (2003). The Ultimate Prize: The Stanley Cup. Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-3830-5.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Dan Diamond (ed.), ed. (1992). The Official National Hockey League Stanley Cup Centennial Book. Firefly Books. ISBN 1-895565-15-4.
{{cite book}}:|editor=has generic name (help)
Specific
- ^ "Stanley Cup Fun Facts". NHL.com. Retrieved 2008-04-18.
- ^ Podnieks, pg. 20
- ^ "Stanley Cup Winners: Quebec Bulldogs 1911–12". Hockey Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2008-04-18.
- ^ Diamond, Zweig, and Duplacey, pg. 19
- ^ "After the puck", The Globe and Mail, p. 06, March 2, 1896
- ^ "Victorias Always Win", The Globe and Mail, p. 10, February 20, 1901
- ^ Coleman(1964), pg. 82
- ^ a b Diamond, pg. 46
- ^ a b c Diamond, Zweig, and Duplacey, pg. 20
- ^ a b Diamond, pg. 45 Cite error: The named reference "DiamondNHL100–45" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ "Stanley Cup Winners: Seattle Metropolitians 1916–17". Hockey Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2006-07-11.
- ^ Podnieks, pg. 51
- ^ Diamond, Zweig, and Duplacey, pp. 20–21
- ^ a b Diamond, Zweig, and Duplacey, pg. 21
- ^ "Stanley Cup Winners: Victoria Cougars 1924–25". Hockey Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2006-07-11.
- ^ Diamond, Zweig and Duplacey, p. 40.
- ^ a b "Court:Non-NHL teams could vie for Cup". TSN. 2006-02-07. Retrieved 2008-04-18.
- ^ "Amateurs taking NHL to court to play for Cup". ESPN. 2005-04-13. Retrieved 2007-10-13.
- ^ "Conn Smythe Trophy". National Hockey League. Retrieved 2008-04-18.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o McCarthy, p. 249
- ^ a b "List of Stanley Cup Playoff Formats". NHL.com. Retrieved 2008-04-18.
Further reading
- Diamond, Dan (2003). The Ultimate Prize: The Stanley Cup. Andrews McMeel Publishing. pp. 21–26. ISBN 0-7407-3830-5.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Dan Diamond (ed.), ed. (1992). The Official National Hockey League Stanley Cup Centennial Book. Firefly Books. ISBN 1-895565-15-4.
{{cite book}}:|editor=has generic name (help) - Podnieks, Andrew (2004). Lord Stanley's Cup. Triumph Books. ISBN 1-55168-261-3.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help)
External links
Stanley Cup awarded on challenge basis 1893–1914, by prearranged inter-league competitions 1915–1926, to NHL playoff champion since 1927 | ||
| 1890s–1900s |  | |
| 1910s–1920s | ||
| 1930s–1940s | ||
| 1950s–1960s | ||
| 1970s–1980s | ||
| 1990s–2000s | ||
| 2010s–2020s | ||
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| See also | ||
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